Spit Spirit is an ongoing project that explores fermentation as a transformative, intimate, and subversive practice. It is a bootleg jenever—an alcohol made using human saliva and chewed Knol’s koek, a beloved spiced cake from Groningen—served exclusively at Het Souffleur. The process, known as spit fermentation, revives a practice found in Indigenous cultures worldwide, where individuals chew starchy foods like corn, manioc, or grains to activate enzymes, then spit the mash into a container to ferment. This technique, seen in Andean chicha, Japanese kuchikamizake (口噛み酒), Korean ibju (입주, "mouth-entry liquor"), and even Norse mythology’s "sacred spit" in the Mead of Poetry, reveals how fermentation can embody shared labor, ritual, and memory. Through this act, spit becomes a potent medium—both a literal catalyst for transformation and a symbol of shared labor and care.

The jenever is served in mouth-shaped ceramic cups, designed to be kissed in order to sip the last drops. The bottles themselves are inspired by seals—animals beloved in Groningen—and the Korean expression as drunk as a dog, evoking the idea of alcohol as a means of releasing one’s inner animal or surrendering to an animal-like spirit.

Drawing on ^{Radical Intimacy} by Sophie Rosa, which critiques how capitalism commodifies relationships, Spit Spirit proposes an alternative: an intimate, collective ritual of fermentation and consumption that resists isolation and transactionality.

By inviting bar-goers to contribute their saliva, Spit Spirit transforms drinking into a collective ritual—where intimacy, risk, and transformation converge. The process cycles through chewing, fermenting, distilling, and finally, kissing the mouth-shaped cup, as if sealing the drink with a shared breath. This intimate act evokes the release of the inner animal, a moment where the lines between self and other blur—transforming consumption into an act of mutual transformation and resistance.