Nordic-Tiki Cocktails: Not as Crazy as You'd Think

On August 7, 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of five other Scandinavians smashed their raft, The Kon-Tiki, into a reef just off the shore of an island in Polynesia. Remarkably, Thor and the whole crew made it safely to shore and the trip—a 4000-mile raft journey from South America powered only by drifting—was proclaimed successful. (Heyerdahl was trying to prove that it was possible that Polynesia had been populated by South Americans who had drifted there. He showed it was possible. But, his theory is generally considered incorrect based on other evidence.)

This literal smashing of Scandinavians into a corner of Polynesia was on my mind as I watched star bartenders Jon Olson and Adam Gorski (who have recently started a company called TruePenny serve up a special Scandinavian-Tiki menu at our distillery in northern Minnesota.

The event's Scandi-Tiki menu.

Remarkably, it wasn’t the first time I’d tried Scandinavian-Tiki. The first place I had come across Northern-inflected Tiki was at a pop-up Tiki bar inside the Twin Cities restaurant Eat Street Social, which opens unpredictably to serve expertly executed and dangerously drinkable Nordic-Tiki drinks.

The idea was instantly interesting to me, and I made note of it each subsequent time I stumbled across a mention of a Nordic-Tiki pop-up or cocktail in Minnesota (plus a couple in Norway and Denmark!). It’s just a handful, but added to the event we recently hosted ourselves, I’ve noticed enough drinks and mentions that I’m starting to think of it as a sort-of micro-trend.

The Gitchee Gumee: Boreal Spruce Gin, coconut ilkjam, juniper, pineapple, and lime.

Nordic or Scandinavian-Tiki sounds like incongruous fusion: Can you think of anything less tropical than Scandinavia? (The difference between Scandinavian versus Nordic is, in principle, the question of whether Finnish influence is included—Finns are Nordic but not Scandinavian—however in practice, at least in the Tiki-fusion realm, I think there’s no difference.) 

Maybe it’s just because Tiki has seen a resurgence in popularity over a similar time frame as the growth of interest in Nordic cuisine. But, I think there’s more to it: The hot-cold duo feels less incongruous if you understand the escapist fantasy roots of Tiki cocktail culture.

The genesis of Tiki cocktails as we know them—fruity, boozy, dolled up with coconuts, parasols, and flaming limes—can be traced back to the 1930s and a gentleman named Ernest Gantt. Gantt, who became known as Don Beachcomber, opened the world’s first Tiki bar in 1934, serving tropical, supposedly Polynesian-inspired cocktails and food.

In post-prohibition L.A., his establishment “Don the Beachcomber” was an instant and enormous hit. It grew into a chain and spawned many knock-offs and one significant rival, the equally excellent Tiki chain Trader Vic’s (founded by “Trader” Vic Bergeron around the same time). Tiki became a sensation.

Though Tiki décor and apparel drew on American conceptions of Polynesian culture, the cocktails (and the food, too, actually) were not Polynesian at all. In his book Potions of the Caribbean, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, one of the foremost current disciples of Tiki, explains how both Don Beachcomber and Trader Vic actually drew on traditional cocktails, punches, and ingredients from the Caribbean, but cloaked them in Polynesian garb because it seemed far more exotic to Americans who were hungry for a sense of escape to a land far away.

So, while we think of tropical-fruited, flower-garnished Tiki drinks as something to drink while sitting on a white sand beach in a tropical paradise, their actual purpose was to help you pretend you were in such a place when you definitely weren’t. And who, I ask you, is in more need than a tropical escapist fantasy than we who live in the minus forty-degree, snowed-in, icy lake-dotted frozen north?

But we can’t quite leave it there. As anyone who has ever listened to Garrison Keiler’s tales from Lake Wobegon knows, we Nordic types also believe in suffering. We think being cold and slightly miserable are slightly good for you, and we are secretly proud of the humble ingredients and culture we have.

We couldn’t let tropical drinks be just tropical drinks—we had to inflect them with a little cold stoicism, thus Nordic-Tiki: It takes the flavors of the tropics and layers them with flavors of the tundra, coaxing them into harmony. To Tiki’s pineapple, falernum, rum, and orgeat, we add dill and beets, hazelnuts, aquavit, and rhubarb. In a way, it’s a more earnest expression of Tiki’s promise of escaping while staying home. And Minnesotans are ever earnest.

The Off Course, Gone Missing: Øvrevann Aquavit, dill falernum, honey, cardamom, and lime.

Because the Scandinavian-Tiki inspired drinks I’ve tried have actually been quite wonderful, I think it’s a micro-trend worth knowing about—and maybe even exploring at home.

Like regular Tiki (as if there’s ever been anything regular about a drink scene that includes monkey head-shaped mugs!), Nordic-Tiki is more of an attitude than a new set of rules or principles for drink making. But, based on my observations and drinks I’ve tried, here are some things to consider if you do want to give a little tropical-tundra fusion a test drive:

• While Tiki drinks usually rely on rum, more northern-leaning spirits like aquavit, gin (juniper berries are a classic part of Nordic cooking and gin is juniper flavored), and apple brandy are also totally happy to make nice with tropical flavors like pineapple, lime, passion fruit, and even coconut.
• Orgeat, an almond syrup, is a Tiki staple, and what do you know?! Almonds are used in Scandinavian baking all the time— an easy overlap! To get even more Nordic, you could make your own orgeat with other northern nuts like hazelnuts and walnuts (the simplest way to do this is make a nut milk and then mix it with an equal volume of sugar and a spoonful or two of brandy to make your syrup).
• Tiki drinks also nearly always incorporate a spice element, especially nutmeg, allspice or cloves, and cinnamon. Add some cardamom to those, and suddenly you have the set of spices that are typically used across Scandinavia for baking and mulling wine.
• Tiki drinks tend to layer in fruit juices, syrups, or liqueurs. Tropical fruits make drinks taste Tiki, but you can combine those fruits with syrups or juices made from more typically northern fruits like lingonberries, currants, rhubarb, apples, or pears.
• Finally, perhaps most importantly of all, whatever you make just garnish, garnish, garnish! Because, I’m pretty sure the colorful garnishes are really what make you feel like you’re on vacation.

