Chemical Switches – Empirical The Plum

The second spirit from Empirical I want to present to you is also – let‘s call it „special“ – as the first one. „The Plum, I Suppose“ uses plum kernels as its base. Nevertheless, inspired by a Irish Coffee variation from Empirical, I came up with a coffee cocktail. The drink makes perfect use of the bitter almond notes of the spirit. On top of that, I also used an interesting Swiss rum in the recipe.

For the „The Plum, I Suppose“ Empirical Spirits use their „Helena“ barley spirit and macerate plum kernels as well as a marigold kombucha in it. All in all, the spirit consists of pearled barley and Pilsner malt, black Koji and Belgian Saisson yeast. The macerate is then vacuum distilled and bottled at 32 % ABV.

Bitter almonds!

Well, yes “The Plum” first and foremost tastes of marzipan and bitter almonds. Apart from that, you can find powerful fruit esters and hints of vinegar in the taste. The Koji also makes its way on to your palate in the form of quite an amount of umami notes. In conclusion, this liquor is very interesting and quite different from anything I have tasted so far.

Swiss rum?

It is kind of a trend in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to distil rum. Obviously, molasses forms the base, because sugar cane juice would go bad during the long transport from the tropical countries. In the case of the Etter 1823 Rum, the molasses comes from Jamaica. After distillation, the rum ages for at least seven years in American oak barrels which previously held Bourbon. It is bottled at 40 % ABV.

Smooth, Swiss rum

First off, you notice that the rum is very smooth. After that you also get the relationship with Jamaican rums. However, the Etter Rum is more refined with less Jamaican „funk“. Instead, you are rewarded with a lot of exotic fruit notes and a certain spiciness. In the end, a floral taste rounds off the drinking experience.

Single Origin

As mentioned above, I loosely based my cocktail with the “The Plum” on the “Kernel & Bean” Chris Stewart. I especially kept his espresso suggestion in mind and went for a single origin coffee from Andraschko. Apart from that, I married the recipe with the Espresso Martini. In this case, this means that I used my proprietary cold drip coffee liqueur.

The “Chemical Switches” starts off with a clear Espresso Martini note made with rum. In addition, you get some dried fruits and a hint of acidity from the single origin espresso. However, after a while the bitter almond notes of the “The Plum” shine through and add to the complexity of the cocktail. The coffee liqueur and the simple syrup add a nice, but not to heavy sweetness to the mix.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. Apart from that, the rum was provided by Etter and the “The Plum” by Charles Hosie.