The words of Filosoof Jenever

1. Rodante
in search of symbolism and ingredients
The first jenever I made for Filosoof I dedicated to my dear friend Rodante. Rodante is philosopher, poet and midwife. The idea for this recipe sprang to life on a warm summer night when she asked me whether I could make a birth jenever. In the Netherlands we have an elaborate tradition of birth liqueur like ‘hansje in de kelder’ and ‘kandij’. That evening at home I wrote some notes for this recipe. With Rodante’s name over it, like a title.
It was the end of summer a view years later when I decided to market my jenevers. The fields were full of chamomile and I was
searching through my old notes to find my first recipe. I decided that it would be only right to have my first jenever accompanied by a midwife.
The rose water in the recipe is a very direct reference to her name. The jenever contains chamomile because traditionally it plays a
key role in birth practices as a way to reduce labour pains. Hawthorn I handpicked on the island of Lesbos; the birthplace of Sappho who grounded western lyric. The fresh lemon lightens everything up. With its handpicked summer botanicals this jenever is a celebration of the upcoming autumn; the start of new things by letting go of the weight. Jenever is also described as aqua vitae; the act of distilling brings the water alive. The water used to produce this jenever is the water of Groningen; my own mothers birthplace, and that of her mother and all their mothers before.
When I expected my first baby in the summer of 2018 I made a second edition of the Rodante with improved distilling technology. This time a very limited edition in a special bottle. Spring 2020, expecting my second, we added Rodante to the standard range.

2. Marije
about the art of distilling. Crafting a jenever.
The second jenever I dedicated to my sister Marije. The first jenever had been a success and the market seemed to be in demand for more. I decided to dedicate all of the jenevers to the important women in my life by following their character in writing a recipe.
Marije worked in that time as a real estate developer. Whereas her colleagues often threw away old failed property to start with a clean sheet, she tried to see the possibility of success in the buildings – never regarding them as a failure to begin with. She develops, builds and constructs all with respect to a specific place. She knows how only a small gesture can make a big difference. It is about maintaining the walls and reorganizing streets. Preserving a tree can be the reason to rethink everything. Her ability to integrate what was, is and will be, in her vision of things is what I admire in her and what inspires me in my own work.
One evening at a bar in Amsterdam, I spoke with a brewer who had a batch of contaminated porter. The beer was infected with
lacto bacillus which made the beer unfit for sales. It makes the beer thin, acidic and very foamy. But in distilling this kind of additional fermentation is desirable. The result of distilling a product that contains a higher amount of lacto acid is more clean and has nice floral notes. So I distilled a so called moutwijn from this porter: seeing, in the spirit of Marije the possibility of matter, never regarding it as a failure to begin with. A jenever is an assembly of different spirits. The addition of this distillate gives the jenever a floral chocolaty character. Distilling old beer is often difficult and does not always give a great outcome. But in this specific situation, the combination with very careful procedures, it gives a nice spirit.
Besides a moutwijn, a jenever is assembled from a gebeide; the part of the jenever that contains the berries. Named after the
juniper berry. Besides traditional juniper berries, I distilled Columbus hops. These hops have a citric character and piney notes. The hop originates from the United States and thanks its name to their founder. But this hop has a second name; tomahawk – the hatchet that the indigenous population of the United Sates used. Thus, this hop is named both by a civilization that was, and by a civilization that is, while it signifies cleavage at the same time.
Distilling hops revealed the real difficulty of distilling: temperatures. Distilling means here that you refractionate based on
different evaporation temperatures of alcohol and water, 78.8 and 100 degrees Celsius. But al lot of other substances lose their quality on temperatures higher than 80 degrees. Hence, this ingredient presents us with the riddle that is in distilling botanicals.
The first Marije came on the market on March 13th 2016, the second batch was only released in December 2019. I had to wait for a batch of Porter with the same ‘problem’; an infection with lacto bacillus. Luckily a third batch was made pretty soon after since the jenever found more people, and more found us.

