To This Tree – Spiritus Rex Mirabelle

Obviously, if you get your hands on a high-quality spirit, you first enjoy it on its own. However, even when it seems exuberant, excellent spirits may result in outstanding cocktails. This is why I decided to pair the lavish mirabelle plum eau de vie from Spiritus Rex with a limited edition rum from Barbados in a sour style drink!

First, let me tell you a little bit about the eau de vie and why I carefully chose the name of the drink: For this plum eau de vie, Matthias Sievert did not choose the prominent French varieties from Nancy or Metz. Instead, eight years ago he had the chance to get fruits from Mecklenburg in Eastern Germany. The town of Baebelitz has an avenue with 30- to 50-year-old trees from all sorts of Mirabelle. In the end, after all that ageing the eau de vie is bottled at 42 % ABV.

Opposite side of the flavour spectrum

What I love with eau de vies, is their flavour complexity as well as their individual character. When you compare the Prunus Syriaca to the Martini Gentiana from Spiritus Rex, you see two different sides of the flavour spectrum. While the gentian and apple cuvée shows a powerful and yet almost too complex character, the Mirabelle eau de vie has a round, almost mellow flavour. Do not get me wrong, it is still very complex, but while the gentian eau de vie attacks your palate, the plum sooths it while slightly dancing on your tongue. At the same time, the Mirabelle delivers everything you could ask for in an eau de vie and therefore I find myself more often in the mood for it.

Reminiscent of a Breakfast Martini

Ever since I took the first sip of the Prunus Syriaca, I knew that I wanted to incorporate the flavours into a sour style cocktail. However, I needed a complementing base spirit and to keep up with the “tree” theme of the cocktail, it had to be barrel aged. Therefore, I decided to use the Transcontinental Rum Line Barbados Rum. Unfortunately, this interesting rum is now unavailable, but I guess a similar one from the Foursquare distillery will suffice. In the end, I used homemade bergamot marmalade as a sweetener.

If you are serving such an extravagant cocktail, it does not hurt to break out the good glassware. What can I say, the drink tastes exceptionally good from this beautiful Lobmeyr cocktail glass. The Spiruts Rex eau de vie shines through nicely and can stand up to the rum. Moreover, the bergamot marmalade also works great with the other ingredients. Obviously, you could use a regular Mirabelle eau de vie here, but if you can get your hands on such a high-quality one as the Spiritus Rex bottling you are in for a treat!

*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 was provided by Spiritus Rex.