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GILKA Kaiserkümmel
Popularly known as “Berlin’s short drink”, GILKA Kaiserkümmel has been double distilled since 183, using the finest caraway seeds in accordance with a family recipe created by J. A. GILKA.
MADE IMMORTAL BY THE NIGHT OWLS
MADE IMMORTAL BY THE NIGHT OWLS
Everything started with Carl Joseph Aloys Gilka, who founded a distillery, and rum and spirit making factory in 1836 in Berlin. From the very outset, he began producing the mild, yet aromatic caraway seed-based liqueur, which we now know as GILKA Kaiserkümmel. His successors, Theodor and Hermann Gilka were even appointed Purveyors to the Royal Court of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy on account of the outstanding quality of the spirit drink.
But it was not just in the royal courts of Berlin and Vienna that GILKA became famous, for its popularity also soared in the streets, in the taxi cabs and the night spots of the pulsating capital.
A LITTLE REFRESHMENT IS CALLED FOR ON OCCASION
Berlin writers of international standing transformed the short drink into a literary centrepiece: The call for “Another Gilka!” is repeatedly uttered in Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin’s world-famous novel. It continues to live on in the poems of Joachim Ringelnatz, and the characters created by Theodor Fontane deemed Kaiserkümmel to be an essential mainstay of any genuine Berliner.
From the Weimar Republic to the tumultuous 1920s, and to this very day – Kaiserkümmel has inspired celebrated poets and set the tone for an infinite number of Berlin nights. Here’s to the next 200 years!