3. Amber
the embodied perception of spirit
Filosoof Jenever became the embodiment of what I learned from the important women in my life. The Amber jenever is about the unspoken knowledge, our female strength wherein we know what we’ve always known, wherein we talk and connect to each other, conversations where time neither runs nor stands still. Amber is about friendship, about endless ongoing dialogues, and everything that yet exists unspoken. This jenever embodies the moment were we reside between expression and finding the words. Our shattered impressions are condensed in one drop of spirit: Amber is a very aromatic jenever – like a friendship on the verge of love is.
The text on the bottle translates as follows: „it moves like roots in ground. For days the tea has been drunk, the time was shattered
in all directions when we found our words between determination and indeterminacy. If the water condenses in a drop of spirit the golden flowers will color, but most of all it reliefs when we are hurt.“
The beauty of drinking spirits is that so much taste gets condensed in one little drop. The ultimate way to appreciate a good spirit
is to take a sip that small that you do not even have enough to swallow. When the spirit warms up in your mouth all the flavour will be relieved. Alcohol is able to carry more flavour than anything else. Therefore, well-distilled spirits invite to drink very little.
For Filosoof Jenever I work with volatile botanicals which are distilled in a laboratory which is set up to extract their full aroma
and at the same time conserve this. The recipe of the Amber is a basic rye jenever enriched with two aromatic botanicals: a jasmine tea and fermented calamus. The latter is a root that, when fermented, becomes less bitter and more aromatic. The fresh lemon rounds of the recipe. The set up that I use to distill makes it possible to control temperature very precisely. This results in captivating the most volatile of fragrances and aromas.
The Chinese golden flower and jasmine tea are symbols in themselves as well. Tea is to be drunk during long conversations. The
moment where we really find each other and where no ultimate truth exist but moves back and forth in a dialogue. The jasmine tea in the Amber symbolises that moment. Golden flower from China is used to give the jenever an Amber color, a direct reference to the person that this recipe is dedicated to. The golden flower is also used in traditional medicine to help wounds heal and relief pain, a direct reference to friendship.

4. Tini
on never forming a horizon or fixing your truth.
Tini is an adventurous and spicy jenever dedicated and named after my mother. It celebrates travel, and the mystery about what lies behind the horizon. The Dutch text on the bottle translates to: “The Song of Solomon is drifting over the valleys. The Wanderer notes that home is a faraway state. Calamus and Cinnamon sprouts of you. The Groninger soil blends itself with luring fragrant from the fruit of Kalimantan. Tini travels the world. Although nobody ever told her to. The cypress of the north reaches her arms.” The young Tini traveled the world, she admired the mountains but never wanted to beat them, because she knew that nature will always be stronger. She felt and still feels the urge to get to know the unknown. She is not nurtured by the Dutch traditions of pragmatism and trading possibilities but by a need for the aesthetic.
This classic rye jenever exists roughly out of two components; a malt wine (moutwijn) distilled out of mostly rye and a distillate
from botanicals. A rye malt wine contains a lot of glycerin which gives body to this jenever. Rye is in taste very floral, has a slight touch of liquorice and a bit of chocolate too. So, the rye malt wine carries the flavour spectrum of the jenever. The botanical distillate we call a gebeide. This term comes from the old Dutch word for berries; beien. Hence it is the distillate of, among other botanicals, the juniper berries. Jenever is the Dutch word for juniper. And although jenever is much more than a juniper distillate, unlike gin, juniper forms the core of the
drink.
In the Tini much more is happening on the botanical side of things. The highlights are formed by white peppercorn from Kalimantan
(own import) and Calamus. The last one is a root of a plant that originates to China which was introduced in the 17th century in northern Europe through the spice trade of medical plants. Now it is growing all over Europe and is in the northern parts often used in bitters. These two big flavours are escorted by many other spices that were introduced in distilling due to the VOC-trade: cinnamon, coriander, cumming and oranges.
In this recipe again, the botanicals are direct symbols. Tini, my mother, is rooted in the Groninger soil. Calamus is the root of a
swamp plant which has often been used in the north of the Netherlands, instead of angelica, to bitter the jenever. The calamus is less bitter and much more aromatic than angelica. But Tini flourishes in adventure. She did not stay on the northern Dutch country side, the place where all her ancestors lived for many centuries, but traveled to places of where she did not know what she would find. In the end of the eighties she moved to the islands of Kalimantan. Deep in the rainforests in a place that could only be reached by little planes at the time. Googling was not a thing yet, traveling meant to truly cross the border of what you know. The island Kalimantan is known for the best peppercorn in the world. The spice we use is a dried flower from this plant. So although Tini has her roots in Dutch soil, she flourishes by going beyond what is known in the deep rainforests. The root being the root of an exotic reed.
The recipe of the Tini jenever is a more experimental version of the most classic version of a jenever recipe. The base, a rye
maltwine, was in the golden age of jenever, the 18th century, the standard because of its culinary superiority, but also because of a tax benefit. De gebeide in Amsterdam had four main ingredients: juniper berries, bitter roots, coriander, and some dried citrus peel. This new recipe is an interpretation of the old. Instead of dried peel, I use fresh ones; a possibility that this age gives. Both because of the fastened trading lines, but also because we can use developed techniques. Peppercorn is, as far as I know, an ingredient which is new to jenever. In these variations on traditional jenever, I cherish where I come from by creating something new – to honour my mother Tini who always widened her horizon.
The juniper tree is nicknamed cypres of the north. The tree is a slender tree which reaches her arms in the sky. The cypress is a
symbol of the ability to throw yourself into the unknown. The recipe also refers to Song of Salomon 4: „You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. [13] Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates – with choice fruits, – with henna and nard,- [14] nard and saffron, – calamus and cinnamon, – with every kind of incense tree, – with myrrh and aloes – and all the finest spices. –
[15] You are[b] a garden fountain, – a well of flowing water -streaming down from Lebanon.“ This is a serenade for a woman and describes her beauty in spices, the trees (cypresses) of Lebanon (mountain) and its sheep. The sheep in the valleys of Lebanon you can find back on the Tini bottle. When you look Tini in the eyes, you stare with her over the mountains and valleys where the sheep run down the slopes.

