Kümmel (liqueur)

[4] Some accounts record the legend[5][better source needed] that Lucas Bols (1652-1719)[6] first distilled kümmel liqueur in the Netherlands in 1575 - three quarters of a century before he was born.

[16] being produced by 1823[17] Allasch is a variety of Kümmel; it is also a caraway liqueur of around 40% ABV, usually flavoured with bitter almonds, anise, angelica root and orange peel.

Invented in 1823 in Allasch, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (now Allažmuiža [lv] in Latvia), and produced by Wilhelm von Blanckenhagen (1761–1840), who owned land around Allasch which included a pure and reliable water source,[18] it was widely popular and produced there until 1944 when the Soviet Union re-occupied Latvia and expelled ethnic Germans from the region.

[20] In Scotland, it is a popular drink at many of the more traditional golf clubs[21] because of its rumored ability to steady the nerves of golfers there, acquiring the nickname of "putting mixture".

[16] A charming and evocative scene of drinking kümmel occurs in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's television miniseries, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), where the character Franz Biberkopf speaks in the voices of glasses of kümmel and three beers in a philosophical dialogue as he evaluates the taste and downs each drink in turn.