22, A Million – Marx Zitronenbrand

Citrus eau de vies probably are the most popular eau de vie category right now. While other spirits distilled from fruits also have their appeal, the familiar notes of citrus eau de vies easily wins over gin drinkers. That being said, you rarely encounter a citrus eau de vie distilled from the fermented fruits. However, in this case I am presenting such an organic lemon eau de vie by the Edelbrandmanufaktur Marx to you. Apart from that, I also created a kind of deconstructed Negroni cocktail with it.

I already featured the Marx Blood Orange Eau de Vie in my article on blood orange eau de vies. For the lemon eau de vie, organic lemons from the slopes of the Etna on Sicily are, washed, macerated and slowly distilled afterwards. In the end, the lemon eau de vie has an 40 % ABV and the bottle comes in a beautiful wooden box.

Like bathing in lemon oil

The Marx Lemon Eau de Vie instantly shows beautiful and intense lemon aromas. Moreover, the bouquet ranges from lemon peel over a little white pith to freshly squeezed lemon juice. However, the flavour also has some deeper spice notes reminding me of cooling cardamom and angelica root with some perfumed notes in the aftertaste. All in all, I enjoyed the Marx Lemon Eau de Vie very much. Especially, its lemon peel flavours. The Marx Distillery suggests mixing their lemon eau de vie with their own Marx Tonic Water. So, the medium dry notes of the tonic go very well with the lemon eau de vie. You almost get the feeling of sipping a lemon soda.

Taken apart and put back together again

I had the idea of a sort of deconstructed Negroni for quite a while now. For me the best gin for a Negroni is a juniper forward one which also has some citrus notes. Therefore, I combined a juniper “eau de vie” with the Marx Lemon Eau de Vie and their blood orange eau de vie. So, I kept the original Campari, but used the 28,5 % ABV version. Moreover, I also used two vermouths to add more complexity, the Mancino Chinato and the Casa Mariol Vermut Negre.

Less familiar than thought

I was a bit surprised how much the drinking experience differed from a regular Negroni. While you could taste some juniper notes, the emphasis clearly was on the citrus components and the vermouths. On top of that, the drink also had a bit more bitterness than your average Negroni. Additionally, it tasted more “winey”. In the end, the Campari came through and added a bit more familiar notes. All in all, the “22, A Million” was quite the interesting sip with a lot of beautiful citrus eau de vie notes.

*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 tonic water were provided by Edelbrandmanufaktur Wilhelm Marx.