5.Wieke
about the origin and the turn of the object.
Medicine is the origin of jenever. The crusaders discovered the art of distilling in the fourteenth century in Persia where it was mostly used to produce kohl to color the eyes (al kohl, to make kohl is the ground for the word alcohol). This knowledge was deployed both to search for the philosophers stone ánd to create medicine. Both projects motivated these ancient scientist to extract the spirit out of wine and beer, and find the essences of plants. It was a search for the truth of things lead by its symbolic meaning, which would lead in to medicine. Based on their similar appearance, roses were for instance believed to heal our insides. In the early compendiums of nature, plants are mostly described in terms of resemblance with humans and no systematic drawings where added yet.
Through the fifteenth century the objective of distilling shifted. The technique was more and more used to make aqua vitae; spirits
for consumption, a substance created to let go of day to day business. In the end of the century a flourishing jenever industry existed in Amsterdam.
The approach in science also turns during that point in time. Seemingly in the opposite direction: Breaking down to mathematic
wins from a system based on experienced similarity, and becomes the scientific reality. The numerous herbaria created in this era contain very precise metrical drawings of plants.
In the chemistry of jenever however, algebra and alchemism are not separated. For the Filosoof jenevers, I walk the line of modern
chemistry without giving up on symbolism. Ingredients are inspired by real women, botanicals are approached as there living selfs; refractionated based on their unique specifics over time. Creating a substance that resembles simple water so much but when shared as a drink, it is an escape out of the dreading day to day reality.
The Wieke is named after my close friend who is a doctor who loves to get lured in by the aesthetic – exactly the reason why this
historic jenever is dedicated to her. The botanicals used are representing the silk route; the first trading line which brought the ‘exotic’ into our kitchen. In contains seaweed from Japan, calamus from China, coriander from India, cardamom and roses from Persia, juniper berries from the Mediterranean and moutwijn from the Netherlands. To celebrate the anciency of the technique of distilling the moutwijn is distilled on the 17th century pot-stills of the ‘the gekroonde brandersketel’.

6. Hilde
About repeating tradition
Arriving back at the point where jenever is one of the most traditional spirits among all I realized I never just chose one of the traditional styles and made my own version of it. Never I was really truth to jenever. I just used it as a starting point. In this time I also founded Oorlam; our first taproom. Named after the ration that you would get working on a ship. The jenever that would keep you alive on your long journey to the other side of the world when the water would go bad. An oorlam is an ‘scheepsjenever’.
This all time classic jenever style I named after my sister Hilde. In her arms you are secured like in a ship, safe but not kept in the same place. The ingredients are traditional for a ‘scheepsjenever’, it prolonged the tradition: Humbly tries to make a very good version of something that always did exist, keeping a tradition not in stone but repeating it to make it move. Keeping tradition does not keep you in the same place cause the matter is fluid in essence. Daily reality is not fixed in time which means also for a jenever that to keep it, it needs to constantly to be adapted to different ingredients, different production circumstances, different natural situations. Grain is different every year, so are botanicals. Fermentation constantly response to surrounding. Instead of trying to force things to stay the same by for instance measuring malt protein levels and expensive equipment to control temperature in all steps, we decided to instead get to know our ingredients and surrounding as good as possible to follow the possibilities given in it. The filosoof recipes will be repeated over and over again. But we won’t fixate them, just like the women they are named after.
The move to Germany meant Filosoof did not stay Dutch, it grew up and thereby became more precise in its attempts. The text would be from now on written in English. The words grew less, so they would be more visible. On the bottle of Hilde the following text is written: China Flower on her waves, blown in to harbour.

