Boomsma Beerenburger

Beerenburg is Friesland's own herbal bitter — a spirit as tied to the northern Dutch province as genever is to the whole country — and Boomsma has prepared its Beerenburger by the same method for 130 years, since the family began distilling in Leeuwarden in 1883. It's a tincture of eleven herbs macerated in genever, some of them still a family secret; the ones the distillery names are gentian, juniper berry, licorice, and laurel, and the result is a full-bodied, amber-hued digestif with no artificial coloring or flavoring, made by the fifth generation of Boomsmas. The style's name traces to Hendrik Beerenburg, an Amsterdam spice merchant of the 1700s whose herb mix was sold to distillers, but Friesland adopted it as its own — it's the drink at every Frisian skating race, sailing regatta, and village fair, taken as a shot or, in winter, warmed with a splash of hot water. Expect a nose of licorice, gentian root, and bay laurel over juniper, opening into a rounded, gently sweet palate where the herbs build toward a smooth, authentically bitter finish — more approachable than a fernet, more herbal than a sweet amaro. Drink it neat and cold as a digestif, mix it with cola the way Frisians do (a "Beerenburg-cola"), or use it as a Dutch stand-in for Italian amaro in a Negroni or Old Fashioned riff. A genuine regional tradition that almost never leaves the Netherlands.

Buy Boomsma Beerenburger online with fast shipping right to your door.