The ingredients in Gammel Dansk are carefully selected for their aromatic, sharp and bitter qualities. The ingredients include spices from many different places around the world: roots that are reputed to have medicinal powers, and berries that are well-known particularly to children from the Roskilde area on the Danish island of Zealand. Every autumn, the company buys all the buckets of rowan-berries the children can pick. The names of every ingredient and the exact blend cannot be revealed, however. There are only two employees who know the recipe.