What Is Benedictine D.O.M.? The 27-Herb Liqueur, Its Alcohol and Its Price

If you have been at a farbrengen you have met this bottle, probably without reading the label: squat, amber, a short neck, a seal on the shoulder and three letters on the front. Benedictine D.O.M. is a French herbal liqueur from Normandy, it is 40% alcohol — 80 proof, and the 750ml is $39.99 on our shelf.

The question people actually type is some version of "how strong is it" and "is it wine", so take those first.

The quick answers

Question	Answer
Alcohol	40% — 80 proof
Price	$39.99 for 750ml, $49.99 for the litre
Is it wine?	No. No wine, no brandy, no grape
Base spirit	Neutral beet-root alcohol
Botanicals	27 plants and spices
Made in	Fecamp, Normandy, France
Hashgacha on our listing	None recorded

Both sizes: Benedictine D.O.M. 750ml at $39.99 and Benedictine D.O.M. 1L at $49.99. The litre is the better buy by a clear margin if the bottle gets poured regularly, which in most houses that own one it does.

Forty percent, and why that surprises people

Eighty proof puts Benedictine level with vodka, gin and most whiskey. That catches people out, because it is sweet and it is served in a small glass, and sweetness hides alcohol extremely well. A cordial glass of this is not a lighter drink than a shot of whisky; it is the same drink in a prettier glass. Worth knowing on a long Shabbos afternoon.

It is also not wine, despite being asked about as though it were. There is no grape in it at all. The base is neutral alcohol made from beet root, which the botanicals are then steeped and distilled into, and the whole thing is sweetened and rested. The confusion is understandable — it looks like a dessert wine in the glass and it sits where a dessert wine would on the table — but it belongs with the liqueurs, not the wine.

What the three letters mean

D.O.M. stands for Deo Optimo Maximo — "to God, most good, most great" — the dedication the Benedictine order put at the head of its documents. The recipe is credited to the monks of the abbey at Fecamp, and the modern liqueur was built in 1863 by a local wine merchant named Alexandre Le Grand, who said he had found the old formula in a family book of papers.

Historians are not persuaded by that part of the story, and the monastery connection is best understood as a very good piece of nineteenth-century marketing. What is true is that the thing has been made in Fecamp continuously since 1863, in a building so elaborate it is a tourist attraction, and that only a handful of people at a time are told the full list of botanicals.

What it tastes like

Honey, dried citrus peel, juniper and warm baking spice on the nose. The palate is rich and faintly syrupy without being heavy — saffron, vanilla, angelica root, a thread of dark honey. The finish is long and herbal and closes bittersweet rather than sugary, which is what keeps it drinkable after a big meal instead of cloying.

If you know Chartreuse, this is in the same family but far gentler and much sweeter. If you know Jagermeister, Benedictine is what that bottle is reaching for and missing.

How it is actually drunk

• Neat, after a heavy seudah, in a small glass at room temperature. This is the main way, and the reason the bottle exists in so many houses.
• An ounce in hot tea on a winter Motzei Shabbos. Honey, lemon, tea, Benedictine. Better than it sounds and then some.
• In a Singapore Sling, where it is a required ingredient and the reason the drink tastes like more than gin and cherry.
• As B&B — half Benedictine, half brandy, a 1930s New York invention. Note that brandy is a grape spirit, so if that is a problem for you, our own listing suggests building a brandy-free version instead and it works.

The kosher question, plainly

Our listing for Benedictine D.O.M. records no hashgacha field. We are saying that outright rather than leaving it to be inferred, because this bottle has a reputation that runs ahead of its paperwork: it is widely known as the farbrengen liqueur, people will tell you it is the Rebbe's drink, and none of that is the same thing as a hechsher printed on a listing.

What our listing does record is the part that matters most for a liqueur: no wine, no brandy, no grape derivatives, on a neutral beet-root base. That removes the single biggest problem a bottle like this can have. It does not remove the questions that come with twenty-seven botanicals, flavourings and sweetening, which is the category our general guide puts firmly on the "needs certification" side of the line — see is it kosher. The listing also records no Kosher for Passover status.

So: ask your rav, and if you want certification in writing on the bottle you pour, buy from the certified end of the shelf. Reach us through our contact page and we will tell you what a listing says before you order.

Certified liqueurs on the same shelf

Bottle	Style	Hashgacha on listing	Price
Walder's Scotch & Coffee	Creamy, coffee, dairy	OU	$25.99
Vincenzi Limoncello di Torino (1L)	Lemon, sweet, chilled	OU	$29.99
Righteous Seven	Spiced, whiskey-based	OU	$35.99
Righteous Road Gibor	Whiskey liqueur	OU	$39.99

None of those is a herbal liqueur, which is the honest answer to "what else is like Benedictine" — on a kosher shelf, not much. The nearest things in spirit are the after-dinner sippers: Schmerling's Chocolate Liqueur at $39.99, Sabra Chocolate Orange at $39.99, Disaronno Amaretto at $39.99, and Tubi 60 at $34.99 for something herbal and Israeli. We have written up Walder's, Disaronno and cherry liqueur separately.

Worth buying?

Benedictine is not a bottle you buy to mix your way through a cocktail book. It is a bottle you buy because somebody is going to pour an inch of it after a long meal, and for that it has no real substitute — nothing else on a kosher shelf tastes of honey and hyssop and saffron at once. Buy the litre if it is going on a farbrengen table, the 750ml if it is going in a cabinet, and read the listing's hashgacha line before you do either.

The whole shelf is in Liqueur and Liqueur & Schnapps. We ship anywhere in the country.