Twelve places where it grows best.

Thracian plain, Plovdiv

Coordinates

42°09′N 24°45′E

Altitude

about 160 m

In the still

the pot, 16 h steep

Share

6 g/L · 20.2 %

The small Eastern European seed carries more oil than the large one. In Plovdiv University trials, linalool, the source of its citrus note, made up 60 to 71 per cent of the oil. It is cut when the fruit turns brown, not a day earlier.

Saxony, around Dresden

Coordinates

51°03′N 13°44′E

Altitude

110 to 300 m

In the still

the pot, 16 h steep

Share

1.5 g/L · 5.1 %

Distillers hold Saxon root to be the smoothest in the world, gentler than the Flemish. It is dug in late autumn while the plant sleeps. You never taste it alone, but without it everything else would drift apart.

San Polo in Chianti, Tuscany

Coordinates

43°41′N 11°22′E

Altitude

300 to 500 m

In the still

the pot, 16 h steep

Share

0.8 g/L · 2.7 %

Three years in Chianti soil, then three to five years drying in the dark. Only then do the irones form, the molecules that smell of violet. From planting to still can take eight years, longer than anything else in the bottle.

Minori and Ravello, Amalfi Coast

Coordinates

40°39′N 14°38′E

Altitude

50 to 400 m

In the still

the vapour basket

Share

1.5 g/L · 5.1 %

IGP lemons grow on terraces held up by dry-stone walls, where no machine can reach. They are picked by hand and carried down stone stairways. We zest them fresh into the vapour basket.

Opuzen, Neretva delta

Coordinates

43°01′N 17°34′E

Altitude

0 to 10 m

In the still

the vapour basket

Share

1.5 g/L · 5.1 %

Neretva mandarins have held a protected designation of origin since 2015. The delta grows nine tenths of Croatia’s mandarins, picked a month before anywhere else in the Mediterranean. The thin peel adds a soft, sweet note beside the lemon.

Umaji, Kochi

Coordinates

33°34′N 134°03′E

Altitude

200 to 500 m

In the still

the vapour basket

Share

0.8 g/L · 2.7 %

A mountain village of about 800 people that rebuilt its life around yuzu when forestry failed. It now picks about 800 tonnes a year. The farthest point on our rose.

southern coast, Sri Lanka

Coordinates

6°03′N 80°15′E

Altitude

0 to 200 m

In the still

the pot, 16 h steep

Share

0.3 g/L · 1 %

True cinnamon, not cassia. The inner bark is loosened with a brass rod and peeled by hand into paper-thin quills. A protected geographical indication since 2022, softer and sweeter than cassia.

northern Cres

Coordinates

45°02′N 14°23′E

Altitude

200 to 400 m

In the still

the pot, 16 h steep

Share

0.4 g/L · 1.3 %

Cres beekeepers call it the largest sage field in the world: ten unbroken kilometres from Dragozetići to the 45th parallel, between dry-stone sheep walls. Nobody has measured it, but nobody who has seen it in May doubts it.

the cliffs of Korčula

Coordinates

42°57′N 16°51′E

Altitude

sea level

In the still

the vapour basket

Share

0.4 g/L · 1.3 %

It grows in the cracks of the rocks at the very edge of the sea. Pickled, it sailed on ships against scurvy. In the bottle it is the reason the gin smells of the air above the waves.

Pelješac peninsula

Coordinates

42°57′N 17°18′E

Altitude

50 to 400 m

In the still

the vapour basket

Share

0.3 g/L · 1 %

In a study of wild Adriatic populations, Pelješac immortelle had the richest flowers. A litre of its oil takes more than 800 kilos of plant. We need a few grams per litre, and that is enough.

Velo Grablje, Hvar

Coordinates

43°10′N 16°31′E

Altitude

about 250 m

In the still

the vapour basket

Share

0.15 g/L · 0.5 %

Budrovka was found in 1948 by Dr Zdravko Devetak in the Budrović family field at Velo Grablje, and named after them. It is cut by sickle in July and distilled within 48 hours. In the 1960s Hvar made a tenth of the world’s lavandin oil.