Monkey 47 Experimentum Series
2y08: Mexico City – Monkey 47, Prickly pear (Tunas)
The art of distillation goes hand in hand with chasing aromas and rendering them in liquid form – although alcohol is merely the medium, not the actual goal of the process. Meanwhile, the world of spirits is divided into categories rather than sensory components and the possibilities associated with them. It’s a form of conditioning that stands in contrast to our obsession with variety and innovation.
Why do distillates and spirits have to fit into a particular category? What’s wrong with forging down other paths, challenging current technologies and traditions, and contemplating the world of aromas from another perspective? To answer these specific questions, we expanded our facilities some time ago to include the Monkey 47 Booze Lab.
The purpose of the Booze Lab is to push the envelope of what's possible in sensory terms by continuing to explore diverse aromas and ways to capture them in alcohol with alternative distillation and culinary techniques. In our Experimentum Series, we bring to market some of these experiments in extraordinary “spirit blends” based on Monkey 47 several times every year in editions that are limited to no more than 500 bottles each. These blends combine cutting-edge vacuum distillation with alternative methods of aroma extraction, making each of them an authentic flavour experience that defies categorisation.
2y08: Mexico City
With its colourful flowers, the prickly pear cactus from the Opuntia genus is a particularly beautiful species that has been cultivated in Mexico for many millennia. The prickly pear itself is the fruit of the Opuntia ficus-indica, to be exact, whose sprawling plants grow from shrubby to tree-like and can reach several metres high. Tiny barbed thorns cover the green, disc-shaped shoots the plant uses to store water and survive in times of drought. Back in the time of the Aztecs, who lived about eight hundred years ago in what is now Mexico, alcoholic distillates were already being made from overripe prickly pears. They were considered a delicacy thanks to their refined flavour, which is both sweet and somewhat sour.
Lab notes – for those wanting to know more…
Harvested and processed by hand, the fruit for our Experimentum Series 2y:08 comes from gardens in Mexico City. To extract their remarkably fresh sweet and sour taste, the pears are washed before the pulp is scooped out, crushed, added to the mash and then double-distilled.
Tasting notes
Monkey 47 Experimentum Series 2y08 is a unique gin with a tangy, full-bodied flavour and a hint of the subtly tart sweetness of prickly pear. They even say that another Mexican treasure, Frida Kahlo, enjoyed a sip of homemade cactus-fig distillate while painting.
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