Posted on 09/28/2017 4:56:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An elderly Danish couple walked into Santa Cruz’s Venus Spirits tasting room recently to say thank you. They had been given a bottle of distiller Sean Venus’ new spirit — the caraway-forward Scandinavian bone-warmer called aquavit, a clear spirit infused with botanicals — and wanted to thank him for bringing a bit of Nordic drinking culture to the Bay Area. Skoal, indeed.
Five years ago, there were only four aquavits produced in the United States and none in California. But, as Venus explained to the couple, a curiosity for niche spirits drew him to aquavit’s smooth, savory character.
“Honestly, it’s probably the most diverse spirit we’ve ever produced,” he says. “I knew the opportunity for mixing cocktails would be endless.”
Venus wasn’t alone. Today, there are more than 40 domestic aquavit producers, including four in California — Venus, Southern California’s Stark Spirits and Blinking Owl, and San Francisco’s Geijer Spirits. Known for its Swedish glögg, Geijer released its first aquavit, California Aqua-Vitae, earlier this year.
The Pacific Northwest has the largest concentration of aquavit producers in the U.S. Craft distillers such as Seattle’s Old Ballard Liquor Co. and Portland’s Rolling River Spirits have turned aquavit into a bar staple. Portland even has an Aquavit Week every December.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
The CARAWAY laden spirit—O.K., Nick Carraway: You need to make full disclosure; you’ve got to be making money off of this water of life somehow.
Interesting. I’ve never tried it.
Great for making gravlax.
I love gravlax.
Easy to make. I do a bottle each year. Good basic recipe:
http://ciderandrye.com/blog/2013/11/29/homemade-aquavit
Nice change of pace from the brown liquors in the cold months.
At least its not Aqua Velvet.
I tried it in the mid 1970s and still recall
that Aqua Velva might have been a preferable
choice.
Lol!
Oy. That sounds awful.
They drank Calvados (apple brandy) in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “Arc de Triomphe.”
Made me want to try it, but I never did.
I ate harkarl chased with aquavit with a group of Icelanders. Gaaaag reflex kicked in.
It has been a long time since I tried Aquavit - my granparents (all from Norway) would have it - but just for special occasions iirc.
As I recall it had sort of an oily taste and texture. Although I was probably 16 years old and that was many moons ago! Perhaps any hard booze would have tasted like that.
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