-Emily Vikre

Originally Published on Food52.com

DIYing Vermouth May Make You Feel Like an Aspiring Witch

There are many things you don’t really need to make yourself. You don’t need to make your own furniture, or jewelry, or cheese. But, sometimes these things are fun and challenging to make, so you choose to make them yourself in spite of the fact, or perhaps precisely because of the fact, that you don’t need to.

For me, vermouth falls into this category. My favorite vermouth is Cocchi Vermouth di Torino. It’s a sweet (sometimes known as red or rosso) vermouth, and I love it. It’s perfect just as it is. Buuuuut, that hasn’t stopped me from tinkering, and tinkering, and tinkering some more in an attempt to make a vermouth myself that I like just as much (or, at least, almost as much). It seemed like a fun challenge.

Vermouth is aromatized, fortified wine. That is, wine that has been infused with herbs and spices (aromatized) and has had a higher-proof spirit added to it (fortified). Sweet vermouth also has caramelized sugar added to it. It was likely originally a way of taking wine that was not very good—or was getting past its prime—and covering up the off flavors. Additionally, the higher proof helps the wine keep longer before becoming completely oxidized.

So, I surmised, vermouth was something you could make at home to save sub-par wine—and there are no particularly fancy techniques and equipment involved in making it. Obviously, this meant I may as well try to make my own. The internet doesn’t precisely abound in DIY vermouth recipes, but they are certainly out there, and I think I’ve tried nearly all of the recipes a simple search turned up. And I haven’t liked any of them. But they gave me ideas, understanding, and a base from which to experiment.

Here are some of the important points I’ve learned in my journey towards making a vermouth I like:

1. Even though vermouth is not meant to start from good wine, you will taste the wine that’s in there, so don’t start with a wine you really don’t like. I tried making a couple of batches to use up some bottles of white wine that I didn’t like because I tasted fermentation flaws in the wine. I still tasted those in the vermouth, and it made it disgusting. Vermouth is usually made from dry white wine, and I like to use one that doesn’t have super fruity notes. Cheap, but not terrible, Pinot Grigio has become my go-to.

2. Don’t go overboard on the herbs and spices. It turns out a little goes a long way. Many recipes for vermouth call for too-large of quantities of many potent herbs, and the resulting vermouth feels like an apothecary is trying to punch you in the mouth. Of course, this makes it hard to make small batches of vermouth because for a single bottle of wine you might be measuring things in 1/12th teaspoons or a couple of grams. It’s annoying, but it’s doable.

3. Vermouth is supposed to have one or more bittering agents, including wormwood (from which vermouth gets its name) as well as other options like cinchona bark, gentian, dandelion root, or burdock root. Again, be very careful with how much you use, especially with gentian, which is potently bitter. I have had the best luck with using half as much (or less) gentian than most recipes seem to call for.

Some traditional recipes for vermouth call for really unusual herbs. You can find many of them from online sources, at Mountain Rose Herbs, for example. But be forewarned, if you start Googling and clicking without paying adequate attention, you might accidentally find yourself on a web forum for aspiring witches. (At least, that is what happened to me when I went searching for what mugwort was.) I haven’t included mugwort (nor some of the other obscure things, like blessed thistle, calamus, or centaury) in my own recipe.

4. There are several ways of steeping the herbs in your vermouth. You can steep them in the higher proof alcohol for a week. You can steep them in your wine for a week or two. Or you can heat some of your wine, steep the herbs in the hot wine, then add the rest of your alcohol, allow everything to cool, and then strain. I have found I like this hot steeping method best. There’s less over-extraction of the herbs, plus you get more instant gratification.

5. Adding some sherry or port helps give your vermouth the signature fortified wine flavor that you can’t get just by spiking regular wine (because the ingredients don’t get to age together in a barrel).

After learning all of these things, I have finally come to a sweet vermouth recipe that I really like quite well. It’s still no Cocchi di Torino, but it makes an excellent Manhattan or aperitif to drink over ice. Now, this has a pretty long list of ingredients, and I have a completely unfair advantage because I own a distillery and therefore have things like wormwood and angelica on hand. But once you procure the herbs, the rest of the process is pretty easy. If it sounds at all fun to you, give it a try!

Emily's DIY Sweet Vermouth

Makes about 4 to 5 cups

• 1 (750 ml) bottle dry white wine (I use pinot grigio)
• 1/2 teaspoon wormwood
• 1/6 teaspoon gentian root
• 1/12 teaspoon angelica root
• 1/12 teaspoon chamomile
• 1/3 inch piece of vanilla bean
• 1/3 tablespoon orange peel
• 3 rosemary leaves (like, the actual little leaves, not whole sprigs)
• 1 sage leaf
• 1 basil leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme
• 1 cup tawny port
• 1 cup brandy
• 1 cup scant (about 9/10ths cup) sugar

Originally published on Food52.com

The Best Spirits are Made in the Wildest Places

Back in July, my younger brother and his girlfriend were in town, visiting from Oslo. They were here for my other brother's wedding, but while I had them captive I thought, why not put them to work in a project idea I had had tossing around in my mind for a while?  Why not, indeed?  I wanted to create a series of photos of very urban-looking bartenders serving fancy cocktails to people out in the beautiful wild spaces we have in Duluth.  To try to capture the spirit of who we are, the idea that world class spirits can be made in far-flung, wilderness-y places.

