FIRST JOURNEYS - EASTERN EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 12 OF 17

A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY

Mrs Millicent isn't a real woman, although I rather wish she were.


She is Millicent Ingram, the glamorous young American who appears in Antal Szerb's 1937 novel Journey by Moonlight. Mihály, the book's rather conventional Hungarian protagonist, meets her in the Italian town of Foligno and suddenly finds himself swept into a very different world. Millicent is worldly, spontaneous and gloriously unpredictable, the sort of woman who arrives, causes a little chaos and moves on again before anyone has quite worked out what happened.


The name for the gin came later, during the design process, when Bestillo was finally getting around to making the gin that Mónika Czakó had wanted for some time.


Her husband Gábor apparently took some persuading. Bestillo had built its reputation around pálinka, while Mónika was keen to create something new within the family business. After two years of resistance, the project finally got moving, and designer Zsolt Unger and his team came up with Mrs Millicent. The literary connection gave them the character they needed: sophisticated, adventurous and a little unpredictable, with a distinctly European story behind her.


The original gin became Mrs Millicent Speakeasy, imagining Millicent returning from her European travels and opening her own secret bar during Prohibition. That idea carried through into the Art Deco-inspired bottle and the whole look of the brand. The gin had its character before it had even made it into the glass.


The real home of Mrs Millicent is Boldogkőváralja, a small village in north-eastern Hungary at the foot of the Zemplén Hills. The village sits beneath Boldogkő Castle and in the heart of Gönc apricot country, where the famous protected Gönc apricot has been grown for generations.


This is where Bestillo Pálinkaház has been making fruit spirits since 2005. The story behind the distillery is very much tied to the place. Its founders spent their childhood summers among the local apricot orchards before heading away to university and gaining experience elsewhere, with one travelling as far as New Zealand. They eventually returned to Boldogkőváralja and brought that outside experience back with them, combining traditional Hungarian fruit distilling with modern technology.


Fruit remains central to what Bestillo does. The distillery grows its own Gönc apricots organically and pays close attention not only to the fruit itself but to the soil, climate and growing conditions that give it character. That knowledge of fruit is rather useful when you decide to start making gin, especially one with a recipe that isn't shy about using citrus and spice.

The original Mrs Millicent Speakeasy is a new-wave gin built around juniper, cardamom, orange and bergamot, with other ingredients kept partly under wraps. The result is a fresh, botanical and citrus-led gin designed to work neat, in cocktails or with tonic.


My bottle, however, is Mrs Millicent Summereasy, a later expression of the gin. At 44.4% ABV, it keeps the spirit of the original while giving the recipe a lighter, more summery direction.


The packaging certainly helps with that impression: mine came in the smart gift box with a little neck scarf around the bottle, which feels entirely appropriate for a gin named after a woman who apparently wouldn't dream of travelling without an accessory or two.  I love a neck scarf, so I think I may have just found my gin soulmate!


The recipe shifts the emphasis too, with Tasmanian pepper, juniper, citrus and fruit notes giving Summereasy its character. It isn't simply the original gin with a seasonal label slapped on it; it is a distinct expression of the Mrs Millicent idea.


The packaging is part of the fun. Mrs Millicent has always had a slightly mischievous personality, from the knowing eye on the bottle to the art-deco styling, and the Summereasy presentation carries that through.


It feels more like something that has turned up from a stylish European bar than a bottle of spirit from a Hungarian pálinka distillery tucked away among apricot orchards.


The liquid has done rather well for itself too. Summereasy won Gold and was named Hungary's Country Winner in the Contemporary Style Gin category at the 2024 World Gin Awards, while the original Speakeasy took Bronze in the same category.


So Mrs Millicent has managed to make quite a journey herself: from the pages of a Hungarian novel, through the imagination of a fruit distillery in the Zemplén Hills, and finally into a rather glamorous little box on my gin shelf.


Oh, and let's not forget:  another scarf to add to my collection!

"A little literary mischief from Hungary"



"Show me a bottle

and I'll tell you a story."





Atlas Note:

There are no cocktails mentioned in the novel, just references to wine, vermouth and maraschino.  So what would an American socialite drink while travelling around Italy in 1937?


I decided to create my own 1930s-inspired Italian aperitivo — a little twist on the classic Martinez, with a distinctly Mrs Millicent personality.

Mrs Millicent's Foligno

50ml Mrs Millicent Gin

20ml sweet vermouth

10ml Maraschino liqueur

2 dashes orange bitters

Orange twist

Stir everything with ice until properly chilled, then strain into a chilled coupe or Nick & Nora. Finish with an orange twist or maraschino cherry.