Empirical CAN 01 Canned Cocktail

In Copenhagen, the street Refshalevej curves past the city’s most famous restaurants—Noma, Alchemist, and Amass—and takes you to the doors of Empirical Spirits. The distillery describes itself as a “flavor company,” making novel alcoholic magic by macerating fruit, herbs, and botanicals into booze outside traditional categories such as gin, rum, or vodka. This spring it delves into the fast-growing world of canned beverages. Its canned beverages are made from a vacuum-distilled spirit base of beet molasses and Belgian saison yeast—light enough for backyard grilling but rich enough for contemplative sipping.

 

Delicately fizzy, CAN 01 leads with an acidic gooseberry flavor balanced by a flowery oolong tea, and rounded out by freshly cut toasted birch and an undercurrent of pomelo zest.