The stories of our lives can be captured through flavor.

  • We may not consciously think about it all the time, but flavor is an incredibly powerful way of registering memories.

Do you recall the scent of smoked fish that your grandfather served you?
What about those birthday cakes your mother made, and how they somehow got more denser and luscious after a night in the fridge?
Or your first bite of a citrus-like ant?
These sense memories moved us just as much in the past as they do now.

  • Empirical is forever inspired by the role flavor plays in our ability to create and transport experiences.

    Many of us have spent a significant amount of blood and sweat working in some of the world’s best kitchens with the hope of pushing the boundaries of how we experience food. But Empirical is a newfound approach in bringing together our past and our experiences into something new.
    The outcome is something that’s democratic and shareable and driven by the journey of creating unique and unexpected flavors.

  • A child-like curiosity

    When Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen set off in creating Empirical in 2017, they were guided by a child-like curiosity about how the world works. This perspective blended with their knack for tinkering, exploration, and continual refinement. The result? A powerful blend that pushes Empirical to be focused on creating the best flavors possible.

  • One flavor at a time

    This process is unequivocally difficult and frustrating sometimes… actually no. It’s difficult all the time. We’ve custom-built machinery, developed hybrid fermentation techniques, augmented low-temperature distillation, and traveled to source the highest-quality ingredients globally. All this because of our maniacal approach to complete our vision. We’ve told ourselves, we’ll worry about making it pretty later. For now, it’s about writing a playbook, that doesn’t exist, one distillation, one spirit, and one flavor at a time.


    If it wasn’t clear, Empirical is a flavor company.

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