Vanilla Honey – Engel Vanille
This time, I would like to present another obscure eau de vie to you. My good friend Manuel from Engel Naturbrennerei distilled vanilla beans. Naturally, I could not resist trying it. I thought the eau de vie would work best in a variation of the Manhattan cocktail.
For his vanilla eau de vie, Manuel uses organic vanilla beans from Madagascar. He macerates them in neutral grain spirit and distils the macerate on his Tyrolian still. In the end, the eau de vie is bottled at an ABV of 42 %. Manuel also won a silver medal at the 2025 Craft Spirits Berlin competition.
Real vanilla bean flavour
I disagree with the competition’s testers who said the aroma of the vanilla eau de vie is “simplistic and soft”. Instead, I found clear real vanilla pod flavours in all of its complexity in the nose as well as the sip. Furthermore, the eau de vie has almost cacao like characteristics with an excellent oily mouthfeel.
Vanilla Ice
As mentioned above, I opted for a variation on theManhattan cocktail using Manuel’s vanilla eau de vie. For this, I used rye whiskey and the rather bitter Faude Vermouth. Yet, I omitted the bitters and added a bar spoon of brandied cherry “syrup” instead.
1 Bsp Engel Vanilla Eau de Vie
3 cl Faude Vermouth
Stir – strain – chilled Cocktail glass;
Garnish: Brandied Cherries
Song: Tash Sultana – Vanilla Honey;
The drink starts off as a standard Manhattan. After a while, however, certain ‘exotic’ spice notes develop. First, I detected a hint of coconut, which then turned into a combination of vanilla and cacao. The bit of cherry syrup from the glass of brandied cherries adds more fruity notes. Overall, this was a very delicious spirit-forward cocktail!
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. I received the eau de vie for free from Engel Naturbrennerei.
