Génépi

Génépi

What it is

A Savoie prefectoral decree caps picking at 120 sprigs per person per day — first in 2021, renewed since — after whole colonies were stripped from the screes above 2,000 metres where the plant grows. Distillers already worked to a rule older than the law: forty sprigs, forty sugar lumps, forty days.

In the kitchen

The classic maceration is forty sprigs and forty sugar lumps in a litre of neutral spirit, forty days and no longer — past that the bitterness turns woody. A single dried sprig is already enough to mark a cream or a sorbet base.

Goes with

Honey Dark chocolate Apricot Cream Beaufort Comice pear

Same species

Absinthe Dry vermouth Mugwort Sweet red vermouth Tarragon Wormwood

Also used with

Candied angelica Bleu de Termignon Yellow gentian root

In season alongside

Epazote Hyssop Bagnoli truffle Bog myrtle Bronte pistachio Calendula

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