The first Hungary Water that I encountered was produced by Crabtree and Evelyn. It was launched in 1975.
Basenotes describes the 1975 Crabtree and Evelyn version as “a masculine fragrance with notes of Rosemary, Mint, Lemon and Orange Peel”. This version is long discontinued. Occasionally a bottle appears for sale, offered at a price in excess of GBP 200.
Crabtree and Evelyn launched another version of Hungary Water in 2013. It is described by Fragrantica as an “Aromatic Spicy fragrance for women and men”. It included notes of Bergamot, Spearmint, Pink pepper, Rosemary, Cypress, Geranium, Amber, Musk and Sandalwood. This too is discontinued.
A version of the legend
Rosemary Gladstar’s book called Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health was published in 2001. It includes a recipe for “The Queen of Hungary’s Water”. (I’ve always thought that name was rather unfortunate, and prefer the alternate “Hungary Water”.) Anyway, this is how the book introduces the recipe:
“This wonderful astringent lotion has been hailed as the first herbal product ever produced and marketed. Legend has it that the early Gypsies formulated it and claimed it to be a cure-all.”
My BS detector is starting to register.
Rosemary Gladstar’s recipe for Hungary Water pops up all over the internet. Some claim very ancient origins for the recipe. A few quote it as being the original recipe. Some quote the story that Hungary Water was so effective at preserving the queen’s complexion at age 70 that the 25-year-old Duke of Lithuania asked for her hand in marriage. (Of course the Duke was only attracted by the Queen’s complexion!)
A few of the descriptions of Hungary Water describe it as the first distilled perfume, but all the recipes I’ve found (with just one exception) are based on steeping herbs in either vinegar or alcohol.
Rosemary Gladstar’s recipe comprises:
6 parts lemon balm
4 parts chamomile
4 parts roses
3 parts calendula
3 parts comfrey leaf
1 part each of lemon peel, rosemary and sage
Apple or white wine vinegar (to steep the herbs)
Rose water or witch hazel (added to the strained vinegar)
Optionally, a few drops of rose or lavender essential oil.
I’m sure that recipe produces a very acceptable skin toner. I’m less sure that there is anything ancient or authentic about it.
Searching for Authenticity
For something ancient and authentic I turned to my copy of Salley Pointer’s Artifice of Beauty. Salley is an historian. When archaeologists turn up a container of something that might have been a cosmetic preparation, they turn to Salley for scholarly insights to their find. This is how she introduces Hungary Water:
“Perfumes underwent a dramatic change during the medieval period, after thousands of years of oil- or fat-based preparations. Credited with being the first ‘modern’ perfume (although almost certainly the Arab world was the originator of the first alcoholic extracts of plant aromatics), Hungary Water is alleged to have appeared first in the mid-fourteenth century and is an alcoholic distillation composed mostly of rosemary, with possible additions of aromatic herbs, barks or resins depending on which later text is consulted.”
Salley’s book also includes a longer feature on Hungary Water. I’ve put it in a separate page to keep the length of this post manageable.
I thought it would be interesting to re-create a version of distilled Hungary Water.
Mindful of Salley’s caution that: “In many countries there are restrictions on distilling alcoholic perfumes at home”, I wrote to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in April 2020 with a draft application for a licence to distil. They replied the following September. I answered their questions within a couple of days, and I’ve heard nothing since.
Distillation
Distillation works by boiling a mixture of liquids and condensing the vapours. Ethanol boils at a lower temperature than water, and the first vapours to boil off a mixture of ethanol and water contain a higher proportion of ethanol than the liquid. So the condensed vapours (the distillate) contain a higher concentration of ethanol than the original liquid. Ethanol cannot be completely separated from water by distillation, but a concentration of about 96% can be achieved by successive distillations.
My still has a capacity of 2 litres. It was manufactured in Portugal and is made of copper. This design is called an alembic still, meaning that the vapours pass from the top of the still through a downward facing tube where they begin to condense. It’s a miniature of version of the pot-stills used to distil alcoholic beverages such as whisky or cognac. A pot still is less efficient than a column still. Column stills are used in petrochemical refineries. They are also commonly used for producing vodka.
Production
I collected stems of rosemary, with leaves and flowers, in late summer. I filled a 1.5 litre jar with them, lightly pressed down. Then I filled the remaining space in the jar with the cheapest UK Duty Paid brandy I could find, using a little more than one and a half bottles, and leaving a small air space so I could agitate the mixture by shaking it.
By using UK Duty Paid brandy, I am avoiding the most heinous of crimes – failing to pay taxes to HM Revenue and Customs.
In the UK there is duty payable on all alcoholic beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV). The rate applicable to beverages exceeding 22% ABV is GBP 28.74 per litre of pure alcohol (at the time of writing). That works out as GBP 8.05 on a 700ml bottle of brandy at 40% ABV. VAT at 20% is applied to the duty-paid price, so the total alcohol tax collected on each of my bottles of brandy was GBP 9.66.
Between Christmas and New Year, I poured the liquid from the jar into the pot of my still. I filled the still column with as much of the rosemary as would fit without compressing it. I set up the still and collected the first 600ml of distillate. This is my version of Hungary Water. It’s a clear liquid with the sharp, clean smell of rosemary.
Measuring the alcohol content
Given that my feedstock was brandy at 40% ABV, diluted very slightly with liquid drawn out of the rosemary leaves and stems, I had expected my distillate would be perhaps 50% ABV. I could have refined my guess by looking up distillation curves for ethanol and water, but I didn’t need to. It’s possible to buy inexpensive laboratory equipment that will give useful, if not highly accurate measurements.
This device is called a refractometer, and measures the proportion of ethanol in an ethanol/water mixture. When I checked my Hungary Water with the refractometer, the reading was off the scale! (The scale goes up to 80% ABV.)
My Hungary Water could be used as a light cologne, or a skin cleanser, or a linen spray. It could be cut with a hydrosol to make a more gentle astringent – obvious choices would be rose or lavender. I’m tempted to put some in a pocket atomiser to refresh my mask after use.