Gin Dry 'Monkey 47' (500 ml.) - Black Forest Distillers

THE GIN

'Monkey 47' - 47 alcohol degrees for 47 herbs and spices, water strictly from the black forest, double distillation and aging in terracotta containers, no final filtering. These are the ingredients that make it one of the most popular gins in the world. Whether you drink it smoothly or use it as a base for cocktails, it brings out its harmonious and decisive knowledge. Monkey 47 brings together the great English traditions, the exotic touch of India and the purity and character typical of the Black Forest.

CURIOSITY

The Monkey 47 gin takes its name from Max, the Java macaque of Commander Montgomery Collins, while 47 are the plant varieties it contains.

During the renovation of an ancient inn, a bottle and a letter entitled "Max the Monkey, Black Forest Dry Gin" were discovered. The letter was written by Montgomery Collins, a pilot of the Royal Air Force, fond of gin and travel, who had collaborated in the reconstruction of the Berlin Zoo after the Second World War and intended to help Max, a Java macaque.

Lots handcrafted with all varieties of plants in specially produced one hundred liter copper stills and spring water from the Black Forest.
Aged one hundred days in terracotta containers, for a higher quality gin.

Using 47 native and rather unusual plants, such as cranberry and spruce tips, creates a gin with a unique appeal for consumers - certainly not the usual dry gin!

COCKTAILS RECIPES

Click on the image to see all the original Monkey 47 recipes.

THE DISTILLERY

At about 700 meters high, at the foot of one of the most beautiful peaks of the Black Forest, lies the Black Forest Distillers.
In the south-western area of ​​Germany, in a picturesque mountainous area between rivers and lakes of pure water, the distillery has been producing the Monkey 47 since 2010 by the master distiller Christoph Keller, who has reinterpreted the inventor's original recipe in a modern key. Monty Collins. Famous and particularly appreciated by connoisseurs and lovers of the genre, the Monkey 47 is closely linked to the story of the one who was the commander of the Royal Air Force, Montgomery Collins, in fact better known as Monty Collins.

The latter, son of a British diplomat and born in the British colony of Madras, in India, it was thanks to the fact that he lived for many years in the East that he began to know aromas and spices, many years later used to give life to the Monkey 47. Montgomery Collins, in fact, after the Second World War he was sent to Berlin to take care of the reconstruction of the city, destroyed by bombing.
In the German capital the commander made "friendship" with a curious monkey from the Berlin zoo, which was renamed by Collins himself as "Max".
After leaving the Royal Air Force in 1951, Collins moved to the Black Forest, the Schwarzwald, and as a good British, not being able to give up his daily dose of Gin, he began producing a distillate from all the more traditional ingredients of the Gin itself , and later adding some natural elements of the Black Forest, as well as some of the spices he had known in the Indies during childhood.
The result was extraordinary, and in a short time Collins managed to develop a recipe that included as many as 47 different elements.
With the death of the same Collins, however, his Gin was forgotten for several decades, until his recipe returned to light along with a bottle of the distillate itself, on whose label a funny monkey was drawn by hand, above which it was possible to read the words "Max the Monkey" very clearly.

Faithfully starting from the recipe of Monty Collins, it is so that today, thanks to the Black Forest Distillers, we can savor all the original taste of the 47 elements of what is now the famous Monkey 47, among the Gin certainly one of the most known and appreciated in Worldwide.