The words of Filosoof Jenever

1. Rodante
in search of symbolism and ingredients
The first jenever I made for Filosoof I dedicated to my dear friend Rodante. Rodante is philosopher, poet and midwife. The idea for this recipe sprang to life on a warm summer night when she asked me whether I could make a birth jenever. In the Netherlands we have an elaborate tradition of birth liqueur like ‘hansje in de kelder’ and ‘kandij’. That evening at home I wrote some notes for this recipe. With Rodante’s name over it, like a title.
It was the end of summer a view years later when I decided to market my jenevers. The fields were full of chamomile and I was
searching through my old notes to find my first recipe. I decided that it would be only right to have my first jenever accompanied by a midwife.
The rose water in the recipe is a very direct reference to her name. The jenever contains chamomile because traditionally it plays a
key role in birth practices as a way to reduce labour pains. Hawthorn I handpicked on the island of Lesbos; the birthplace of Sappho who grounded western lyric. The fresh lemon lightens everything up. With its handpicked summer botanicals this jenever is a celebration of the upcoming autumn; the start of new things by letting go of the weight. Jenever is also described as aqua vitae; the act of distilling brings the water alive. The water used to produce this jenever is the water of Groningen; my own mothers birthplace, and that of her mother and all their mothers before.
When I expected my first baby in the summer of 2018 I made a second edition of the Rodante with improved distilling technology. This time a very limited edition in a special bottle. Spring 2020, expecting my second, we added Rodante to the standard range.

2. Marije
about the art of distilling. Crafting a jenever.
The second jenever I dedicated to my sister Marije. The first jenever had been a success and the market seemed to be in demand for more. I decided to dedicate all of the jenevers to the important women in my life by following their character in writing a recipe.
Marije worked in that time as a real estate developer. Whereas her colleagues often threw away old failed property to start with a clean sheet, she tried to see the possibility of success in the buildings – never regarding them as a failure to begin with. She develops, builds and constructs all with respect to a specific place. She knows how only a small gesture can make a big difference. It is about maintaining the walls and reorganizing streets. Preserving a tree can be the reason to rethink everything. Her ability to integrate what was, is and will be, in her vision of things is what I admire in her and what inspires me in my own work.
One evening at a bar in Amsterdam, I spoke with a brewer who had a batch of contaminated porter. The beer was infected with
lacto bacillus which made the beer unfit for sales. It makes the beer thin, acidic and very foamy. But in distilling this kind of additional fermentation is desirable. The result of distilling a product that contains a higher amount of lacto acid is more clean and has nice floral notes. So I distilled a so called moutwijn from this porter: seeing, in the spirit of Marije the possibility of matter, never regarding it as a failure to begin with. A jenever is an assembly of different spirits. The addition of this distillate gives the jenever a floral chocolaty character. Distilling old beer is often difficult and does not always give a great outcome. But in this specific situation, the combination with very careful procedures, it gives a nice spirit.
Besides a moutwijn, a jenever is assembled from a gebeide; the part of the jenever that contains the berries. Named after the
juniper berry. Besides traditional juniper berries, I distilled Columbus hops. These hops have a citric character and piney notes. The hop originates from the United States and thanks its name to their founder. But this hop has a second name; tomahawk – the hatchet that the indigenous population of the United Sates used. Thus, this hop is named both by a civilization that was, and by a civilization that is, while it signifies cleavage at the same time.
Distilling hops revealed the real difficulty of distilling: temperatures. Distilling means here that you refractionate based on
different evaporation temperatures of alcohol and water, 78.8 and 100 degrees Celsius. But al lot of other substances lose their quality on temperatures higher than 80 degrees. Hence, this ingredient presents us with the riddle that is in distilling botanicals.
The first Marije came on the market on March 13th 2016, the second batch was only released in December 2019. I had to wait for a batch of Porter with the same ‘problem’; an infection with lacto bacillus. Luckily a third batch was made pretty soon after since the jenever found more people, and more found us.

