Byegone – Lantenhammer Waldhimbeer

When you have a raspberry eau de vie and a Swiss stone pine wood liqueur on hand what should you do with it? Well, believe it or not, but the first drink which sprang to my mind was the Bramble. While replacing the gin with the raspberry eau de vie might be comprehensible, to switch the black berry liqueur with the stone pine liqueur was actually inspired by the Golden Bramble from the Goldene Bar in Munich.

First, let us take a look at the Lantenhammer Waldhimbeer. The wild raspberries for the eau de vie grow in the forests of the Carpathian Mountains, namely the Karkonosze and the High Tatras. After the harvest, the berries are frozen and transported to the Lantenhammer Distillery in Hausham. The berries macerate in neutral grain alcohol. Next, the distillation takes place on a copper pot-still with less than 450 l capacity. After distillation the eau de vie ages for up to three years in earthenware vats. In the end, Lantenhammer bottels their raspberry eau de vie without filtration.

Typical berry notes

Typically, for a raspberry eau de vie you instantly get a whiff of raspberries from the aroma. Apart from that, the Lantenhammer Waldhimbeer also carries some green notes and spices in the bouquet and taste. Specifically, you will find a lot of fruit esters with an almost glue like taste and some white pepper notes. Furthermore, the taste holds some anise seed and vanilla flavours.

Intense wood spice

Usually, Alpine spirits and liqueurs use the cones of the Swiss stone pine. However, for the Lantenhammer Raritas Zirbenholzlikör, the wood of the stone pine from the Oetztal is sliced and macerated before distillation. For the latter distiller Christina Kölbl uses a 150 l still in the Tegernseer Schlossbrennerei. Afterwards, the stone pine wood eau de vie is mixed with sugar and bottled at an ABV of 38 %.

While I am familiar with the stone pine flavour profile from a number of holidays in the Alpine region, I never tasted a liqueur made from the wood. The very interesting flavour has similarities with oak, but also a characteristic stone pine spiciness. Apart from that, you certainly need a bit of time to get used to this unique taste. However, if you do, you are rewarded with delicate wood notes and even some hints of horseradish. I can very well imagine this liqueur working well in all sorts of cocktails.

Not a bramble any more

As mentioned above, I took very liberal inspiration from the Bramble (A sour with a liqueur float) and the Golden Bramble (A weird one instead of blackberry liqueur). Apart from that, I kept everything simple and just used raspberry eau de vie instead of gin as well as a float of stone pine wood liqueur on top.

When taking the first sip you are greeted by a whiff of stone pine flavours. However, the taste soon changes to a fruity and refreshing eau de vie sour taste. The raspberries shine through nicely and the flavours complement each other nicely. The longer you sip the drink the better integrated the wood notes become. In the end, this is a refreshing Summer drink with a very Alpine turn!

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The eau de vie and the liqueur were provided by Lantenhammer.