Post #757421 by aquarj on Sun, Jan 17, 2016 3:54 PM

Lots of falernum talk on TC, but this thread looked as good as any for me to post this. Estate sale find yesterday (I bought this 1, out of the 5 or so bottles there)...

In his book Potions of the Caribbean (p.91), Beachbum Berry shows a very similar bottle, but that bottle attributes the "Sole Distribution USA" to Sazerac Co, instead of Bellows & Co as shown on this bottle above. I've heard talk about the Sazerac falernum before, but hadn't seen Bellows. The only mention of Bellows I found in a quick search was this ad in the 1939 Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Some history sources like the link at the top of this thread say the original falernum formulation was created by Henry Parkinson in Barbados in 1750. And his great-great-grandson was Arthur Stansfeld, who registered it and brought it to the states in 1934 (A.V. Stansfeld on the bottle). John D. Taylor also claimed an "original" recipe, supposedly from 1890, but people seem to discount that.

The Bum says the Fee Bros syrup is closest to the Parkinson / Stansfeld "original formulation". I think I'll be more likely to try that in a drink than pouring the dark goo that's still in this bottle above.

-Randy

(ps, my wife went back to the estate sale today and the other bottles are still there, but unfortunately this is the last day)