3. Amber
the embodied perception of spirit
Filosoof Jenever became the embodiment of what I learned from the important women in my life. The Amber jenever is about the unspoken knowledge, our female strength wherein we know what we’ve always known, wherein we talk and connect to each other, conversations where time neither runs nor stands still. Amber is about friendship, about endless ongoing dialogues, and everything that yet exists unspoken. This jenever embodies the moment were we reside between expression and finding the words. Our shattered impressions are condensed in one drop of spirit: Amber is a very aromatic jenever – like a friendship on the verge of love is.
The text on the bottle translates as follows: „it moves like roots in ground. For days the tea has been drunk, the time was shattered
in all directions when we found our words between determination and indeterminacy. If the water condenses in a drop of spirit the golden flowers will color, but most of all it reliefs when we are hurt.“
The beauty of drinking spirits is that so much taste gets condensed in one little drop. The ultimate way to appreciate a good spirit
is to take a sip that small that you do not even have enough to swallow. When the spirit warms up in your mouth all the flavour will be relieved. Alcohol is able to carry more flavour than anything else. Therefore, well-distilled spirits invite to drink very little.
For Filosoof Jenever I work with volatile botanicals which are distilled in a laboratory which is set up to extract their full aroma
and at the same time conserve this. The recipe of the Amber is a basic rye jenever enriched with two aromatic botanicals: a jasmine tea and fermented calamus. The latter is a root that, when fermented, becomes less bitter and more aromatic. The fresh lemon rounds of the recipe. The set up that I use to distill makes it possible to control temperature very precisely. This results in captivating the most volatile of fragrances and aromas.
The Chinese golden flower and jasmine tea are symbols in themselves as well. Tea is to be drunk during long conversations. The
moment where we really find each other and where no ultimate truth exist but moves back and forth in a dialogue. The jasmine tea in the Amber symbolises that moment. Golden flower from China is used to give the jenever an Amber color, a direct reference to the person that this recipe is dedicated to. The golden flower is also used in traditional medicine to help wounds heal and relief pain, a direct reference to friendship.

4. Tini
on never forming a horizon or fixing your truth.
Tini is an adventurous and spicy jenever dedicated and named after my mother. It celebrates travel, and the mystery about what lies behind the horizon. The Dutch text on the bottle translates to: “The Song of Solomon is drifting over the valleys. The Wanderer notes that home is a faraway state. Calamus and Cinnamon sprouts of you. The Groninger soil blends itself with luring fragrant from the fruit of Kalimantan. Tini travels the world. Although nobody ever told her to. The cypress of the north reaches her arms.” The young Tini traveled the world, she admired the mountains but never wanted to beat them, because she knew that nature will always be stronger. She felt and still feels the urge to get to know the unknown. She is not nurtured by the Dutch traditions of pragmatism and trading possibilities but by a need for the aesthetic.
This classic rye jenever exists roughly out of two components; a malt wine (moutwijn) distilled out of mostly rye and a distillate
from botanicals. A rye malt wine contains a lot of glycerin which gives body to this jenever. Rye is in taste very floral, has a slight touch of liquorice and a bit of chocolate too. So, the rye malt wine carries the flavour spectrum of the jenever. The botanical distillate we call a gebeide. This term comes from the old Dutch word for berries; beien. Hence it is the distillate of, among other botanicals, the juniper berries. Jenever is the Dutch word for juniper. And although jenever is much more than a juniper distillate, unlike gin, juniper forms the core of the
drink.
In the Tini much more is happening on the botanical side of things. The highlights are formed by white peppercorn from Kalimantan
(own import) and Calamus. The last one is a root of a plant that originates to China which was introduced in the 17th century in northern Europe through the spice trade of medical plants. Now it is growing all over Europe and is in the northern parts often used in bitters. These two big flavours are escorted by many other spices that were introduced in distilling due to the VOC-trade: cinnamon, coriander, cumming and oranges.
In this recipe again, the botanicals are direct symbols. Tini, my mother, is rooted in the Groninger soil. Calamus is the root of a
swamp plant which has often been used in the north of the Netherlands, instead of angelica, to bitter the jenever. The calamus is less bitter and much more aromatic than angelica. But Tini flourishes in adventure. She did not stay on the northern Dutch country side, the place where all her ancestors lived for many centuries, but traveled to places of where she did not know what she would find. In the end of the eighties she moved to the islands of Kalimantan. Deep in the rainforests in a place that could only be reached by little planes at the time. Googling was not a thing yet, traveling meant to truly cross the border of what you know. The island Kalimantan is known for the best peppercorn in the world. The spice we use is a dried flower from this plant. So although Tini has her roots in Dutch soil, she flourishes by going beyond what is known in the deep rainforests. The root being the root of an exotic reed.
The recipe of the Tini jenever is a more experimental version of the most classic version of a jenever recipe. The base, a rye
maltwine, was in the golden age of jenever, the 18th century, the standard because of its culinary superiority, but also because of a tax benefit. De gebeide in Amsterdam had four main ingredients: juniper berries, bitter roots, coriander, and some dried citrus peel. This new recipe is an interpretation of the old. Instead of dried peel, I use fresh ones; a possibility that this age gives. Both because of the fastened trading lines, but also because we can use developed techniques. Peppercorn is, as far as I know, an ingredient which is new to jenever. In these variations on traditional jenever, I cherish where I come from by creating something new – to honour my mother Tini who always widened her horizon.
The juniper tree is nicknamed cypres of the north. The tree is a slender tree which reaches her arms in the sky. The cypress is a
symbol of the ability to throw yourself into the unknown. The recipe also refers to Song of Salomon 4: „You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. [13] Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates – with choice fruits, – with henna and nard,- [14] nard and saffron, – calamus and cinnamon, – with every kind of incense tree, – with myrrh and aloes – and all the finest spices. –
[15] You are[b] a garden fountain, – a well of flowing water -streaming down from Lebanon.“ This is a serenade for a woman and describes her beauty in spices, the trees (cypresses) of Lebanon (mountain) and its sheep. The sheep in the valleys of Lebanon you can find back on the Tini bottle. When you look Tini in the eyes, you stare with her over the mountains and valleys where the sheep run down the slopes.

