Giffard Menthe Pastille (White Mint) (700 ml)

In 1885, trained pharmacist Émile Giffard applied a chemist's discipline to liqueur production — not to sweeten, but to isolate. Menthe-Pastille is the direct expression of that founding logic: rather than macerating mint leaves in neutral spirit, Giffard deploys steam distillation of Black Mitcham peppermint (Mentha × piperita), liberating essential oils into a crystal-clear distillate that captures the botanical's volatile aromatic compounds without the vegetal weight maceration would introduce. The base spirit is neutral spirit distilled from sugar beet, lightly sweetened with beet sugar — a Loire Valley agricultural choice that keeps the palate clean and lets the mint distillate dominate without competing sweetness. What separates this from mass-market crème de menthe is the absence of confected, candy-register flavour: steam distillation yields a distillate closer to the raw herb's essential oil profile — cooling, camphoraceous, and precise — rather than the synthetic peppermint extract common in lower-tier cordials. Each batch passes a tasting panel before bottling, with filtration as standard. The result is a white mint liqueur of unusual aromatic fidelity, built for cocktail precision as much as digestif use.