Monkey 47 is the cult Gin du jour, and it’s easy to see why – it has the lot; fascinating back story, beautiful packaging, good price point, and most importantly, an amazing flavor profile.
The brand’s story starts decades ago, when a British man named
Montgomery ‘Monty’ Collins of the Royal Air Force was stationed in Berlin to help rebuild the city. There, he sponsored a monkey named Max (can you guess where this is going?).
In 1951 Monty left the RAF and moved to Germany’s Black Forest where he opened a guesthouse called
‘The Wild Monkey’. It was there he developed a recipe for
Schwarzald Dry Gin, using
local botanicals as well as those which he’d discovered on his travels.
In
2006, Monkey 47 Founder,
Alexander Stein, heard Monty’s story and became fascinated with trying to recreate the Spirit while breathing new life into the old recipe. It took two years to develop the product, which today contains
47 different botanicals – a third of which come directly from the
Black Forest region.
Botanicals include cardamom, cloves, six types of pepper, two types of hibiscus, nutmeg, almond, ginger, lemon balm, sage, blackberries, sloes, lingonberries and
juniper from the Mediterranean.
The combination of all of these botanicals creates a
seriously
complex Gin. Distilled at
Black Forest Distillers, Monkey 47 is named after
Max the monkey, after its
47 botanicals, and after its alcohol volume of
47% ABV.