Kümmel (liqueur) explained

Kümmel, kummel or kimmel (lv|ķimelis), is a sweet, colourless liqueur flavoured with caraway (de| Kümmel, lv|ķimenes) seeds, cumin and fennel.

Kümmel was first distilled in the Netherlands in the late 17th century; by 1823 the product had been adopted in the German lands (Germany would become the principal producer and market), and in then Russian-ruled Latvia,[1] becoming known in many markets as "Blanckenhagen-Allasch"[2] from its Latvian connections. Eastern Europe became the principal producer and market of kümmel.[3]

History

Origin

The earliest known kümmel recipe, attributed to a knight of the Livonian Order, dates from 1503.[4] Some accounts record the legend[5] that Lucas Bols (1652-1719)[6] first distilled kümmel liqueur in the Netherlands in 1575 - three quarters of a century before he was born.[7]

Spread

Persistent stories associate the popularity of kümmel ( ru | кюммель) in Russia with the tastes of a man with a reputation for imbibing:[8] Tsar Peter I of Russia.[9] Whether or not Peter I first introduced kümmel to Russia, he does receive credit for organising its production there.[10]

19th century

Kümmel's popularity grew in the early 19th century.[11] being produced by 1823[12]

Allasch is a variety of Kümmel; it is also a caraway liqueur of around 40% ABV, usually flavoured with bitter almonds, anise, angelica root and orange peel. Invented in 1823 in Allasch, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now in Latvia), and produced by Wilhelm von Blanckenhagen (1761–1840), who owned land around Allasch which included a pure and reliable water source,[13] it was widely popular and produced there until 1944 when the Soviet Union re-occupied Latvia and expelled ethnic Germans from the region.

In 1830, Allasch was exhibited at the Leipzig Trade Fair and quickly gained popularity, being soon produced by local distilleries. It is now considered a Leipzig specialty, usually drunk as a digestif, although there are also manufacturers outside Leipzig.[14]

Albert Wolfschmidt founded a distillery in Riga in 1847, producing vodka and schnapps, including kümmel and Riga Black Balsam.

In the mid-19th Century, kümmel was the rival of gin. Being made with caraway rather than juniper, it had the advantage that caraway has a calmative effect, reducing flatulence and the bloated feeling experienced after a heavy meal. By 1850, this "medicinal" benefit helped Ludwig Mentzendorff create a healthy business importing kümmel to Britain.

20th century

During the 1905 Russian Revolution, the Blanckenhagen mansion was burned down. The distillery closed, and the entrepreneurial Mentzendorffs opened up the production of their own kümmel in France. Baltic Germans moved to Germany as tensions between Russia and Germany grew, and several distilleries in Germany produced their own versions of kümmel, where it is still known as Allasch and is a popular digestif.

In Latvia, it is produced by Latvijas Balzams under the Latvianized name "Allažu ķimelis".[15]

In Scotland, it is a popular drink at many of the more traditional golf clubs[16] because of its rumored ability to steady the nerves of golfers there, acquiring the nickname of "putting mixture".

A charming and evocative scene of drinking kümmel occurs in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's television miniseries, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), where the character Franz Biberkopf speaks in the voices of glasses of kümmel and three beers in a philosophical dialogue as he evaluates the taste and downs each drink in turn.

