Juniper Berry - Reconstitution

The best oil is steam distilled (or steam-and water distilled) from the crushed, dried or partially dried, ripe berries (fruits). Occasionally water distillation is used. The greater part of all commercial juniperberry oil, however, is derived from the fermented fruits as a by-product of the central European juniper-brandy manufacturing. It should be noted that juniper berries (fruits) contain certain amounts of fixed oil, occasionally called “juniper oil” (see Jurriperberry “Resinoid”). The shrub, Juniperus Communis, grows wild all over central and southern Europe, southwest Asia, northern Asia, North Africa and North America. The best berries are collected in northern Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and France. Lower grades are collected in Germany, Poland, U, S. S. R., Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, India, and Scandinavia.

The gin-distillers are also large consumers of juniper fruits. Some of them still make their own distillates from juniperberry tinctures rather than using a sesquiterpeneless juniperberry oil which never gives the same “body” of flavor to the beverage. The actual production of steam-distilled juniperberry oil is surprisingly small.

Juniper Berry is used in perfumery for itsfresh-balsamic notes, as a modifier for various pine needle oils (with which it blends very well), with citrus oils in room spray perfumes, in ambres, fougeres, chypres, after-shave fragrances, spice compositions, colognes, etc.