The Taste of Neptune's Gold

As any tour book will tell you, no trip to Gdansk is complete without a taste of its famed Goldwasser liquor. This unique concoction features over 20 roots and herbs -- cardamom, coriander, juniper, cinnamon, lavender, cloves, thyme and wild orange, among them -- in a base that's 40 percent alcohol. While the taste might take some getting used to, the drink was an immediate hit many centuries ago thanks to its gimmick, namely infusing the liquor with real gold flakes (and you thought Goldschlager started it all?). The royalty naturally embraced it, including France's Louis XIV and Russia's Peter and Catherine the Greats. More fascinating, however, is the local legend that says Goldwasser came down from the gods.

Actually, there are two local legends, both of which focus on Neptune. In the first legend, the Roman sea god got tired of people throwing coins into his fountain (located in Market Square near Old Town) that he slammed down his trident and sent gold flakes everywhere, which somehow made it into the vodka. The alternate, happier legend has Neptune overjoyed by all the coins and turning the water into vodka. Several rich men tried to horde the heavenly drink, so when the posh Pod Losoiem restaurant proceeded to give it away, their barrels were blessed with an unending supply of gold flakes. Wonder who started that tale?

The real founder is a 16th century Dutch inventor named Ambrose Vermollen who sought to create a medical cure-all of sorts and believed (like many) that consuming gold had medicinal purposes. Though he really did add the gold flakes for health reasons, it turned out to be a wonderfully novel concept that the public, rich and poor, immediately embraced.

The original recipe has remained in family hands for 400 years now, and it actually went to Germany after the city of Gdansk broke from Germanic Prussia and joined Poland after the First World War. That original recipe is currently produced by the Der Lachs company in Berlin, though Gdansk citizens surely figured out how to reproduce the drink of their own.

The Pod Losoiem restaurant is currently located in Vermollen's old distillery, though another popular spot to taste the drink is Old Town's ivy-clad, riverside restaurant named -- wait for it -- Goldwasser. It's an award-winning restaurant and one of the best spots for tasting the famed beverage and over-paying for a takeaway bottle. And for those who really want to embrace the legend, maybe help pay for your drink with some coins for Neptune's foundation. I'm sure he won't mind.

Bottle image by ASeligman courtesy of Flickr.