Bénédictine
Bénédictine is a herbal liqueur that has been commercially produced in France since 1863 . However, the recipe is said to go back to much older elixirs of the Benedictine monks , which is reminiscent of the preceding or following acronym D.OM (also DOM or DOM ). It stands for the Latin phrase Deo Optimo Maximo , in German: “God, the best and greatest”, which can otherwise be read on Christian dedicatory inscriptions . B & B (originally B and B ) is a cocktail of B randy ( brandy ) and B énédictine, also known as ready since the 1930s liqueur is available. Both brands are now part of the Bacardi spirits group . The Palais Bénédictine in Fécamp ( Normandy ) was built in the 1890s in the historicism style as a production facility for the liqueur and also serves as a visitor center and art museum.
history
Similar to the traditional liqueur Chartreuse , Bénédictine is said to be based on old monastery recipes. Medicines and herbal elixirs from the Fécamp Abbey of the Benedictines served as models . The monk Bernardo Vincelli , who originally came from Veneto , had already prepared forerunners of the later liqueur around 1510, including an elixir “that consisted of herbs and spices 'from all four corners of the world', such as cinnamon from Sri Lanka, saffron from Greece and vanilla from Madagascar, nutmeg from Indonesia, cardamom from India, myrrh from Saudi Arabia, coriander from the Mediterranean, musk grains from the Caribbean and hyssop from France ”. The elixir is said to have been made by the monks for almost 300 years and sold as a remedy for all kinds of ailments; His reputation got around to the royal French court. In the course of the French Revolution , however, Fécamp Abbey was one of the first in France to be looted, almost completely destroyed, and its property sold as Bien national in the early 1790s . Parts of the monastery library are said to have come into the possession of Prosper-Elie Covillard, the financial executor of the Fécamp region.
About 70 years after the abbey was dissolved, in 1863, the entrepreneur and wine merchant Alexandre Legrand - apparently a relative of Covillard - discovered an old manuscript from the abbey with almost 200 handwritten pages in his family's library, which studies its application various herbs and spices. With the help of a pharmacist, he developed a recipe for a herbal liqueur from this, which he then marketed as Bénédictine . He had the Benedictine order granted him the right to use its coat of arms on the bottles and provided the product with the addition DOM (or DOM or, as on the current bottles, DOM ) to remind of its monastic roots. He had the brand protected and commissioned graphic designers to design advertisements and posters. In the first year of production in 1864, 28,000 bottles were sold, ten years later - in 1874 - there were 170,000 bottles, three quarters of which were already exported.
In June 1876, Legrand founded the company Bénédictine SA (in detail: Société anonyme de la distillerie de la Liqueur Bénédictine de l'Abbaye de Fécamp ) and in the following years had a representative production facility for the liqueur built at the Fécamp location, the Palais Bénédictine . In the meantime he had changed his name to “Le Grand”, based on “ Alexander the Great ” (French: Alexandre Le Grand ). Bénédictine has also been exported to the United States since 1888 . After Le Grand's death in 1898, the company was continued by his family. The liqueur was internationally known as early as the end of the 19th century and, in the United States , among other places , was the subject of legal disputes over trademark rights. In an advertisement at the beginning of the 20th century (after 1911) the bottle is shown and explicitly warned against counterfeiting.
In 1937 the liqueur B & B was developed, a ready-made mixture of the original Bénédictine liqueur and cognac . According to another source, marketing began in 1938. In 1977, a coffee liqueur with 30% vol was launched under the name Café Bénédictine . introduced, which however could not assert itself in the market.
In 1988 the owner family sold Bénédictine SA to the vermouth manufacturer Martini & Rossi . Since the Bacardí family took over the Martini & Rossi group of companies in 1993 - one of the largest takeovers in the spirits industry in the 20th century - Bénédictine liqueurs have also been part of the portfolio of the international spirits group Bacardi Ltd.