5.Wieke
about the origin and the turn of the object.
Medicine is the origin of jenever. The crusaders discovered the art of distilling in the fourteenth century in Persia where it was mostly used to produce kohl to color the eyes (al kohl, to make kohl is the ground for the word alcohol). This knowledge was deployed both to search for the philosophers stone ánd to create medicine. Both projects motivated these ancient scientist to extract the spirit out of wine and beer, and find the essences of plants. It was a search for the truth of things lead by its symbolic meaning, which would lead in to medicine. Based on their similar appearance, roses were for instance believed to heal our insides. In the early compendiums of nature, plants are mostly described in terms of resemblance with humans and no systematic drawings where added yet.
Through the fifteenth century the objective of distilling shifted. The technique was more and more used to make aqua vitae; spirits
for consumption, a substance created to let go of day to day business. In the end of the century a flourishing jenever industry existed in Amsterdam.
The approach in science also turns during that point in time. Seemingly in the opposite direction: Breaking down to mathematic
wins from a system based on experienced similarity, and becomes the scientific reality. The numerous herbaria created in this era contain very precise metrical drawings of plants.
In the chemistry of jenever however, algebra and alchemism are not separated. For the Filosoof jenevers, I walk the line of modern
chemistry without giving up on symbolism. Ingredients are inspired by real women, botanicals are approached as there living selfs; refractionated based on their unique specifics over time. Creating a substance that resembles simple water so much but when shared as a drink, it is an escape out of the dreading day to day reality.
The Wieke is named after my close friend who is a doctor who loves to get lured in by the aesthetic – exactly the reason why this
historic jenever is dedicated to her. The botanicals used are representing the silk route; the first trading line which brought the ‘exotic’ into our kitchen. In contains seaweed from Japan, calamus from China, coriander from India, cardamom and roses from Persia, juniper berries from the Mediterranean and moutwijn from the Netherlands. To celebrate the anciency of the technique of distilling the moutwijn is distilled on the 17th century pot-stills of the ‘the gekroonde brandersketel’.

