A Sip of History: Destileria Limtuaco Museum in Intramuros

- April 23, 2022, Saturday.

- As someone who likes to learn and explore, there are times when I'd do things that I don't normally do. One of which is drinking. I rarely rarely drink, and my tolerance for alcohol is low, and it's not something I typically enjoy doing. However, I recently thought of the Destileria Limtuaco Museum randomly, and remembered that I had never visited this place in Intramuros. I also felt I had to visit it at some point as it was the very first and oldest still-running distillery in the Philippines after all.

- The museum was opened to the public in February 2018, although it has been in Intramuros for the past 4 decades prior. The museum was initially built as a private collection and only for personal visitors of the Limtuaco family. One can find the museum today behind Colegio San Juan de Letran, near the Jones Bridge side of Intramuros. The museum is inside a Spanish-style stone house. 

The museum.

They had to write Chinese words as the family has its roots in China.

- The actual distillery was never located in this museum. Lim Tua Co came to the Philippines from China in 1850 and thought of setting up a distillery as he carried with him his family's energizing Chinese tonic recipe. The first site of the distillery was in Gandara Street (now Sabino Padilla Street) in Binondo Chinatown. In 1939 the distillery was moved to Caloocan City. The distillery's operations were affected during the Japanese Occupation in World War II. After the war, the distillery was once more up and running. Today, the current president is the 5th generation of the Limtuaco family. The distillery is located along EDSA, near Balintawak in Quezon City.

- The museum is open from Tuesdays to Sundays. Currently, you may pay for a regular ticket, or a special ticket that includes entrance and 6 free shots of whichever Limtuaco product you wish to taste. Of course, I had to get the special ticket to see what was so special about their products.

You'll meet a model of a carabao before entering the actual museum. It's supposed to show how sugarcane was ground to get the juice to be turned into alcohol later. 

- The museum's first gallery is nothing short of spectacular. Giant distillation machines and barrels will welcome visitors to get a glimpse of how alcohol is distilled from various products like sugarcane or corn. Speaking of which, the first product of the distillery was the Chinese herbal wine I mentioned earlier. That's called "sioktong." This medicinal alcoholic drink was supposed to give people more energy. The distillery still produces sioktong today.

Giant barrel.

Sioktong ingredients.

Distillation machines.

First four presidents, from the first four generations of the Limtuaco family.

- The second gallery features packaging machines from the past, as well as its bar where you can take samples of their products. You can purchase their products from the museum as well. I tried a few of their products since it was included in my ticket. Of course I had to try some of their most famous products, like sioktong and the White Castle whisky. As someone who doesn't drink much alcohol, I appreciate the bar selling cold water so I can drink between between shots of alcohol.

The distillery logo.

Bottles for alcohol.

With packagine machines.

At the bar, the barista was showing me their products. The one she's holding is called Gaz, and is available in stores everywhere. I liked Gaz because it only has 7% alcohol so it's not too strong. It comes in green (apple vodka), and red (strawberry margarita).

This is the current incarnation of sioktong.

The dragon fruit wine was surprisingly tangy. I guess that's what fermentation does to the usually subtly-flavored dragonfruit.

White Castle whisky. I can never like whisky (any whisky) I'm sorry. I'm just really not used to the taste, and I think whisky is inherently strong.

This is me pretending to know how to drink.

Chocolate liqueur. Interesting, I think I kind of like it.

Again, pretentious me, pretending to know how to drink.

- The museum's third gallery is located at the second floor. The second floor shows some of the prized products of the distillery through time, as well as some objects owned by the former presidents of the Limtuaco Distillery.

Second floor gallery.

The pride of Destileria Limtuaco.

The desk and things of Julius Limpe, the fourth president of the distillery.

- I appreciated my short visit to the museum. Even though this isn't the kind of topic I'd normally be interested in, it was still nice to understand how alcoholic beverages have been done in the Philippines. I'm happy that the museum has since reopened as they have been closed since the pandemic began in 2020 until a few months ago. I hope people will get to visit this museum, both enthusiasts of alcoholic beverages, and casual goers just like me! There is so much to learn not only about alcohol, but also about the history of the Philippines!