I don't think my brother or his girlfriend had any idea what I was getting at, but they were game to come with us out into the woods.  So, we gathered together our canoeing, fishing, hiking, and stand-up paddle board gear, along with fancy glasses, garnishes, shakers, and fake tattoos (for Caitlin and me.  Neither of us have enough real tattoos to pull off the bartender look, haha).  We picked up Even and Eline and headed out for a hilarious and fun day of bartending in the out of doors.  Though they go for insanely epic hikes and XC-skis in Norway, Even and Eline didn't really know how to canoe or SUP.  But they learned quickly while we focused on applying our tattoos and trying not to break any delicate coupes or let the garnishes wilt too fast in the heat of the day.

We thought we would share the photos with you because we think the best spirits really are made in the wildest places.  And because I find them amusing.  And yes, I definitely did fall off of a stand up paddle board fully clothed, which is why I'm standing in the water in the second picture.  I did not spill any of the drink!

A Week of Happy Hours with Northern Waters Smokehaus

We believe in Happy Hour.  Firstly, we like happiness.  Secondly, we very much like the ritual of gathering together with a few friends in the early evening to share a nice drink, maybe a little snack, and have a bit of conversation before we hit the dinner hour.  

So, when our friends at Northern Waters Smokehaus (hi guys! we love you!) asked if we'd be interested in coming up with cocktail suggestions for pairing with a couple of their gorgeous cured meats and other nibbles we thought we'd do them even one better and create five pairings - a whole work-week's-worth, if you will! - perfect for happy hour.  

(Obviously there is no need to have happy hour every day for a week.  But it seemed fun to assign each pairing to a particular day, right?  However, feel free to use our suggestions any day you want, for a special day or to celebrate the ordinary.)  (Also, as a side note: to keep things simple, we decided to do all cocktails that use our Cedar Gin, but you could also swap it for Juniper Gin to make a more piney, punchy version of any of these cocktails.)  

Monday:  I think a traditional Negroni is perfect as it is, but it's also a remarkable jumping off point for creative variations.  The central flavor in a Negroni is Campari, and I think Campari is delicious with raspberries, so we muddled some raspberries into a lightened up Negroni for an ever so lightly fruity take on this bittersweet classic.

Raspberry Negroni

• 8-10 raspberries (you can use frozen ones, but defrost them first)
• 1.5 oz. Boreal Cedar Gin
• 1 oz. sweet vermouth (our favorite kind is Cocchi Vermouth di Torino)
•  3/4 oz. Campari

1. Gently smash the raspberries in the bottom of a stirring glass.  Add the remaining ingredients and stir with ice for about 20 seconds.  Strain into a lowball glass over an ice cube (or two). Garnish with a coin of orange peel (you can flame it if you like, but you don't have to).

Pair with: Lonzino - the most amazingly buttery, nutty cured pork you can imagine (a bit like prosciutto on deliciousness steroids) and dark, sweet amarena cherries.

Tuesday: Do you know what a French 75 and a Bee's Knees are?  Even if you don't, just know that if you mash-up those two cocktails and add a pinch of thyme, you'll get this delightful herbal, sweet-tart, bubbly little number.  It's a well known fact that champagne makes everything better, including Tuesdays.

Thyme 75

• 1 scant tsp. fresh thyme
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 heaping tsp. honey
• 1 oz. Boreal Cedar Gin
• brut Champagne (or any dry sparkling wine), chilled

1. Combine the thyme, lemon juice, and honey in the bottom of a cocktail shaker.  Stir until the honey dissolves.  Add the gin and then ice and shake hard for about 10 seconds.  
2. Double strain (that is to say, strain through your cocktail strainer plus another fine mesh strainer like a tea strainer) into a cocktail coupe or champagne glass.
3. Top with your sparkling wine.

Pair with: The Smokehaus's scrumptious saucisson sec, their boursin cheese (which, by the way, is mind-bogglingly good) and some crusty bread. 

Wednesday:  It's Hump Day!  A Martini is in order.  A Martini is the perfect pre-dinner drink; it whets the appetite like no other.  However, instead of a traditional gin Martini, I like to trade the dry vermouth out for something just a little less dry (mostly I find dry vermouth to taste  too oxidized for me), particularly Cocchi Americano (another type of herbed and fortified wine) to go with our musky Boreal Cedar Gin. Cocchi Americano can be hard to track down (if you're in Duluth, they do have it at Mt. Royal Bottle Shoppe), so if you can't find it you could try Lillet Blanc instead.

Cedar Martini

• 2 oz. Boreal Cedar Gin
• 1 oz. Cocchi Americano
• 3 dashes orange bitters

1. Stir all ingredients with ice until very well chilled.  Strain into a cocktail glass.  No garnish.

Pair with:  beautifully smoky and piquant Smokehaus chorizo, plus some Castelvetrano olives. Because you are fancy. 

Thursday:  Thursdays call for a simple drink and a satisfying snack.  So, we paired up a straightforward, but delicious, Cedar Collins with some pork loin.  It did the trick.

Cedar Collins

• 1.5 oz. Boreal Cedar Gin
• 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 oz. simple syrup (to make simple syrup, just combine equal parts sugar and water and stir until the sugar dissolves)
• soda water

1. Stir together the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup in a tall-ice filled glass. Top with soda water and stir to make sure everything is combined.

Pair with: Smoked pork loin from the Smokehaus - which makes me think of Christmas and 4th of July picnics all rolled into one remarkable sliced meat.  It's so good.  Then, add apricot preserves (they also have that at the Smokehaus), crackers, and some toasted, spiced nuts.  You may not need dinner.

Friday: Ok, personally I don't get brunch, and I don't get Bloody Mary's.  And no amount of attempting to convince me will change my mind.  Sorry!  However, I accept that many people like them very much.  And so, on Friday, perhaps you're already looking forward to the weekend so much that you want to taste it by having a Bloody Mary.  But instead of a standard Bloody Mary, let's up our game with a tomato shrub.  It sounds complicated, and it tastes complex, but it's a breeze to make.  And it's just as amenable to a meal's worth of garnish as a regular Bloody Mary.