Although the monastic origins of the liqueur have always been part of marketing , it has been observed in recent years that the allegedly centuries-old tradition is being emphasized again. In 2010, Bacardi replaced the previous addition “Est. 1863 "( English established , founded ' ), the origins of the Legrand recipe on the bottle labels by" 1510 ", ie the year in which an Italian monk reaches the Fécamp Abbey and a herbal elixir said to have created and celebrated in the same year "500th anniversary" of the liqueur, including a special bottling, the Black Monk Edition in a black bottle. In 2016, Bacardi registered the word and image trademark "DOM 1510 Bénédictine", which was expanded by the number 1510 .
The Palais Bénédictine
In 1882, Le Grand commissioned the architect Camille Albert to design a representative production facility for his liqueur, which he also wanted to live in: the Palais Bénédictine in Fécamp . It was inaugurated in 1888, but hardly four years later, in January 1892, it was completely destroyed by a fire caused by arson. Le Grand decided to rebuild, and in the following years, with the renewed participation of Camille Albert and Ferdinand Marrou, a specialist in wrought iron construction elements ("ferronnier"), an even larger building was built: a mixture of palace and museum.
This second and still preserved Palais Bénédictine was completed in 1898, the year Le Grand died, and officially inaugurated in the summer of 1900. The eclectic building combines elements of the Gothic and Renaissance styles and, inside, houses parts of the library of the former abbey, a key collection, an art collection with works from the 15th and 16th centuries and changing exhibitions of contemporary art. For example, works by Miró , Picasso , Andy Warhol , Salvador Dalí and Zao Wou-Ki were shown. In addition, the palace still partially serves as a production facility for the liqueurs. The vaulted cellar alone should offer space for over 2 million liters.
The Palais Bénédictine can be visited and attracts over 120,000 visitors per year (according to another source from 2008 155,000 visitors annually).
Ingredients and manufacture
The main ingredient of Bénédictine is alcohol , with 40 percent by volume of the spirit having a comparatively high alcohol content for liqueurs , followed by sugar ( 330 grams per liter according to the magazine Mixology ), water, vegetable extracts and the color caramel (E 150b), which makes the Gives product a slightly caramel-like color. Contrary to what can be read in some older sources, Bénédictine is not made with cognac, but rather neutral alcohol obtained from sugar beet is used.
According to the manufacturer, the liqueur is based on four basic elixirs ("esprits"). First, different herbs and spices are mixed separately with neutral alcohol (infusion, maceration ), depending on the ingredients, partly burnt in copper stills or double-burnt and brought together to form a "basic blend" that rests for eight months. After adding honey and another herbal saffron infusion, the blend is heated several times to up to 55 ° C and then matures for four months in oak barrels. In the last production step, the mixture is filtered and serves as the basis for the liqueur.
The Bénédictine recipe should include 27 herbs and spices, including lemon balm , hyssop , cinnamon , thyme , cardamom , clove , nutmeg , saffron and honey ; other sources also name vanilla , tea and coriander as well as myrrh and musk grains (probably meaning the seeds of the Abel musk ). According to the label, the liqueur also has clear citrus notes.
A common Mixbuch from the 1930s mentioned as ingredients of the liqueur cardamom, arnica , Angelica ( "angelica root"), lemon zest, thyme, nutmeg, cassia ( "cassia"), hyssop, mint and cloves. What is noticeable is the alcohol content of 52% vol. Stated there, which is significantly higher than today . ("Voltage") - possibly a mistake or a special bottling, because from an advertisement from 1939 in the US magazine LIFE an alcohol content of 43% vol. (“86 proof ”). But there are also bottlings with 36.5% vol. ("73 proof"), 39.5% vol. and other alcohol levels known.
Despite the meanwhile changed alcohol content, the taste profile of the liqueur seems to have remained essentially unchanged: The cocktail book author Ted Haigh writes that when he tried 100-year-old bottlings of the Chartreuse and Bénédictine liqueurs, he could not detect any loss of taste compared to the contemporary product.
The Bénédictine Single Cask , a special bottling of the liqueur with 43% vol. in a black bottle, is available exclusively to visitors to Fécamp.
