Rome drank it before it marched. So can you.
Liquamen is a sparkling ancient ferment — the garum that Rome, Greece, Phoenicia and Carthage traded like currency — aged slowly, then tempered with spring water, honey and thyme. Savoury, saline, faintly sweet, and nothing like a cola.
Five drinks, five empires
Each one is built from an ingredient the ancient world actually traded. Liquamen is the ferment we started with; the other four are gentler introductions.
What it is
A sparkling soft drink built on liquamen: fish and sea salt, fermented slowly in the sun until it turns into something closer to a savoury broth than a sauce. We take it clear, dilute it hard, and carbonate it cold.
Where it comes from
In the warehouses of Ostia, amphorae of garum were stacked, graded and shipped across four empires. Cut with water it was what a legionary drank before he marched.
What it tastes like
Saline first, then honey and thyme, then a long savoury finish that behaves more like a dry tonic than a soft drink. Drink it very cold.
Two thousand years is a long enough trial
We did not invent this. We read the recipes, found the makers still doing it on the Amalfi coast and in Andalusia, and spent a year working out how much water, honey and thyme it takes before an ancient condiment becomes something you would open on a Friday.
One ferment. One can. No colourings, no sweeteners we cannot pronounce, and nothing in it that the Roman navy would not recognise.
If it's good enough for the Romans, it's good enough for us.
When to reach for one
Post-workout
Electrolytes from sea salt and a savoury edge that plain water can't give you back.
Afternoon slump
No caffeine crash, no sugar spike — just a cold, sharp, faintly sweet reset.
A social moment
Something to hand someone that isn't another seltzer or another cola.
Recovery
Naturally fermented, no added sugar beyond honey, nothing you can't pronounce.
What is in it
Sparkling spring water, honey, aged garum ferment (fish, sea salt), thyme, lemon peel. Contains fish. That is the whole list for Liquamen — the other four SKUs in the range are garum-free.
| Per 100 ml | Liquamen · No. I |
|---|---|
| Energy | — |
| Sugars | — |
| Salt | — |
| Protein | — |
| Sweeteners, colourings, preservatives | None |
Dispatches from the ancient world
A letter when there is something worth sending: what we found in the archive, what the ferment did this month, and where the cans have landed.