·Florida

Empirical Soka - 750 ml

Name: Empirical Soka - 750 ml
Brand: Empirical Spirits

Fresh-cut grass and green apple — the flavors of the American heartland. A koji-fermented spirit built on Wisconsin sorghum juice and Kentucky sorghum syrup.

Tasting

APPEARANCE. Crystal clear with a bright, inviting transparency that hints at its fresh, vibrant character.

NOSE. Lively and green — fresh-cut grass, green apple, cucumber. A slight undertone of silage and barnyard gives it earthy complexity. Hints of honey and toasted hay from the sorghum syrup create a rich, harvest-like depth.

PALATE. A balanced interplay of fresh and earthy flavors. Initial green, spring-like notes of melon, cucumber, and green apple from the sorghum juice give way to darker, autumnal flavors from the syrup — hay, toasted honey, a touch of brininess. The Thai Rice Chong yeast adds subtle fermented grassy notes.

Process

750 mL · 43% ABV · Case of 6. Built on a base of Wisconsin sorghum juice and Kentucky sorghum syrup. Secondary fermentations and Thai Rice Chong yeast deliver fermented-grass and briny notes that capture the American Heartland.

Ways to drink it

View recipe library

From the Journal

5 min

Empirical Spirits: koji, vacuum, and the right to ignore categories

Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen built a distillery that refuses to call itself a gin company. Here's how they did it.

4 min

Empirical Cilantro, one botanical, two camps, one polarizing spirit

Empirical's single-botanical cilantro spirit is now distributed in Florida by Costa Spirits. 38% ABV on a light French-wheat base, built for bartenders who want to serve something that splits the room, in a good way.

5 min

Empirical Spirits in Florida, eighteen months in, the case for category-refusing distillates

Costa Spirits has been the Florida distributor for Empirical since late 2024, the Copenhagen distillery from Noma alums Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen. Ayuuk, Soka, The Plum, and the rest of the line have settled into the rooms we expected: cocktail bars that build menus around ingredients, not categories.

Costa Spirits CR

Empirical Soka - 750 ml

Tasting

Ways to drink it

Soka Mojito

Soka Daiquiri

Soka Martini

Super Soka

From the Journal

Empirical Spirits: koji, vacuum, and the right to ignore categories

Empirical Cilantro, one botanical, two camps, one polarizing spirit

Empirical Spirits in Florida, eighteen months in, the case for category-refusing distillates

Soka & Apple

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