Tomato Shrub

• 1 cup chopped fresh tomato
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup white wine vinegar
• Worcestershire sauce to taste

1. Combine the tomato, sugar, and vinegar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover and bring to a gentle simmer.  Allow to simmer (still covered) for about 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes have rather broken down and released their juices.  Strain into a jar, allow to cool, then stir in some Worcestershire sauce to taste, if you want.  (You can keep the remaining tomato solids and use them kind of like a tomato jam, if you don't mind peels and seeds, I suppose.)  The shrub will keep for up to a month covered in the fridge.
2. To make a cocktail: Shake 2 oz. Boreal Cedar Gin and 1.5 oz. of the tomato shrub with ice. Strain into an ice filled glass and garnish with your favorite Bloody Mary garnishes.

Our Garnish:  A chunk of Smokehaus bison buddy, a piece of sharp cheddar, an olive, and a rolled anchovy.  

Vikre + Anthropologie

I was going to write a blog post about some of the science of fermentation and byproducts.  But then I thought, it's Monday, and it's August!  Almost everyone is on vacation, for example the whole country of France.  Also Norway.  All on vacation.  So, let's talk about something light and save the science at least for a Tuesday,right?  Maybe in September.

A very little known fact about me is that for several years, a good half-decade at least I'd say, I wanted to be a clothing designer.  This may be very surprising to a number of people, given I barely know how to dress myself.  But there you have it.  I wanted to be in fashion.  I kept this utterly secret, though.  Firstly, fashion didn't seem like a particularly noble pursuit (and now here I am running a distillery, haha).  Secondly, I was an academic, not an artist.  Through high school and college I aced my way through things like biology and chemistry while being altogether unremarkable in art classes.  So, I developed a decent amount of confidence in my academic abilities and absolutely none at all in my creative faculties, and my poor artistic soul was kept hidden on the inside.  Though I did accumulate a lot of sketches in secret notebooks, including a sketch of a mid-thigh-length heavy knit sweater coat in turquoise with intricate saffron yellow embroidery, which I still rather think is a good idea.     

Like a flower growing up through concrete, the artistic part of me pushed its way through eventually though!  And thus I went from biochemistry to nutrition, nutrition to food policy, food policy to cooking, cooking to food writing, food writing to photography, and here I am today doing who knows what on a daily basis, but it is all pretty intensely creative.  When it's not finance.  So, thank you artistic soul and universe, for looking out for me.

Anyway, that is way more background than you need on me since I'm really just trying to make the point that I still have a little fond spot for fashion.  And so, when Kaylen, the stylist at one of the Anthropologie stores in the Twin Cities emailed and asked if we would collaborate with them on their spring/summer fashion show by developing signature cocktail recipes for them, and in return we could come to the fashion show, I said "YES I WOULD LIKE THAT VERY MUCH!!!!!"  Then a couple emails later I slyly asked, "hey, could we do a photoshoot with the cocktail and some clothes so we have some material for letting people know about the event?"  And they said YES!  And thus Caitlin and I went down to the Twin Cities and had one of the most fun days ever getting dressed and styled by Kaylen, and photographed making cocktails by the talented Vicky Campbell.  No we didn't get to keep the clothes.  But we, uh, get to keep the memories.  And we wound up with even more photos than we could use on the social medias for promotion, so I thought I would share them now.  And, perhaps just as importantly, the recipes for the cocktails we came up with for them are below as well.         

Skål!

Emily

Grapefruit Basil Gin Fizz

• 1.5 oz. Boreal Juniper Gin
• 1.5 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
• .5 oz. fresh lime juice
• .5 oz. basil syrup*
• Soda water

1. *To make basil syrup, combine 1 cup water and 1 cup of sugar and heat, stirring, until it comes to a simmer and the sugar dissolves.  Remove from the heat and add 1 cup fresh basil leaves.  Allow the basil to steep in the syrup at least 2 hours or overnight in the fridge.  Strain and store the syrup in the fridge for up to two weeks.
2. To make cocktail, shake all the ingredients, except the soda water, with ice to chill (about 10 seconds) strain into a tall glass with ice.  Top with soda water.  Garnish with a lime wheel or basil leaf.  (This recipe makes a relatively light, tart cocktail.  Add 1/4-1/2 oz. more syrup if you prefer a sweeter cocktail.)  

Peppercorn Rose Gimlet

• 2 oz. Boreal Cedar Gin
• 3/4 oz. pink peppercorn syrup*
• 3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
• about 3 drops rosewater (use more or less to taste)

1. *To make the peppercorn syrup, combine 1 Tbs. pink peppercorns with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Remove from the heat.  Allow to cool to room temperature, then strain out the peppercorns.  Store the syrup in the fridge for up to two weeks.
2. To make a cocktail, shake all the ingredients together with ice until well chilled, about 18-20 seconds.  Strain into a coupe (or other cocktail glass).  Garnish with a rose petal, if you're feeling fancy.

All styling by Kaylen Ralph for Anthropologie.  Photography by Victoria SJ Campbell.

The Cocktails You Can Count On

A few years ago, shortly after my husband and I had moved to a small town in Minnesota, we decided to go out for a drink at a new bar in town. It was quiet, and we sat down right at the bar.

When the bartender asked “What can I get for you?” my husband started with, “Well, I think I’m in the mood for a whiskey cocktail…” The bartender gave him a look of confusion and replied, “I think Jack and Coke is the only one there is, isn’t it?”

You may be happy to learn that a vodka soda isn't your only option.

Oops. We had misread the bar. (Actually, in this case I believe we had misread the bartender because I’m pretty sure I saw some vermouth behind the bar, and I personally believe that every bartender should know what a Manhattan and an Old Fashioned are, even if they don’t know how to execute them perfectly). Whatever the situation, this little drink-ordering adventure (my husband eventually managed to coax a whiskey with ginger beer and a lime wedge out of the bartender) was a pointed illustration of the fact that when it comes to cocktail ordering there's no 100% guarantee.

