Dewberries, which belong to the raspberry family, are grown naturally in Estonian forests. Its relative is blackberry, which can be grown in the garden. However, it thrives best in these latitudes in the greenhouse. Estonian Koch Distillery has done blackberry liqueur, using black berries grown in Estonia, extracting them in rectified spirit and sweetened with sugar. Koch Elixir liqueurs are available in SuperAlko stores in Estonia and Latvia, where a 70cl bottle currently costs around € 8.

The aroma is pretty bland, it has just a very slight berry kind of smell. The taste is also very light, has just a hint of berry flavour. There is practically no taste of blackberry at all, the liqueur is watery and lame in all ways. The aftertaste has mainly a slightly bitter pungent aroma of the rectified spirit used in the manufacturing.

Sugar has been used sparingly and is the best part in this liqueur. It can be easily sipped neat, it is not too sweet, but the liqueur does not really offer any other thrills. When mixed with water, the taste of blackberry is surprisingly even a little stronger, but still is only a nuance.

It’s hard to find anything positive about the Koch Elixir Blackberry, besides being drinkable, meaning it’s not disgustingly sugary. The liqueur has clearly left too quickly for production. The recipe should have been developed a lot further, looking for different production methods, spices or herbs that would have enhanced the taste of the blackberry. If you compare it to even one of the most famous black raspberry liqueurs, Chambord, Koch Elixir is just a distant cousin of it. Koch Blackberry is the weakest liqueur in the Elixir series and is worth leaving the store shelf to collect dust.

71/100