LARS WILLIAMS & MARK EMIL HERMANSEN — Founders
Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen founded Empirical in 2017, merging culinary creativity with cultural storytelling. As the former head of R&D at Noma, Lars brings expertise in fermentation and innovative flavor techniques, designing processes like vacuum distillation to preserve delicate, raw flavors often lost in traditional distilling. Mark, an Oxford-trained anthropologist with a focus on food and identity, contributes a unique perspective that treats flavor as a way to evoke memories and emotional connections.
Together, they envision Empirical as a "flavor company" dedicated to redefining what a spirit can be — focused on taste as personal storytelling, deeply connected to place, memory, and experience.
Empirical is a Copenhagen-based distillery on Refshaleøen Island, a former shipyard turned culinary hub. They use a fermentation process inspired by Japanese koji (commonly used for sake and miso), and a custom-built vacuum distillation system that operates at 41–59°F, preserving delicate flavors lost to conventional high-heat methods. Botanicals range from quince tea kombucha and Douglas fir to oyster distillate — the result is a range of spirits reimagined from the ground up.