These days, when you look at the bar scene, you find cutting-edge craft cocktail bars, neighborhood dives that haven’t changed in 25 years, and everything in between. And if you try ordering a “Captain and Coke” at a craft bar whose rail is filled with amari and housemade syrups, you’ll probably get a stare that is just as blank as if you try to order a Corpse Reviver #2 at a sports bar in a university town.

I wracked my brain to try to come up with a cocktail for which there would be no contingencies, and all I came up with was a vodka and soda. And then I thought, "No, there are probably whiskey or mezcal-focused bars out there now that have no vodka." So, perhaps there is no cocktail that you can order anywhere, but that doesn’t mean you have to be at a loss for an order when you walk up to a bar (and there isn’t a convenient menu of house cocktail specials from which to order).

There’s always beer, right? Just kidding. Sort of. But, when I’m set on a cocktail, what I try to do is have a little mental storehouse of drink recipes for different situations from which I can pull a cocktail based on my assessment of the bar.

Here’s how I think about it:

• For dive bars, sports bars, and the local watering hole in a rather small town:

First assess whether vermouth and bitters are on the back bar and how dusty the bottles are. If it appears there is no vermouth or that it hasn’t been used in a couple years, stick with the category of drinks where the name of the drink is the recipe. I call these the “blank and blanks,” that is to say, rum and Coke, vodka and cranberry, gin and tonic, Scotch and soda, and so on. If you’re lucky they’ll have ginger beer; basically any spirit tastes good with ginger beer and several wedges of lime squeezed in. Do not expect anything more. In these bars, I usually just order a bourbon, neat.

If there appears to be vermouth and one or two bottles of bitters in regular rotation, then you should be able to order one of the simplest, two- or three-ingredient classic cocktails like a martini, an Old Fashioned, or a Manhattan. But, be prepared to explain your order to the bartender. Have your favorite proportions for a Manhattan or a martini memorized so if the bartender seems hesitant, you can swiftly follow up with, “Two ounces rye whiskey, an ounce of that sweet vermouth there, and a couple dashes of bitters, on the rocks."

I’ve had great success ordering negronis at bars where the bartender has no idea what a negroni is. In fact, that’s how I had a negroni last Saturday! If I notice there’s a bottle of Campari on the back bar, I just ask them to give me equal pours of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth over ice, and give me a stir stick.

• For somewhat fancier places:

The next category of bars are the ones where, after a little observation you can tell they actually use fresh citrus juice and they shake or stir the cocktails before serving them to you. In these places, the simple classic cocktails like a Manhattan, martini, or Old Fashioned are still always a good bet, and will probably be well executed.

You should also be able to order from the line-up of simple classics that have lime or lemon juice and liqueurs. A classic daiquiri is a good bet—feel free to tell the bartender what your favorite proportions of rum to lime to sugar are—as is a French 75 (this is one where I surprisingly often find they have the ingredients, but I still have to give the bartender a recipe: 1 ounces gin, 1/2 ounce each lemon and simple syrup, shaken, strained, and topped with Champagne); or order a Sidecar (2 ounces brandy and 1 ounce each lemon and Cointreau, shaken and strained).

If you see they have more obscure liqueurs and ingredients like Chartreuse, Maraschino, Lillet, Absinthe, and such, then things are getting serious, and you should be able to order virtually any classic cocktail from a Last Word to a Rob Roy. But, I’ve still found it never hurts to have the specs for the classic you want memorized, just in case.

• For cocktail bars:

Finally, you have the bars that consider themselves cocktail bars, that is to say they specialize in making cocktails and have many types of bitters, house-made syrups, cocktails with egg whites, and specialized glasses for different types of cocktails. There is a definite chance that the bartenders will have lots of tattoos and be wearing dapper vests, and even if they aren’t, they’ve probably still put some serious study into cocktail history.

At these bars you should be able to order any classic or vintage cocktail from the cocktail canon. But, an even better bet, I think, is to go ahead and let the bartender take care of you. Tell them the types of things you like, and let them take it from there. Just don’t order a Captain and Coke.

-Emily Vikre

Originally published on Food52.com

The 3 Essential kinds of Cocktail Ice

Much ado is made of ice these days in cocktail bars. Nice bars no longer have ice—they have ice programs, and staff members dedicated to the work of breaking down large chunks of perfectly clear ice into beautiful hand-hewn cubes and spheres. And I think this is great!

One-inch cubes are just the right size for shaking.

Though we often don’t think of it in these terms, ice is one of the main ingredients in every cocktail, and if we care about the quality and format of our spirits and juices and so on, we ought to care about the quality of ice. In fact, one of the main reasons cocktails at fancy bars taste better than those you make at home may be the ice. While it doesn’t actually matter whether your ice is perfectly clear (though it’s awfully sleek and sexy when it is), the density, purity of flavor, and proper size of your ice does make a difference.

However, as esoteric as ice has come to seem, it all actually boils down—er, freezes down—to three principal types that are the most important. Here they are, plus an example cocktail in which to use each.

Cube Ice

Cube ice is, well, your prototypical ice cube. The workhorse of ice. The top-of-the-line ice cube maker for bars is called a Kold-Draft. It’s a spiffy machine that slowly makes approximately 1-inch cubes, freezing the water in one direction, making for very solid, nicely clear cubes. (Fun fact: The only certain way to prevent cloudy ice is to make sure the ice freezes in just one direction so the air bubbles are all forced out as the water freezes, instead of forced to the center.)

Having really solid, fairly large cubes of ice is important because when you shake a cocktail, you can shake the hell out of it for a good 15 to 20 seconds and the cocktail will get gorgeously aerated (what you want with a shaken cocktail) without over-diluting. They also work beautifully for stirring your stirred cocktails (stirring aims to properly dilute and chill while maintaining a silky texture).

