The Story Behind Our Calamansi Liqueur (And Why We're Bringing It Back to the Philippines)

You get a liqueur that doesn't quite fit any existing category. And honestly, that's exactly the point.

Our Calamansi Liqueur started as a conversation between two people with a shared obsession: the flavours, the culture, and the crackling creative energy of the Filipino bar scene. That conversation turned into a collaboration with chef Morris Danzen of CMD Supper Club, and eventually into a bottle we're genuinely proud of.

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival recently featured the story, and we wanted to share a bit more of it here in our own words.

What even is calamansi?

If you've spent time in the Philippines, you already know. If you haven't, here's the short version: imagine a lime and a mandarin had a child, raised it in a Manila market, and let it grow up surrounded by the best street food in the world.

Calamansi is brighter than lemon, more aromatic than lime, with a floral backnote that sneaks up on you. It's the citrus that's squeezed over noodles, stirred into sauces, and dropped into drinks across the archipelago every single day. It's not exotic to the people who grew up with it. It's just home.

The collaboration with Morris Danzen

Morris Danzen of CMD Supper Club brought something to this project that we couldn't have done alone: lived experience. For Morris, calamansi isn't an ingredient. It's heritage, memory, and the experience of carrying a culture across borders and finding ways to express it without losing its core.

For us at Stache House, the Philippines connection began with time spent immersed in Manila's bar scene - a place where creativity thrives on constraint and flavour is driven by instinct. What connected us was a recognition that Filipino food and drink culture deserves a much bigger platform than it currently has.

This liqueur is our small contribution to changing that.

Where it belongs

A table full of food and the people you love most. Filipino culture is built around eating together - the more dishes the better, everyone reaching across everyone else. The Calamansi Liqueur belongs in that moment: poured before the feast, sipped between bites, lingered over long after the plates are empty.

A spritz or a simple highball with soda works beautifully. So does using it as a triple sec substitute in a margarita if you want to see bartenders get very interested very quickly.

The full circle moment

Here's the part that still gets us: we took calamansi from the Philippines, distilled it in Australia, and now we're preparing to export it back. Taking our take on a beloved local ingredient straight into the Manila bar scene.

We were recently featured in Melbourne Food and Wine Festival talking about exactly this - read the full feature here.

Ready to try it?

The Stache House x CMD Calamansi Liqueur is available now at stachehouse.coffee. Use the code MFW10 for 10% off storewide.