GENUINE NEUDIETENDORF AROMATIQUE
From household remedy to spirit brand
The Neudietendorf AROMATIQUE digestive bitter has been in existence since 1828. According to legend bordering on fact, it started out as a medicine. When at the beginning of the 19th century an epidemic broke out in the Neudietendorf area, a local chemist called Daniel Thraen produced an alcohol-based remedy using natural substances known since time immemorial for their healing effect on the stomach and bowels. He called his new concoction "tinctura aromatica compostita".
After the epidemic had ended demand for this "tincture" continued unabated, encouraging the succeeding chemist, Theodor Lappe, to develop the makeshift medicine into a spirit and from 1828 to market it as the digestive bitter Aromatique. In the following years a number of other spirits firms were founded which also made Aromatique. Slight changes to the basic recipe caused a difference in flavour, and further distinctions were achieved by prefixing the name of the firms founders or owners, e.g. Lappe's Aromatique/Schultz-Aromatique. After the Second World War till the mid-50s there were still five Aromatique firms in existence in Neudietendorf.