Zwack Unicum

Unicum was created in 1790 by Dr Jozsef Zwack, physician to the Habsburg court, and legend has it Kaiser Joseph the Second exclaimed das ist ein Unikum, that is a unicum, on first tasting it. More than forty herbs and spices go into the recipe, which the Zwack family has guarded ever since, smuggling it into exile under communism and bringing it home again in 1989. It is oak aged and bottled at 40%.

Dark and tart with liquorice, herbal and firmly bitter with a restrained sweetness beneath, it behaves like a Hungarian amaro in a glass, adding bittersweet complexity and a long finish. It is most often taken neat and well chilled after a heavy meal, but a measure stirred into a dark spirit or a coffee drink brings the same herbal backbone a Fernet would.