Admittedly, it appears somewhat eccentric to claim that a recipe for Gin has the power to unite great British traditions, the exoticness of India, and the purity and nativeness of the Black Forest. And yet it is precisely this eccentricity that defines the enigmatic and venturesome character of Montgomery Collins, from whom our Schwarzwald Dry Gin originates.

Montgomery Collins’ ground-breaking idea for creating a new type of gin was to combine exotic spices with native plants found in the Black Forest. Over a third of the ingredients in Monkey 47 come from the land where it is made, including spruce, elderflower, blackthorn, bramble leaves, and many other botanicals not found in most gins. The key to this eccentric blend, however, is a Black Forest staple that seems both surprising and yet made to enhance the right gin: The lingonberry is what gives Monkey 47 that certain something. After all, it contains all the basic aromas you’d expect from a good gin, including refreshing acidity, lasting bitter notes, and a slight sweetness. At the same time, more traditional botanicals – especially juniper – also play leading roles.

Doing things by hand is a matter of honour, which is why Monkey 47 contains only hand-picked ingredients. A number of them, including the peel of bitter oranges, lemons, and pomelos, have to be fresh off the fruit when added to the macerate prior to distillation. The production process is complicated, comprising a combination of maceration – that is, steeping herbal ingredients in a mixture of highly rectified, molasses-based ethyl alcohol and spring water – as well as distillation, percolation, and oxidation. Translated for the layperson, Black Forest Distillers uses specially designed Carter-Head stills to extract the essences of fresh plants, boil them, and gather the resulting alcoholic vapours through condensation before allowing the product to mature. Percolation, or steam extraction, enables the master distiller to single out and highlight specific flavours within the distillate’s olfactory profile and intensify the subtler elements (such as floral notes), which then serve as a counterpoint to the more dominant components. As time-consuming as it sounds, it’s this technique that allows the delicate, floral notes of Monkey 47’s aroma to survive the distillation process. Through oxidation and three months of storage in earthenware vessels, the distillate develops the unparalleled suppleness and balance that make Monkey 47 one of life’s great pleasures, both in a cocktail or all on its own. Apart from a coarse filtration process involving a sheet filter, Monkey 47 is left entirely unfiltered to preserve its full range of unique and complex aromas.