Bottled Glog Made the Hard Way
March 10, 2013
A bottled glog came out this winter and I wasn't too excited about that until I learned how it was made.
Many European countries have traditions of hot wine drinks in the winter, often mulled with spices, and sometimes fortified with brandy or other distilled spirits.
Geijer Glogg, though, is made in California at the St. George Spirits distillery, and it's not just wine + spirits + spices in a bottle. That would be the easy way.
St. George Spirits was founded as a brandy distillery and they apply brandy-making techniques to many products.
According to Martin Geijer, founder of the brand:
- The spices and botanicals (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, Seville Orange peel, almonds and raisins) are infused in very warm water.
- When the process is done, grain neutral spirits and cane sugar is introduced and allowed to settle for a while.
- The leftover spices are then distilled in the pot stills at St. George Spirits with a gin basket to extract the alcohol and flavor that was absorbed.
- The distillate is then blended with the infused product for the final result.
Just thought I'd share that as that extra distillation step is kinda cool.
That's curious. I wonder what the reasoning is to create both an infusion and a distillate with the same flavors. I know that each technique will extract flavors differently, but I would have guessed that each flavor would have an ideal method. (I.e., distill the orange peel, but infuse the raisins.)
Those St. George guys will throw anything in their stills though if there's even a tiny chance it'll work. I heard they did an oyster eue de vie once. Yikes! (Not for sale of course.)
Posted by: David McCowan | March 10, 2013 at 05:28 PM
Yeah - foie gras, a christmas tree; they'll try anything. But I assume this one they did for a purpose.
Posted by: Camper English | March 10, 2013 at 06:47 PM
I am not completely sure about all the technical details behind the decision - but what I do know is that working with St. George to develop our family recipe into production quantities has been a great ride so for (one that still continues) and I must say that I was extremely impressed and happy with the final result, the one that is out in store shelves in California.
I also assume that it would be pretty hard to just sort out the raisins and Sevilla orange peel for the leftover spices after the infusion period is done-:)
Martin
Posted by: Martin Geijer | March 16, 2013 at 06:51 PM