As the weather turns and the survival of our favorite restaurants and bars depends on how the next few months of the pandemic is handled, many New Yorkers are retreating back to the bars they know best – the ones they built themselves in the early days of COVID-19.
Bols Genever, the leader in genever production in the Netherlands, calls genever “the oldest spirit you’ve never heard of.” It’s not gin, but it is made from two of its primary ingredients: juniper and malt spirit. Bols Genever draws on a unique blend of botanicals, herbs and spices to deliver a smooth, streamlined finished product. Genever is complex, and Bols makes sure every drop is triple distilled to perfection. It can be drunk on its own, or as a delicious star in a classic cocktail like a Negroni or a Vesper.
The Bols Genever company has a long and fascinating history dating back to 1575, when the Bols family opened a small distillery in Amsterdam. In the early 1700s, under the leadership of Lucas Bols, grandson of the founder, Bols invested in and became a major shareholder in the Dutch East India Company. This gave the company access to the wide range of spices and herbs imported directly from India, leading to the development of hundreds of recipes for their product. Drawing inspiration from the trade routes established by the Dutch East India Company, the family began to export their product across the globe.
Over a century later, the Bols family improved upon its original recipes by aging it’s genever in French oak casks, developing what eventually launched as their Barrel Aged brand. They continued to expand their footprint in the world of spirits by developing a line of vodka, redesigning the shape and functionality of their bottles to improve their use for bartenders, and launching the Bols Bartending Academy in Amsterdam.
The flavor profile of genever, in contrast to the gin it begs to discern from, is robust and complex, and equally focuses on the nutty, musky notes of juniper, as well as light, refreshing notes of apricot and peaches. I made several Negonis for myself and some friends using Bols Genever’s original recipe, and it simultaneously blended in with the sweet vermouth and Campari, while standing out from the lineup of gins I usually pour out from my home bar. In short, I will definitely be adding Bols Genever to my repertoire of spirits, and highly recommend you do the same.
