Copenhagen

A ruby-red cocktail blending malty genever with Danish cherry liqueur and bright citrus, created to honor Denmark's capital city.

The Copenhagen Cocktail was created by bartender Gromit Eduardsen of Bar 1105 in Copenhagen as the winning entry in a 2009 competition sponsored by Cherry Heering to find a signature cocktail for the Danish capital. Cherry Heering is Denmark's most celebrated spirits export, a dark cherry liqueur produced continuously since 1818 when merchant Peter Heering first developed his recipe using Danish Stevns cherries macerated in neutral spirit. The liqueur reached global prominence in the 19th century after being adopted by British naval officers stationed in Asia and the Caribbean, eventually becoming a foundational ingredient in the Singapore Sling and the Blood and Sand. Pairing Cherry Heering with genever — the Dutch-style malt-wine-based spirit that predates London Dry gin and represents the original form of the juniper-flavored spirits family — creates a cocktail that is distinctly Northern European in character. Genever carries a rounder, more cereal-forward profile than the dry, juniper-assertive London Dry style, and its inherent sweetness and malt complexity interact with Cherry Heering's fruit and almond notes differently than modern gin would. Bar 1105, one of Copenhagen's premier craft cocktail establishments, provided the platform from which the drink spread, and it has since been recognized as one of the modern era's more successful attempts to build a cocktail specifically around the flavor identity of a place.