Michelberger Booze | Tastes like the Forest

"Today, we're celebrating Schnaps!" Tom Michelberger's voice is thudding through the speakers of a tour bus pulling up to the Preußische Spirituosen Manufaktur. Friends and employees of the Michelberger hotel are taking a trip to the spirit factory today, where they are being introduced to the two new Michelsberger Schnäpse that Michelberger and the factory's operators, Ulf Stahl and Gerald Schroff have produced over the past months at the 150 year-old destillery. 

To get everybody into the right mood, Stahl passes around little glasses of liqueur that "smells like sparkling wine and tastes like elderberry." Everyone calls Stahl "The Professor", and it isn't that far-fetched seeing as though Prof. Dr. Stahl holds a chair of microbiology at the Technical University of Berlin. His areas of expertise include a fermentation process that the company Red Bull used to produce their Carpe Diem Kombucha drink.

"There are many things to taste, you need to line your stomachs," says Tom Michelberger and points to a hearty buffet that has been set up between the copper cauldrons. Since its inauguration in 1874, this space has served the sole function of destlling alcohol. And though it almost seems as if we've stepped into an alchemist's laboratory from several centuries ago, modern day boilermakers regularly maintain the equipment, adjusting it to fulfill modern drinkers' needs.

The first floor houses historical gems like Adler Wodka or Adler Dry Gin, both of them are served from gigantic scoops. The gin boasts an impressive 47 per cent of alcohol at 500 euros per bottle, but the superb juniper berry flavor can easily make you forget that you're drinking such a high-volume liquor.

Just next door, in a little showroom with courtyard charm, we get a first taste of the Michelberger. "We wanted to make our own Schnaps. One that tastes like mountain air, and one that tasted like soil and the forest," explains Tom Michelberger when asked about the impulses for his newly created drink. The 45 per cent Klarer has a refreshing taste accentuated by citrus peels and thyme and the darker Schnaps is shaped by the tonka bean that creates a sweet, wood-like flavor. Both of them go down very smoothly. Serious destillateurs refuse to make flatrate hooch – but that doesn't mean that fans of the new Michelberger should down half a bottle without expecting to nurse a proper hangover the next day.

(mapu)