Wynand Fockink Tasting Room and Liquor Store

Wynand Fockink has been a household name in Amsterdam for many years. It is a liqueur distillery, liquor store and tasting room. A visit to Amsterdam is not complete until you have tasted ‘perfect happiness’, ‘bridal tears’ or ‘Hansel in the cellar’. Try jenever (Dutch gin) sip it neat from a tulip-shaped glass filled to the brim. Drink it the Dutch way meaning without lifting your glass but lean forward and slurp the top edge of your jenever wthout spilling it.

Tasting Room Wynand Fockink

A visit to Wynand Fockink in Amsterdam is a step back in time. You imagine yourself in an authentic seventeenth-century tasting room; no music, no entertainment, only a few chairs, a low wooden counter with a copper sink and shelves that almost collapse under the weight of the spirit bottles.

Wynand Fockink’s specialty is Dutch distilled spirits. The store stocks twenty different jenevers and a number of traditional Dutch liqueurs. Some of these drinks are mixed on the spot to create house specialties such as ‘the forest walk’.

What is a Tasting Room?

In the seventeenth century, every distillery had a tasting room to sample the spirits produced. VOC (Dutch East India Company) ships brought herbs, spices and sugar to Amsterdam, ingredients needed to distill liqueur.

Amsterdam became increasingly more prosperous in those days and wealthy people wanted something different from ‘vulgar’ beer and jenever. They were ready to try new drinks.

Wynand Fockink started a liqueur distillery and in 1870 had five stills in use. He had the latest technological gadgets: a 30 HP steam engine. With eighty employees, Wynand Fockink was one of the largest liqueur distillers in the Netherlands.

The Best Liqueurs in Amsterdam

Wynand Fockink still specializes in distilling liqueurs. Liqueur is a drink based on alcohol flavoured with natural ingredients such as cloves, vanilla and oranges. By mixing ingredients, new liqueur flavours are created that were given fancy names: Boswandeling (walking in the woods), Eau de ma tante (my aunt’s water), Hempje licht op (lift your shirt) Juffertje in het groen (lady in green) Hansje in de kelder (Hansel in the cellar) and Volmaakt Geluk (perfect happiness).

Address: Wynand Fockink, Pijlsteeg 31, Amsterdam
Opening hours: Daily from 14:00-21:00

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