Goldwasser: what the gold-flecked liqueur is, how to drink it, and what to skip

Overview

Goldwasser is a clear, sweet, strongly spiced liqueur with a drift of real gold leaf suspended in it. The flakes sink to the bottom when the bottle stands still and rise when it is turned over, which is the whole reason it is poured with a little ceremony. Underneath the spectacle is an old-fashioned herbal liqueur, closer in spirit to a monastery digestif than to a party shot. Most of the herb and spice recipe is kept private, but the flavor reads as warm spice and herbs over citrus peel. The spices usually named include cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, clove, lavender, thyme and juniper.

It belongs to Gdańsk by name and by descent. The German form, Danziger Goldwasser, means simply “gold water from Danzig”, and the Polish-made versions go by Złota Woda, Gdańska Złotówka or Wódka Gdańska, “Gdańsk vodka” in the old sense of the word. The producer’s own history credits Ambrosius Vermöllen, a Mennonite distiller from the Netherlands, with founding a distillery in the city in the late sixteenth century. Dutch Mennonites did settle in and around the city in that period, so the setting is credible. The specific founding story is company tradition, not an independently documented event, and it is best treated that way.

The gold is a remnant of an older idea. Late-medieval and early-modern medicine held that gold was restorative, and “drinkable gold” turns up across European apothecary traditions. That belief is real history. The claim that the flakes in Goldwasser do anything for you is not. Gold leaf is chemically inert and passes through the body untouched. It is there to be looked at.

The city’s own history explains why the bottle is muddled today. After 1945 the German population of Danzig left or was expelled, and production under the German name continued in Germany. Versions under the Polish name are made in Poland. So the drink a visitor meets in Gdańsk may be either one, and both have a reasonable claim to the city’s name. What matters is the style, not which side of that history the label comes from.

What to order

In a bar or restaurant you are ordering a measure, not a cocktail. Ask for Goldwasser or Złota Woda. A single measure is kieliszek, the ordinary small glass. Poproszę jeden Goldwasser (“one Goldwasser, please”) is all the Polish you need.

What should arrive is a small glass of colourless liquid, cold, with a few visible flakes of gold. If you are buying a bottle, turn it over once before pouring so the flakes rise.

How it is drunk depends on the drinker, and both ways are fine:

• Chilled and neat, sipped. This suits the drink best. It is strong (the German original is 40%) and quite sweet, so it is a slow drink after a meal rather than something to knock back.
• As a shot. Common enough, especially in company. The spice comes through more sharply cold and fast, and the sweetness is less cloying.

There is one honest preference to know. Goldwasser is an after-dinner drink, a digestif. It follows a heavy meal of żurek, pork or pierogi well. Ordered as an aperitif or alongside the food, it fights everything on the plate.

Over ice or with a mixer does no harm, though ice dulls the aromatics you are paying for. As a souvenir, the full-size bottle is the better buy. The flakes show best in a larger volume of liquid, and a decent bottle keeps for years once opened.

What to avoid

The risk here is not a bad version of Goldwasser. It is something else with gold in it, sold on the strength of the name.

The usual substitute is plain vodka or neutral spirit with gold flakes added. It looks right through the glass and tastes of nothing in particular. Read the label. Goldwasser is a liqueur, so it is sweetened and flavored with herbs and spices: look for the word likier. A clear spirit sold as plain vodka with gold added is a different product, however it is dressed.

The second lookalike is Goldschläger, a Swiss cinnamon schnapps with gold flakes in it. It is a perfectly good drink in its own category. It is not this one: it is one-note cinnamon where Goldwasser is a whole spice cabinet.

The third is the novelty bottle. Gold-flake drinks in moulded shapes, ship’s bottles or amber-themed gift boxes are sold along the streets that trade in souvenirs. Some contain the real liqueur at a premium for the packaging, and some contain anything at all. The same label-reading rule applies. If the drink is not named as Goldwasser, Złota Woda, Gdańska Złotówka or Wódka Gdańska, it is usually something else in a costume.

Watch the strength, too. The German original is 40%. A bottle at half that is a lighter cream or fruit liqueur borrowing the gold, not a weaker batch of the same thing.

Be wary of a bar measure that arrives with no visible gold. Leaf settles fast. A glass poured from the bottom of an unshaken bottle can be almost bare, while one poured right after a turn holds a fair amount.

Practicalities

The decision to make is whether you want a glass or a bottle. A glass costs most in a hotel bar, and miniatures cost more per measure than a full-size bottle.

Buy bottles from an ordinary supermarket or liquor store rather than a souvenir stall. The product is the same where it is genuine, the shelf price is lower, and the range is honest about what is vodka and what is liqueur. Under the Sunday trading law, supermarkets are shut on all but eight Sundays a year (gas-station and train-station shops stay open), so sort out a bottle to take home before Sunday.

It is drunk year-round. Its natural moment is the end of a long dinner.

If you are flying home with a bottle, it is a liquid at spirit strength. It goes in checked luggage, or you buy it airside.