Is this the taste of eternal summer?

Lars Williams & Mark Emil Hermansen are an interesting pair. These guys from Copenhagen, Denmark, are all about capturing precious memories and experiences. As we all know, smell & taste are powerful in that regard. Founded in 2017, Empirical aims to take advantage of that with their unique (and sometimes wacky!) Spirits that are meant to conjure the best of times. They go about it with custom-built machinery as well as unusual fermentation and distillation techniques. And plenty of that good old blood & sweat.

Symphony 6 is a vacuum-distilled and free-form Spirit that's the result of complex maceration processes. This is great because you can really taste all the individual botanicals. First, they macerate the base with fresh lemon and mandarin leaves, which are actually macerated separately, then blended together. Then, the coffee leaves that have been through a bruising, oxidizing and drying process come in. Black currant buds, fig leaves, ambrette seeds and vetiver roots are next. Finally, the final blend is macerated with coffee leaves again. The color is added through carmine and doesn’t it look exactly like the perfect twilight moment?

You know what they say – complex maceration processes make for complex flavors. So, prepare for black currant aromas, refreshing citrus leaves, green and fruity fig leaves, some leathery muskiness from coffee, and the vetiver roots on the finish. Did someone say eternal summer?