Obviously you’re not going to get a Kold-Draft for your home, but you can make good cube ice using 1-inch cube silicone molds. Be sure to use clean tasting water and keep them covered or use them quickly so they don’t develop off-flavors in your freezer. Making sure your ice is free of weird flavors is even more important than making sure it’s a particular size.

If you only have small ice cubes, use more of them for shaking or stirring, but shake or stir for less time. Serve your drink up, or perhaps add an occasional ice cube as you drink it. Don’t fill your glass with tiny ice cubes that will melt in seconds. And, of course, for a long drink, something served on ice in a highball or Collins glass, good old cube ice is the simplest go-to. It feels silly even to give a suggestion for what to make with cube ice because it could be almost anything, but here’s a fun Middle Eastern-inspired cocktail—The Lady in the Bottle—we’ve been making that showcases the texture from shaking with good cubes.

Large Cube Ice

Large ice cubes (approximately 2-inch cubes) are generally more for the serving part of your cocktail experience, rather than the building part. They come into play when you’re serving a strong drink that you want to be on ice so it stays chilled, but you don’t want further dilutionbecause you’ve already stirred it.

The lowball drinks, like an Old Fashioned, Vieux Carré, Negroni,Boulevardier, etc., are great served with a large ice cube, as is any spirit on the rocks. Or try this boozy martini-blonde Negroni mash-up, The Marilyn.

"Crushed ice" is code for "adult slushie."

Crushed Ice

Crushed ice is a necessity only if you’re serving the types of vaguely slushie-like drinks that are designed to be served on crushed ice. I rarely make any of these drinks, but if I do, there’s no substitute for crushed ice.

Juleps, swizzles, cobblers, and brambles, as well as some other tiki drinks, demand crushed ice. Without it, the frosty experience of those drinks simply isn’t the same. If you’re a fancy bar, you might invest in a machine that creates pellet ice. But for home, you can buy electric ice crushers that work pretty well. Otherwise, a canvas bag and a heavy mallet (or a towel and a rolling pin and a bit of unprocessed anger) can do the job of crushing ice just as well. Whack the ice inside the sack or towel until broken into irregular small-sized pieces, but err on the size of pea-sized or a little bigger when you’re crushing by hand so that the ice doesn’t get too melty.

If you want to try a crushed ice drink that’s not a julep or a swizzle, try this one we serve in our bar. We call it the Swedish Snö Cöne.

-Emily Vikre

Originally published on Food52.com

Simple Syrup

Oftentimes when I’m at home making a cocktail it goes like this: Ice, Spirit, maple syrup, lemon or lime.

Do I use maple syrup because I am the archetypal Northwoods woman who maybe buys it in bulk and maybe has gone full on Elf at one point and poured it on noodles? (To be fair, there was also tahini and miso involved, I’m not completely mad.)

Sure. But I also do it because I’m lazy and sometimes I don’t want to make simple syrup after spending my workday making things that two short years ago I had never even heard of: Oleo Saccharum. Orgeat. Onmoraki.

But you, my dear reader, you are not lazy! (Or even if you are, you probably didn’t spend your workday making Oleo Saccharum, and therefore hopefully still have some energy that you can direct towards combining sugar and water.)  Which is why I think you’ll be glad to take a few minutes to put together some simple syrup for your home bar, your iced teas and coffee. Simple syrup is a bonafide summer staple and a perfect building block for so many great cocktails. And once you commit the “recipe” to memory, it is infinitely and entertainingly customizable.

Hey, remember that list of vaguely unpronounceable cocktail ingredients two paragraphs back? Well that last one is actually a Folkloric Japanese bird demon that I threw in to make this point: It’s totally OK to be a little baffled by cocktail ingredients these days. We get a lot of folks in the cocktail room that sheepishly ask what bitters are (to quote Emily Vikre “salt and pepper for cocktails”) or where to buy simple syrup (Do NOT buy simple syrup. Hence this article.) Great cocktails can be had at home with an exceptional base spirit (ahem, Vikre, ahem) and just a few basic ingredients. Here’s one to get you started and some ideas for gilding the lily.

Simple Syrup

·      1 part water

·      1 part sugar (white or brown depending on what flavor you’re aiming for)

Heat and stir till sugar dissolves then cool and store in fridge. (One cup water and one cup sugar will yield about 1 ½ cup simple syrup and generally speaking should keep for a month refrigerated.)

That’s it! It IS simple.

To this you can add any number or combinations of flavorings by adding them to the hot syrup and letting them steep until cool (or overnight if you want a stronger flavor) then straining or plucking them out.

Some ideas for things you can steep in your simple syrup:

• Citrus Peels
• Ginger
• Cinnamon Stick
• Vanilla Bean
• Peppercorns
• Cardamom
• Chamomile
• Rose
• Jasmine tea
• Earl grey tea
• Basil
• Thyme
• Lemongrass
• Rosemary
• Mint
• Celery
• Chilies

Now make that drink! May I suggest…

For one serving

·      ¾ oz Simple syrup (infused or plain)

·      ¾ oz Fresh lemon or lime juice

·      2 oz Spirit of choice

You can build this in a glass over ice and either give it a good stir to dilute it a bit or top it up with soda water. You could also shake it (a mason jar works for this if you haven't been to our cocktail room to buy a fancy yet indestructible weighted shaking tin and a Hawthorne strainer.) and then strain into a coupe or martini glass.

Let us see what you get up to on Instagram using the #vikredistillery

-Chelsy

Singing Voyageurs at Vikre

Last week some singing voyagers of the Lyric Opera of the North got sidetracked at Vikre Distillery on their way to rehearsal. We hope they felt right at home.

We love the LOON Opera and are proud sponsors of their upcoming performance happening June 23, 24 & 26 at Lincoln Park Middle School. We hope to see you there! Tickets available & more information at www.loonopera.org.

