Zwack Unicum

I came across a bottle of unicum at the back of a drawer in my last office in the City. It was 2 years out of date and smelt like Deep Heat. By tradition myself and my work partner used to have a swig when we had completed the month end pack each month until my boss finally made me chuck it away. Being a liquor you would think the use by date would be almost unlimited so I've no idea how old that stuff was. Definately only for the desparate you are better off sticking to paint stripper ...

A while ago we took one of those day cruises, for the purpose of stocking up on a little cheap drink, what with Easter coming up (any excuse). Rather than buying the usual few bottles of Absolut Vodka and Baileys (which we already had in the cupboard from Duty Free anyway), we decided to try something different. Whilst my other half seemed attractive to a bottle of Dooleys, I was drawn to something even odder - Unicum Herb Liqueur. It's very name conjures up thoughts of some medicinal and somewhat different experience. That's before you even see the bottle - a stubby round gree n affair ...

Unicum is, as its name suggests, unique. It is a herbal liqueur made at an independent distillery on the banks of the Danube in Budapest, Hungary, owned by the Zwack family. The recipe contains nearly thirty spices and herbs, creating an extraordinarily intense dark brown bittersweet potion. Imagine distilled Campari with a drop of black treacle and a touch of anaesthetic added to it. You can visit the distillery on Saturdays, see a genuinely interesting video about the drink and its history (didn't yawn once), visit its museum containing the largest public collection of miniatures in the world (they think), then try the liqueur ...