Berlin’s best-kept secret: award-winning Berliner Brandstifter
This blog is about a Gin distillery in Berlin and has absolutely nothing to do with the Dordogne, apart from the fact that we were given a bottle of gin and vodka as presents by our lovely gîte guests from Berlin, who stayed with us at Loups d’Or!
The 'Berliner Brandstifter' (the Berlin Arsonist) is a spirits brand from the German capital, producing innovative and environmentally friendly gin and vodka with an independent Berlin character. Since 2009, Berlin-born Vincent Honrodt has been carrying on a family tradition that originated in the 1930's. Back then, his great-grandfather, Ernest Honrodt, director of the Vossberg sugar factory near Berlin, distilled spirits from regional and high-quality grain and sugar beet for friends and family. Vincent Honrodt inherited his great-grandfather's distilling skills.
The Berlin Dry Gin is an exceptionally soft, floral and fresh gin with unique character of elderflower, mallow blossom, woodruff and fresh cucumber. Many botanicals are grown regionally, picked by hand and processed to a high standard. The Berlin Dry Gin is produced in small editions and bottled and numbered by hand to guarantee quality. We always think it is a very good sign if you can drink a gin neat with the utmost pleasure, and that certainly counts for this gin.
The award-winning, seven-fold filtered and five-fold distilled Berliner Brandstifter Vodka, is made from particularly high-quality French sugar beets and refined with typical Berlin flowers and botanicals from Berliner Brandstifter's own field, which is overseen by Christian Heymann, manager of the SpeiseGut farm in Gatow - Spandau. Wild rose, elderberry, violet root, blackcurrant and cornflower quote the scent of Berlin's wild city gardens and they give Berlin Vodka its subtle floral and fruity note. Each of the 999 bottles per edition is filled and numbered by hand.
Tonight, we'll try the company's suggestion-cocktail 'Berlin 75':
The recipe reminded us of the AbFab cocktail 'Stoli-Bolli', the vodka-spiked champagne, and this is a gin-spiked bubbly using our local vin mousseux 'Méthode Traditionelle, the Cuvée de Peytirat Brut Blanche'....... but if you want the snob appeal, please take a Champagne.
Ingredients:
3cl Berlin Dry Gin | 2cl lemon juice | 1cl sugar syrup | lemon | the bubbly of your choice
Preparation:
Shake all the ingredients except the sparkling wine neatly over ice and strain into a flûte. Top with the bubbly and garnish with lemon zest.
Cheers, santé or ......... Prost and thank you SuZe, Rebekka, Tilo and Henry!
Pimm + Marcel
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Most of our blogs are written to give you more information about the Dordogne, Périgord, where we have Gîte Loups d'Or, our 4-star, luxury, self-catering holiday home. We write about subjects we think are interesting for you to know and to give you inspiration to explore this beautiful part of France yourself. If you have any questions or if you want more information, please feel free to contact us.