A Midsommar Aquavit Party

The summer solstice (the longest day of the year, usually June 20 or 21), is quite a big deal in Scandinavia.  It makes sense, given that half the year is incredibly dark and rather cold (Scandinavia is up around the same latitude as Alaska), that the return of the sun would be celebrated in a major way.  In Sweden, Midsommar, as it’s called, is celebrated with huge festivals, dancing around flower-covered Maypoles, and lots of aquavit.  In Norway they call the solstice Sankthans Aften, and it is celebrated with huge bonfires along all the country’s many beaches, and of course with some beer and aquavit.       

Last year, we had a fantastic aquavit party to celebrate Midsommar and the introduction of our cognac-cask aged Voyageur Aquavit.  The one minor problem was that we are kind of disorganized and we didn’t manage to actually throw the party until, well, until September.  A mere three months late.  But, what we lack in timeliness and organizational skills, we try to make up for in enthusiasm and artistry.  So, when we finally had our party, we went all out. 

We enlisted a good friend of ours, Sue Watt, who is quite possibly the world’s most amazing event coordinator, and she also has an old barn and gorgeous property called Hemlock Preserve just a bit south of Duluth where she hosts events.  Sue filled her barn with magical Norwegian antiques, evergreen boughs, and pewter.  Entering the barn felt like walking into a fairyland.  Northern Waters Smokehaus provided a Scandinavian-inspired feast, Zenith Bread Project made us fresh-baked cookies for dessert, and of course, we were in charge of the cocktails!  There was a welcome song – sung by Joel and me – to the tune of a Disney Song, there were Norwegian drinking songs, and some aquavit descended from the ceiling across the barn, spilling dry ice smoke, to the epic reverberations of Also Sprach Zaratustra (you know, the theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey).    

So you may not be up for renting a whole barn to celebrate Midsommar (although, if you work on a similar schedule to us, you do have all the way until September to plan, so maybe you should give Sue a call!), but if you feel the urge to mark the official start of summer and the longest days of the year (which you should), we’ve outlined a menu below that you can execute at home.  You can make everything, if you want to go all out, or just choose a few of the elements, fill some jars with wildflowers, and invite over a few friends.  Just make sure you have aquavit.

THE DRINKS

Welcome drink:  Sommerland Punsj

For 8 people

·      2 ripe peaches cut into slices

·      12 oz. Voyageur Aquavit

·      8 oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth (not to be confused with Dolin Dry)

·      6 oz. lemon juice

·      4 oz. simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water mixed until the sugar dissolves)

·      16 oz. soda water

In a large container or pitcher, mash the peaches to release their juices.  Stir in the aquavit, mixing it well with the peaches to pick up their flavor.  Strain through a fine mesh strainer.  In a pitcher or punch bowl, combine the peach-infused aquavit, Dolin Blanc, lemon juice, and simple syrup and stir together well.  Add ice in large cubes and stir.  Top with soda water and serve.

A Fizzy Drink Option:  78 Degrees North  

For one drink

·      1 oz. Øvrevann Aquavit

·      ¾ oz. rhubarb syrup*

·      ½ oz. lime juice

·      Dry sparkling wine

Shake the aquavit, rhubarb syrup, and lime juice with ice to chill.  Strain into a champagne flute or coupe and top with sparkling wine.

*To make rhubarb syrup, combine 8 oz. of fresh rhubarb, chopped into pieces, and 1 cup sugar in a blender.  Pour 1 cup boiling water into the blender, cover and blend until pureed.  Strain through a fine mesh straining, pressing on the pulp to get all the syrup out.  Syrup keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator.

 A Boozy Drink Option:  The Kaupang (a Scanhattan)

For one drink

·      2 ½ oz. Voyageur Aquavit

·      1 oz. Sweet Vermouth

·      3-4 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Stir all the ingredients with ice until well chilled.  Strain into a double rocks glass over a large cube of ice.  Garnish with a cocktail cherry.

The Traditional Drink Option:  Sip ice cold aquavit straight, accompanied by a beer (preferably a pilsner).

THE FOOD

To begin, a chilled pea soup bright with herbs and swirled with tangy but rich crème fraiche.

And, of course, you can, and should, put together a Nordic-punctuated cheese plate with some Jarlsberg, Havarti, goat cheese, and rye crackers.

Next up, the über Scandinavian gravlax (cured salmon).  Serve this alongside some roasted fingerling potatoes and the traditional mustard sauce. 

For a main course, rub lamb chops with sea salt and crushed caraway and grill them (2-3 minutes per side) until medium-rare.  Serve accompanied with sauerkraut and roasted beets. 

Finally, set up a buffet of a few different kinds of cookies, some good vanilla ice cream and toppings for an easy dessert.  

SKÅL!

-Emily

The Elements of a Proper Punch—and a Summery One to Drink Now

At the risk of being quotidian, I’m going to take a moment to talk about the weather. Sources—for example, the calendar—say that we are within high-fiving distance of the official start of summer. Many people, I think, have felt embedded in summer for a while now. But here where I am in Northeastern Minnesota, well, today, as I wrote this, the high was 52° F and a northeast wind whipped through the trees so they danced wildly. At this time of year, it becomes hard to identify culinarily with a lot of the world, except, perhaps, for Iceland. And some of the more southerly reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, like the parts where penguins live. Our peonies barely have buds, the rhubarb is just showing its fresh face, and local asparagus is still a hazy green dream.

But, summer (while reluctant) is coming our way as well. I think. I hope. And I’m mentally preparing for grilling outside and icy pitchers of punch.

As we all know, there are a few key drink-related elements for a summer party. They are: volume, effervescence, volume, refreshingness, volume, and the color pink. (Okay, some of these elements may be negotiable, but nothing else contains all the elements quite like a punch… or the periodic table. Get it?) Anyway, besides all that, one of the particularly great things about punch is that it makes it easy for everyone to have a mixed drink in hand without anyone needing to be stuck at a bar station assembling drinks individually, making punch perfect for the low-keyness of a summer gathering.

