Empirical Soka

Another unique Spirit from the masters at Empirical.

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.

SOKA is inspired by an ancient grain that’s actually still the fifth most produced cereal worldwide – sorghum. The experimentation for this unique Spirit began with fermenting cane juice from European sorghum and looking for the perfect yeast strain before decided to go with Thai Rice Chong from White Labs Copenhagen. After trying different sorghum juices, they landed on their favorite one that came from Wisconsin and fermented it in a distillery in Milwaukee.

Now, what would a combo of fermented fresh sorghum juice and syrup taste like? Expect springy, green flavors of melon, cucumber, and green apple, but also darker aromas of harvest, and notes of hay and toasted honey. If you’re into the taste of innovation, you’ll love this one. Savor it neat or give your Mojito a special twist.