B&B
B & B (originally B and B ) is the abbreviation for " B randy and B énédictine". What is meant is, on the one hand, a cocktail made from both ingredients, on the other hand, the liqueur of the same name made from Bénédictine and cognac , which has been available as a ready-mix since the 1930s and is marketed with the addition of DOM , just like the original Bénédictine .
The mixture of Bénédictine and cognac or brandy as a mixed drink is said to have been mentioned by Ernest Hemingway as early as 1919 and spread mainly in the United States . According to Simon Difford, however, the cocktail was first created in 1937 at Club 21 in New York . The company Bénédictine SA immediately picked up on the trend and a little later - depending on the source in 1937 or 1938 - brought the premix B and B onto the market, with Bénédictine and cognac mixed in a ratio of 60:40.
Like Bénédictine, B & B is also a liqueur in the sense of the EU spirits regulation with a correspondingly high sugar content, but due to the cognac it contains, it is drier than the original, i.e. less sweet. The color is lighter and more golden than copper. As before, B & B is mainly produced for the US market. Since 1957, its annual sales have exceeded Bénédictine's. In Europe, B&B is mostly only available in online shops and also in Fécamp. B & B used to (like Bénédictine) an alcohol content of 43% vol. and is now 40% vol. offered.
As a cocktail, B & B is usually mixed with equal parts of Bénédictine and cognac. Charles Schumann recommends a ratio of three parts of brandy to two parts of Bénédictine, with the drink being stirred in a tumbler (glass beaker) over ice cubes and then drunk from it. Alternatively, you can enjoy the cocktail unrefrigerated, the ingredients are mixed in a mixing glass without ice and served in a sherry glass. It is also possible to serve the cocktail, which has previously been stirred on ice or in a frozen mixing glass, i.e. ideally hardly watered down, in a pre-chilled glass without ice, whereby the mixology author and bartender Marco Beier mixes brandy and Bénédictine in a ratio of 2: 1 prefers.
use
Bénédictine has been marketed internationally since the end of the 19th century and is a common ingredient in cocktails and mixed drinks. Mixing recipes with Bénédictine can be found, for example, in a collection that appeared in Chicago in 1900 . In a bar book from the 1930s, Bénédictine is described as "one of the most popular of all liqueurs".
Well-known cocktails with Bénédictine are Singapore Sling , Prince of Wales , Vieux Carré , Widow's Kiss , the Martini variant Martini Rolls Royce , the Manhattan variant Bobby Burns and B & B , a mixture of Bénédictine liqueur and cognac , which it also called Finished product there (see section B & B ).
The aromatic liqueur is also used as an ingredient for cakes, desserts and confectionery.
The largest single customer in gastronomy for Bénédictine is said to be a men's club for miners in Burnley , England , whose almost 500 members allegedly empty over 1,000 bottles a year. British soldiers from the Lancashire region , who were stationed at Fécamp during World War I, had brought the liqueur back home. The most popular drinking variant is “Bene'n'hot”, ie Bénédictine with a dash of hot water.
reception
The liqueur bottle with the characteristic shape was already described in 1884 in the novel Against the Line by Joris-Karl Huysmans . It can also be found on numerous works of art, for example on paintings by Paul Gauguin (1893) and Henri Rousseau (1908), as well as Carl Larsson and Samuel Peploe (“ Still life with Bénédictine bottle and fruit”).
One of the best-known Bénédictine lovers was the Viennese femme fatale Alma Mahler-Werfel , who is said to have enjoyed the liqueur every day alongside champagne . Johannes Trentini mentioned in his memoirs that on the occasion of the death of his father Albert von Trentini she even brought a bottle with her as a consolation gift for her son, which Johannes Trentini found tasteless.
literature
- Stéphane Nappez: Le palais Bénédictine. Monument de l'art et de l'industrie. Fécamp, Seine-Maritime . Editions PTC, Rouen 2005, ISBN 2-35038-007-6 .
