November 11th marked the 100 year anniversary of the end of WWI. Being a casual history buff, that date loomed large in my imagination and I marked it on the calendar in the hopes that I would do something cool for the blog, but that didn’t really happen. When the day rolled around, I was off visiting family and I just didn’t have anything together to post.
On a whim, I searched for information about what people were drinking during WWI. The French had wine rations, the British had rum, and the Germans had schnapps, but to do a topic like that any kind of justice was going to take a greater investment of time than I had available. I also thought about recreating some of the classic cocktails from of that generation, but that was going to take both time and money, strike two.
Then I stumbled across this click-bait slideshow from the Drinks Business, which pretty much encompassed everything I had been thinking until the last slide where, at the urging of one of their readers, they gave an honorable mention to Bénédictine. The story goes something like this:
A British unit, known as the Accrington Pals, developed a fondness for a liqueur, called Bénédictine, they discovered while stationed near Normandy, France during WWI. After the end of the war they returned home and began requesting it around their home of East Lancashire. The drink caught on and gained increasing popularity with the locals, particularly in Burnley, where the Burnley Miners Social Club is now the single largest consumer of the French liqueur. “Bene” is so beloved in the area that even the Burnley Football Club (the Clarets) serve the liqueur on game days.
Bénédictine can be served neat, on the rocks, or in the infamous “Bene Bomb,” made to appeal to a younger market. However, the the most popular way to consume it is a “Bene’n’hot,” Bénédictine and hot water.
There seems to be a bit of debate about the origins of the liqueur, one camp believing Alexandre La Grand, a 19th century a négociant, recovered an old tome that had once belonged to the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy which contained a recipe for an herbal liqueur made from 27 secret herbs and spices (16 more than Colonel Sanders). With the help of a local chemist, he recreated the liqueur, calling it Bénédictine in honor of the monks. The second camp hold that La Grand made the whole story up to boost sales. Who’s right? I have no idea and, in the end, it doesn’t really matter to me, they’re both fun stories.
Over the years there have been several attempts to emulate the recipe, but it remains a closely guarded trade secret. According to the legend, one three living people know the recipe at any given time.
When I hear the words “herbal liqueur,” I can’t help but shudder just a bit. All skepticism aside, Bénédictine is really good. It has a powerful cinnamon flavor, but not as sweet as something like Fireball or a cinnamon schnapps. Whatever blend of herbs and spices being used adds enough complexity to make it more than a one note drink.
I’ve tried it several different ways and I have to say, those East Lancashire guys were onto something; the addition of the hot water mellows out the flavor and a slice of lemon balances out the sweetness really well. The Bene’n’hot has made for a superb night cap as the weather has turned colder and is now my preferred way to have Bénédictine.
So, while I may not have had this posted in time for Armistice Day, I was eventually able to find a drink linked to WWI that I could write about and to get me through another miserable Chicago winter. If you’re looking for a drink to celebrate Armistice Day or just to fight off the cold, I’d recommend giving this a try.
Bene’n’hot Recipe
Ingredients:
Bénédictine
Hot Water
Lemon
Instructions:
1. Pour a shot of Bénédictine in a pint glass.
2. Fill the rest of the glass with hot water.
3. Add a slice of lemon.
4. Consume.