Kuemmerling KG
Classic herbal liqueur turns into cult drink
Fine herbs mixed to make the perfect bitter
Kuemmerling originates from Deesbach, a small town in the Thuringian Forest in the heart of Germany. The town’s surroundings are often called the “herb garden of Thuringia” and it can look back over a long tradition of distilling various products from local plants – oils, essences, herbal liqueur and scents. It was here that Hugo Kümmerling, a glassblower and “travelling apothecary” starts manufacturing his herbbased liqueurs in the 1920s.
Not too sweet, not too bitter – the perfect balance
In the late 1930s, Hugo Kümmerling comes up with the recipe for Kuemmerling which is still used to this day. It uses only natural ingredients to create the liqueur’s unique taste, one perfectly balanced between sweet and bitter. In 1949, the company moves from Thuringia to Coburg in northern Bavaria. Business continues to increase and soon the company has to move again, heading for Bodenheim near Mainz and constructing a state-of-the art production facility which is still the home and production plant of the fine liqueur today.
Big or small bottle, a cult drink through and through
In 1999, Kuemmerling’s Bodenheim site sees 1 million bottles roll off the production line every day. The company is bought up by Allied Domecq, a UK-based firm which develops and launches the fruit-flavoured variety Kuemmerling Orange. In 2005, US company Fortune Brands takes over. The Kuemmerling brand is famous like no other in Germany: 84 per cent of the population know it, and it has the status of a cult product. In its unmistakable 0.2 litre bottles, it is number 1 in its segment. The drink changes hands to Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG in 2010, where the things which make it special – a commitment to tradition and a level of quality that is second to none – will continue to be valued and protected.
