🥃 Bayerischer Bärwurz

Bayerischer Bärwurz is a Bavarian spirit drink made from the roots of the Bärwurz plants, Meum athamanticum or Ligusticum mutellina. It is a protected geographical indication of the EU, registered by Regulation (EU) 2021/1265 of 26 July 2021 in the category “other spirit drinks”.

What the specification says. The drink is clear and colourless (yellowish to brownish if matured in wooden casks), at least 40% ABV, unsweetened and uncoloured. Its aroma is intense, faintly reminiscent of celery or lovage, and its taste earthy. Only the roots are used, not the fruit or seeds; the plants grow for up to eight years before their roots can be used. Methods vary: a cold or hot extract of the roots in ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, a distillate, or a blend of both. After distillation the product may be stored or matured for up to ten years, then reduced to drinking strength with water. All production steps and the bottling take place in Bavaria, the defined area, mainly in the Bavarian Forest. The drink is traditionally sold in narrow brown stoneware bottles.

Labelling. If maturation is stated on the label, the product must have been stored for at least 6 months: six months allow “mature”, one year “old”. Plain “Bärwurz” needs only 38% ABV.

History. According to the specification, Karl Eckert, a doctor and distillery owner from Deggendorf, noticed the fine taste of the distillate around 1920; in 1928 Bärwurz appears in a price list of the Brennerei zum Bären in Deggendorf, and on 17 December 1929 in a document of the Reich Patent Office in Berlin. The name is a shortening of Gebärmutterwurz, an earlier name of the plants. GenussErbe Bayern adds that the plant's healing effect was described in an Oeconomisches Lexikon of 1764.

Why it matters to you. GenussErbe Bayern says Bärwurz is often drunk as a stomach schnapps at 10–20 °C, but it is strong alcohol: health claims on drinks above 1.2% ABV are banned in the EU. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.