Notes and References

  1. Compare:Book: Stailey . Doug . Wondrich . David . Rothbaum . Noah . 20 October 2021 . kümmel . The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails . New York . Oxford University Press . 409 . 9780199311132 . 5 December 2024 . kümmel is an herbal liqueur of southern Baltic origin, primarily flavored with caraway seed. [...] a recipe for doppel-kümmel shows up in a German distillers' manual in 1823. In that year, Wilhelm Von Blanckenhagen (1761– 1840) commenced commercial production in Allasch, then a Baltic-German region in Latvia. Van [sic] Blanckenhagen's Allasch Kümmel, thick with sugar and 40 percent ABV, achieved international recognition at the Leipzig Trade Fair in 1830..
  2. News: Wine & Spirit International . 1998 . ((0264-4794)) . Evro Publishing Company . London . 5 December 2024 . 25 . [...] Kummel (known in many parts of the world as Blanckenhagen-Allasch) competing in the high strength herbal liqueur arena..
  3. Compare:Book: Rathbun . A.J. . A.J. Rathbun . 12 September 2007 . Good Spirits: Recipes, Revelations, Refreshments, and Romance, Shaken and Served with a Twist . Boston, Massachusetts . The Harvard Common Press . 133 . 9781558323360 . 19 December 2024 . [Kümmel] remains very popular in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe, where the majority of kümmel is both produced and consumed..
  4. Book: 2016 . Kulinarnaya entsiklopediya . Culinary encyclopedia . ru:Кулинарная энциклопедия . ru . 16. К-Л (Куллама - Лакрица) . Moscow . Komsomolskaya Pravda . 98 . 9785447001032 . 9 January 2025 . ru:КЮММЕЛЬ [...] Первое упоминание о её рецепте датируется 1503 годом, записан он был неким рыцарем Ливонского ордена..
  5. Book: Rathbun . A.J. . A.J. Rathbun . 12 September 2007 . Good Spirits: Recipes, Revelations, Refreshments, and Romance, Shaken and Served with a Twist . Boston, Massachusetts . The Harvard Common Press . 133 . 9781558323360 . 12 December 2024 . A slightly sweet liqueur, known for its caraway, cumin, and fennel flavor combination, kümmel, Dutch legend says, was first created and distilled by Erven [the heirs of] Lucas Bols in 1575 in Holland..
  6. Book: Rendell. Mike. 5 January 2023. The Advent of Distilling. A Dark History of Gin. Barnsley, Yorkshire. Pen and Sword History. 19. 9781399070546. 12 December 2024. Lucas Bols was born in 1652, the grandson of the founder, and he oversaw a rapid expansion of the company during his country's Golden Age. He died in 1719..
  7. Book: Calabrese, Salvatore . Complete Home Bartender's Guide . . 2002 . registration . 0-8069-8511-9 . 192 . According to historians, the first liqueur was a preparation made from caraway (called kummel), and distilled in 1575 by Lucas Bols in Holland. Bols knew that caraway was good for the digestive system, and he hoped that it would be popular when combined with the anesthetic effect of alcohol..
  8. Book: Andreas . Peter . Peter Andreas . 17 January 2022 . 2019 . Drunk on the Front . Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs . New York . Oxford University Press . 38 . 9780197629994 . 9 January 2025 . Heavy drinking became embedded in Russian military culture. Drinking while soldiering was encouraged from the very top. In the early eighteenth century, Peter the Great - a heavy drinker himself (reportedly drinking between thirty and forty glasses of wine per day) - authorized thrice-weekly vodka rations..
  9. News: Mackall. Lawton. Esquire. August 1941. 16. Esquire Publishing Company. 87. 12 December 2024. Whether or not we swallow the Dutch claim that it was they who first perfected and polished off Kummel, teaching the taste for it to Peter the Great when he came to Holland to learn shipbuilding, the fact remains that the Low Countries were hotbeds of cordialry of the most lush and lavish sorts, and the Russian Empire founded by large-sized pupil Peter was steeped to the steppes in his pet liqueur..
  10. Book: 2016 . Kulinarnaya entsiklopediya . Culinary encyclopedia . ru:Кулинарная энциклопедия . ru . 16. К-Л (Куллама - Лакрица) . Moscow . Komsomolskaya Pravda . 98 . 9785447001032 . 9 January 2025 . ru:КЮММЕЛЬ [...] Пётр І настолько полюбил тминную настойку, что организовал её производство в России..
  11. Web site: allasch - The Curiologist.
  12. Web site: The Historians - Lost Ingredients: Kümmel.
  13. Web site: Spezialitaten . Leipzig-dasdorf.de . 2017-01-19.
  14. Web site: Allasch | Preussische Spirituosen Manufaktur . Psmberlin.de . 2017-01-19 . 2016-12-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161201012452/http://www.psmberlin.de/produkte/kummel-klare/allasch . dead .
  15. Web site: Allažu ķimelis. Latvijas Balzams. en. 2018-04-07.
  16. Web site: Kümmel: A Little of the Muirfield Spirit . Lyons . Will . 11 July 2013 . Wall Street Journal.

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