Visit London’s first ever absinthe distillery
London’s first absinthe distillery has opened in east London in a suitably trippy location.
The Devil’s Botany Distillery is the brainchild of two devoted “absintheurs” – owners of The Last Tuesday Society, the Hackney bar famous for its taxidermy collection and absinthe-based cocktails including “The Naughty Nun” and “Magik & Medicine”.
“Devil’s Botany London Absinthe honours the traditions mastered by the historic absinthe distillers of Switzerland’s Val-de-Travers while introducing a new style of absinthe that is quintessentially British,” says co-founder Allison Crawbuck, originally from Brooklyn. “It is the long-lost cousin to gin and we make it with botanicals gathered from the Hackney marshes and around Walthamstow.”
Head distiller Rhys Everett says: “The distinctively bitter almost chocolatey notes of grand wormwood are sweetened by the warm spice of green anise and the very present fennel, creating a strong yet wonderfully balanced holy trinity at its base. Grounded by the root of devil’s claw, the resulting liquid bears a colourless purity that is distinctive of the original Swiss ‘bleue’-styled absinthes.”
As well as their new London absinthe, the bar stocks absinthes including Emile Pernot, Loch Ness, La Valot Matin from Switzerland, Canadian Dillon’s and American St George.
The distillery-cum-“Wunderkabinett” is a former call centre which now contains grimoires, Dodo bones, an eight-legged Welsh lamb, a two-headed kitten and a stuffed goat anteater. Viktor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and Natural History in Mare Street is half-homage to Gunther Grass’s Onion Cellar Club and half-kitsch salon. There is a daily “L’heure verte”.
The bar, which opened in 2016, is an extension to the the existing museum, which describes itself as an answer to “the pedantic over-simplification of so-called knowledge”, claiming it contains “no overreaching aim beyond the theft of its visitors’ time and the hope that it will provide amusement by return, hoping to fill the vacuum between what the establishment elite believes is worthy of worship and what exists in the world.”
The walls of the converted terrace house are adorned by the left-field, archly cool works by artists including Mervyn Peake , Tessa Farmer, English-born Mexican Leonora Carrington, “Bright Young Thing” Stephen Tennant – who allegedly spent seventeen years of his life in bed – and proto-Dadaist Austin Osman Spare. Choice pieces include condoms purportedly used by the Rolling Stones and the alleged waste of Kylie Minogue.
The subtext is clear: “Avant-garde spirits welcome. Leave all that normative stuff at home. We are what we pretend to be. The world is neither friendly nor hostile. Merely indifferent. Make of your time here what you will.”
The neurotoxic levels of the new limited edition premium absinthe are carefully regulated so it is very unlikely that you will see tulips sprouting from the carpet as Oscar Wilde did, but it’s still a nice way to spend your time.
A history of absinthe
Absinthe was invented as a gout remedy by a Huguenot doctor, Pierre Ordinaire, in Neuchatel, Switzerland in the late eighteenth century. There is an Absinthe Musuem in Moitiers as well as one in Auvers sur Oise where Van Gogh committed suicide in Auvers in 1890.
The first absinthe distillery opened in Couvet near the French-Swiss border. The Netherlands banned absinthe in 1909, Switzerland in 1910, the United States in 1912 and France in 1914. The Dutch re-legalized the drink in 2004, Belgium lifted its ban in 2005 and France in 2011. Germany banned absinthe from 1923 to 1981.
The famous intoxicant has always been legal in Britain, but only now has London opened its first absinthe distillery. The absinthe is made from British wheat spirit and 14 botanicals. It is recommended to be served with three to four parts ice-cold water, or in a highball or spritz.
Traditionally, absinthe is redistilled from a white grape spirit (eau de vie). Each bottle should be highly “miscible” – a homogenized mixture harmoniously blended.
Absinthe was once thought of as a danger on a par with revolutionary socialism, corrupt priests, Chiba and bureaucracy. It was said to lead to unemployment, insanity and an addiction that only death could cure. It is the main ingredient in modern cocktails including Death in the Afternoon, Corpse Reviver, Earthquake and Dr Funk.