6. Hilde
About repeating tradition
Arriving back at the point where jenever is one of the most traditional spirits among all I realized I never just chose one of the traditional styles and made my own version of it. Never I was really truth to jenever. I just used it as a starting point. In this time I also founded Oorlam; our first taproom. Named after the ration that you would get working on a ship. The jenever that would keep you alive on your long journey to the other side of the world when the water would go bad. An oorlam is an ‘scheepsjenever’.
This all time classic jenever style I named after my sister Hilde. In her arms you are secured like in a ship, safe but not kept in the same place. The ingredients are traditional for a ‘scheepsjenever’, it prolonged the tradition: Humbly tries to make a very good version of something that always did exist, keeping a tradition not in stone but repeating it to make it move. Keeping tradition does not keep you in the same place cause the matter is fluid in essence. Daily reality is not fixed in time which means also for a jenever that to keep it, it needs to constantly to be adapted to different ingredients, different production circumstances, different natural situations. Grain is different every year, so are botanicals. Fermentation constantly response to surrounding. Instead of trying to force things to stay the same by for instance measuring malt protein levels and expensive equipment to control temperature in all steps, we decided to instead get to know our ingredients and surrounding as good as possible to follow the possibilities given in it. The filosoof recipes will be repeated over and over again. But we won’t fixate them, just like the women they are named after.
The move to Germany meant Filosoof did not stay Dutch, it grew up and thereby became more precise in its attempts. The text would be from now on written in English. The words grew less, so they would be more visible. On the bottle of Hilde the following text is written: China Flower on her waves, blown in to harbour.

7. Koshka
Pussy Meow, about selling jenever
Does drinking a Filosoof spirit necessarily mean contemplation? Does every drink need to contain a lot of thinking because in itself it embody the possibility as such. Or can a spiritual solicitation be also easy, uncomplicated and maybe even cheap. Or would that necessarily mean a genuflection for commercialism. Would easy mean going against the ideal of Filosoof to create a not reified spirit? Is an ambiguous truth always difficult? The market always demanded cheaper spirits, but do I want to make something like that. The procedures I follow and mostly the high strength of my jenevers made them a lot more expensive than the jenevers from the more commercial competitors.
Koshka is my cat, has accompanied me in the most uncomplicated way for many years. Although she is special to me, she just as easy jumps on everybody elses lap. I made a oude jenever, a cheaper recipe, invented when grain was scarce, dedicated to her. The recipe is having the signature of Filosoof, carrying all its most typical recipe qualities but is the mirror image of Filosoof jenever.

8. Tamar
About fruit
The last step in making a jenever is dilution, breaking down the spirit. Decreasing the alcohol volume, and thereby making it drinkable.
Without this step we cannot taste and therefore cannot experience the jenever. You have to add something, make it more in volume. Normally we do this with water. A lot of producers talk a lot about this water and especially about how neutral it has to be to not change anything about the spirit.
In sober earnest they do not want to change their jenevers (whiskies, cognacs etcetera), because spirits are a seriousness business for difficult man.
The Tamar is a joyful jenever, it celebrates breaking down seriousness things in a rainbow of colours. Makes the most difficult
problems fruit for the brain. My friend Tamar works as a philosopher of law but does not keep difficult theory in the university to be chewed by only the ones dry of matter. She’s throws it all over society, sprinkles it around for everybody to enjoy the fruits of thinking about the most severe problems. A jenever is normally diluted with water, but in case of the Tamar I use lemon juice and hibiscus tea.

9. Arieke
WHY, it all became clear when I put a sieve on my nose
The Arieke is a smoked jenever. The interesting thing about the popularity of smoke in our food is that it is flavour our brain directly associates with danger. It is the smell we need least molecules of to notify it. This way smoke functions as a little line around the food that we imagine in taste. It is a clarifier. Arieke, my oldest sister, helps you to determine the unclear. But does not necessarily knows herself. She questions, she wonders, endlessly and makes the smoke fog al thoughts. This last jenever honours the endless wondering that is behind direct experience. Always tasting something else; the depth in flavour of a drink. Not only tastes something different dependent on what you eat with it, what the weather is like, how stressful your day was, how your physical health is etcetera, it seems that even every sip is different. Like there is always something escaping in drinking. Experience of taste is so endlessly interesting because you cannot pin it down the thought behind it. Therefore the act of drinking celebrates life, it makes you dance with a sieve on your nose. Not walk by mass produced
structures. When you wear a sieve as a clarifier there is no need to settle for a conclusion.

10. preliminary results and recommondations
Making Filosoof Jenever learned me many different techniques of production. First the project became about the botanical riddle, than it raised the question of fermentation. Living with your product learns you there alive quality. The closer you get to them the more you are able to see there inherent beauty and the less you feel the need to take their variation away.
The project cannot be finished. Not only will women always change, I also might get to know new women. If not only my daughter Zelda can inspire me for a tenth jenever in the future.