According to Mrs Malgozata Komendera, she and her husband, Krzysztof, have always made liqueurs and other drinks at home. The couple, known as Margarit and Kris to their friends, has been living in South Africa since 1982. They decided not to return to their native Poland when the country’s authoritarian communist government took up arms against its people. The Komendera were on holiday at the time. Kris soon managed to secure a job at Savuka mine and the couple moved to Carletonville. They have been here ever since.
They turned their hobby of making liqueurs at home into a business, called Premier Pure Fusion, three years ago. When Kris was retrenched from his job at Savuka after 35 years, the enterprise was already established. Their son, Arthur, daughter, Karolina, and her husband help with the designs for labelling and marketing and other aspects of the business.
Each liqueur has a name linked to history. Their first product, the blended lemon liqueur called 1540 Dirty Lemon, for instance, got the first part of its name from the year the Italian princess, Bona Sforza, married Sigismund I of Poland and introduced lemons to the Polish court. Although Carletonville is not known for producing top liquors, Premier Pure Fusion is certainly changing that. One of their liqueurs, 1615 Black Pearl, a blended coffee cream liqueur, scooped the silver medal at the Michelangelo Inter- national Wine and Spirit Awards in 2018. “We were sitting at a table with winemakers from the Cape. They asked us from which wine estate we were. When we said we were from Carletonville, some of them did not even know the town existed,” says Margarit.
They held the town’s name high again when 1540 Dirty Lemon won Gold at the 2019 SA Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards in 2019.
They did even better this year when their product, 1680 The Porter, a spirit aperitif, won the gold medal at the Michelangelo Inter- national Wine and Spirit Awards.
Although they make these liqueurs at their business in Kaolin Street, several national liquor groups have already secured deals to sell them. Their other products include 1890 Black Pearl, a blended chocolate cream liqueur, and 1492 Black Pearl, a blended chilli chocolate liqueur.
At first, they sold their products at markets but opened a shop next to their small factory at the beginning of September. The premises are situated in the small shopping complex at 122 Kaolin Street, behind the Carletonville police station. The shop, where customers can also enjoy their products, is open from 13:00 to 18:00 on weekdays.
Anyone who wants to find out more can WhatsApp Margarit at 082 779 0077. Visit their website, premierpurefusion.co.za, for more information.