Kummel and Soda, sir?

Jonathan Ray encounters his new favourite drink. 

The other night I had a drink I’d never had before and I positively lapped it up. Indeed, I don’t think my life will ever be the same again. I’m completely smitten.

What so unexpectedly seduced me was a kümmel and soda. Actually, to be honest, it was a kümmel and sparkling mineral water, namely Menzendorff Kümmel and San Pellegrino, served in a tumbler over ice with an accompanying sprig of rosemary. And goodness me it was delicious!

I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t know already, but kümmel is a colourless, caraway-flavoured liqueur that was first distilled in Holland in the late 16th century by one Lucas Bols, since when it has been something of a staple drink of the Dutch, not to mention the Danes, Germans, Russians, Latvians and so on. Here in the UK, though, it’s rarely seen beyond the confines of the golf club (where it’s known as ‘putting mixture’) or the gents’ clubs of St.