Web links
- Official brand website Bénédictine (English, French) of Bacardi Global Brands Ltd.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f André Dominé : The ultimate bar book. The world of spirits and cocktails . hfullmann publishers (Tandem Verlag), Potsdam 2008, ISBN 978-3-8331-4802-6 , pp. 574f.
- ↑ a b Thomas Majhen: The bar fibula. Beverages & brands. epubli, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8442-5233-0 , p. 75.
- ^ A b c d Jean Watin-Augouard: Bénédictine, pour le palais et le palais. In: prodimarques.com. June 2005, accessed April 15, 2016 (French).
- ↑ According to Alain Le Grand, the last family owner of the Bénédictine SA company , in the FR3 Normandy television program Le palais bénédictine de Fécamp .
- ↑ According to Jean-Pierre Lantaz: Bénédictine d'un alambic à cinq continents . Editions Bertout, 1991.
- ↑ a b cf. B. Société anonyme de la distillerie de la Liqueur Bénédictine de l'Abbaye de Fécamp vs. Western Distilling Co. In: Albany Law Journal, Vol. 42. Weed, Parsons & Company, 1890, p. 410.
- ^ Bénédictine. In: liquor.com. Retrieved July 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Jack A. Grohusko: Jack's Manual On the Vintage and Production, Care and Handling of Wines, Liquors, etc. 3rd ed. Selbstverlag, New York 1910 (English, advertisements attached without page numbers. The 3rd edition must have appeared after 1911 , as another advertisement refers to a spirits award awarded in 1911.).
- ↑ a b c Benedictine - Subtle Alchemy. In: benedictinedom.com. Retrieved April 14, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d Benedictine B&B Liqueur. In: diffordsguide.com. Retrieved April 15, 2016 .
- ^ History of Martini & Rossi SpA. In: fundinguniverse.com. March 23, 1998, accessed April 14, 2016 .
- ↑ Community trademark application for the word / figurative mark "DOM 1510 BÉNÉDICTINE", trademark no. 015238314. In: DPMA trademark register. April 19, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d Benedictine - Flamboyant Palais. (No longer available online.) In: benedictinedom.com. July 25, 1900, archived from the original on June 10, 2016 ; accessed on April 14, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d The bottle in numbers: DOM Bénédictine . In: Mixology Magazine for Bar Culture, No. 2/2016, p. 107.
- ↑ a b Source: List of ingredients on the bottle label sorted by weight (2015).
- ↑ a b c d Marco Beier: The B&B Cocktail. Dusty after dinner drink or a forgotten classic? In: mixology.eu. January 18, 2016, accessed April 16, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Benedictine - Secret Process. In: benedictinedom.com. Retrieved April 14, 2016 .
- ^ Albert Stevens Crockett: The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book. New York 1935, pp. 169f.
- ↑ a b c LIFE , December 18, 1939, ISSN 0024-3019 , Volume 7, No. 25, p. 8 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Ted Haigh: Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails. Quarry Books, Beverly (Massachusetts, United States), 2009, ISBN 978-1-59253-561-3 , p. 287.
- ↑ a b Simon Difford: Cocktails # 10 . Odd Firm of Sin (self-published), London 2012, ISBN 978-0-9556276-2-0 , p. 96.
- ^ Charles Schumann : Schumann's Bar . Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2011 (1st edition), ISBN 978-3-89910-416-5 , p. 40.
- ↑ James C. Maloney: The 20th Century Guide For Mixing Fancy Drinks . Chicago 1900, pp. 16, 27, 30, 41.
- ↑ WJ Tarling, Frederick Carter: The Cafe Royal Cocktail Book . Pall Mall Ltd., Coronation Edition, London 1937, p. 260.
- ^ Richard Smith: Liqueur is hot stuff at working men's club. In: independent.co.uk. May 18, 1994, accessed April 14, 2016 .
- ^ Benedictine - Alexandre Le Grand. In: benedictinedom.com. Retrieved April 14, 2016 .
- ↑ Still Life With A Benedictine Bottle And Fruit - Samuel John Peploe. In: wikigallery.org. April 13, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 .