A fun technical fact about punch: A punch has to contain a particular set of elements to merit the name—a spirit, sugar, water, citrus, and spice. Without any one of these, it’s not a true punch. Then again, when there’s a flowing bowl, it’s hard to worry too much about technicalities—but I think it does point to the fact that punch is meant to have some complexity mingled with its refreshing and effervescent quality. This can be achieved through a variety of ways, whether it’s making a spice-infused syrup, using tea as an ingredient (green tea in a summer punch with lime is fantastic), or one of the many spirituous ingredients that is full of spice, like vermouth, Campari, and others.

A good punch should be considered and constructed with care regarding balance and flavors—strength, richness, lightness, and citrus all working together. I’m not opposed to utterly thoughtless, frivolous fruity summer drinks, but for me that’s something like a spiked lemonade. It’s not punch.

However, summer is so abundant with fresh fruits and berries and herbs, it’s the perfect season for adding these to your drinks. And thus, in spite of, or perhaps in pleasant juxtaposition to, the hit of spice punch calls for, summer demands fresh, simple ingredients in your punch bowl. BUT (and this is a personal thing, you may disagree, but I do feel strongly about it) I prefer to do this through infusing syrups, or muddling things in and then straining them out. I hate trying to distribute chunks of strawberries or thyme sprigs or cucumber slices gracefully between multiple drinks. I’ve had some catastrophic spills related to trying to pour out a drink with mint sprigs into guests’ drinks. So, I pre-strain.

This punch, which I named Southern Belle punch (Sobelle for short, of course) because it’s bourbon gussied up in pink, was a favorite of mine last summer. Bourbon and Campari give it heft and bitterness while ginger gives it kicky spice. It sounds like a winter punch in the making, but raspberries, lemon, and Champagne fruit it back up again. It’s like a teenager in the summer: cut-off shorts, tanned skin (heedless of future wrinkles), big sunglasses, but still plenty of drama, and an ability to handle both cheeseburgers and a pie. It’s the first thing I’ll be making once summer finally arrives here in Minnesota.

Southern Belle Punch

Southern Belle Punch

• 12ounces bourbon
• 5ounces raspberry syrup (see below)
• 4.5ounces Campari
• 4.5ounces lemon juice
• 12ounces ginger beer, a nice spicy kind with a bit of kick
• 16ounces dry sparkling wine

Raspberry Syrup

• 1 1/2cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1cup sugar
• Zest of one lemon in strips
• Zest of one small orange in strips

-Emily Vikre

Originally published on Food52.com

When In Doubt, Make It!

One of the best things about being in a business where you’re making something is, well, making things!  I guess we have that ingrained into our psyches because even with a lot of the things that we could be hiring out to other people or buying finished, we generally opt to make it or do it or fix it ourselves.  Call it the brashness of the viking spirit (vikings totally made things, they didn’t just pillage them, I promise), or maybe it’s just lack of knowing that you could hire people to do these things.  Either way, here are a handful of the things we have made ourselves that you might not have known about…

1. Our furniture!  Ok, so maybe it makes people think of a Portlandia episode [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTcvmmOkqJI ] when I say, “Joel builds furniture.”  But he DOES!  Actually it was a mind-boggling experience for me when I discovered he built furniture for real.  We were living in our Boston apartment when he declared he wanted to build us a dining room table.  And I was like, ‘ok dear, that’s a really nice idea.  You do that, but maybe we should get an IKEA table for the interim (in my mind probably several years) time while you work on making the table.’  But, Joel refused an interim table, visited some reclaimed lumberyards (of course, because if you’re a guy who makes furniture, you’re going to use reclaimed lumber), and a couple weeks later we had a beautiful oak table.  A real one.  That was extremely sturdy, and in fact we are still using it now like 7 years later.  My mind was blown to smithereens.  But after I picked up the pieces and reinserted them into my head, I have never again rolled my eyes when he says he wants to just build something himself.  And thus, the tables, the bar, the counters, and the shelves at the distillery have been built by Joel in his woodshop in our basement.  

2.  Our plumbing!  Because, what better way to really know what does what on your equipment than by plumbing it all in yourself.  And, apart from all the burns, could soldering really be that hard to learn?  Only kind of.  Overhead soldering is not easy.  Anyway, our plumbing looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption, but this is actually because Joel has planned out every step of it ahead of time, making elegant curves and bends instead of just taking the easiest way out and then having to re-do or work around as new bits of plumbing get added.  Joel got into this partly because he wanted to do plumbing.  Wish granted!  I think he now spends 95% of his time plumbing.

3.  Our cocktail programme!  When Minnesota’s state laws changed to allow micro distilleries to have a cocktail roomme, we thought, let’s do it!  We didn’t know anything about running a small bar, or a big bar, or any kind of bar or even about bartending.  And we certainly didn’t know that an intelligent thing to do would be to start by hiring someone from the cocktail world to design a menu and a bar program and all that that entails, which is the normal thing to do.  Amazing the things you can figure out how to do yourself, though, when you don’t know there are other options.  So we started to teach ourselves all about liqueurs, and bitters, and amari, and ice, and cocktail equipment.  Luckily, liquid learning is not at all an unpleasant type of learning, and over time our lovely cocktail room was born and continues to be an exciting work in progress.  

4.  Our tasting flight boards and menu boards!  See entry 1 – Joel builds furniture.  Also, we got the leather for the menu boards from Candace.  She is one of our esteemed bartenders as well as an extremely talented leatherworker and shoemaker.   

5.  Our stanchions!  Did you know you can buy stanchions?  Of course you did.  And technically we did too.  But why would you buy them when you can build them out of used barrel heads, and posts, and make Ted triple braid strands of cord instead, amiright?

6.  Our sumptuous entrance-covering curtain!  Duluth gets cold.  Really cold.  This fact has been established, frequently and firmly.  In the winter, every entrance of a guest into our cocktail room was accompanied by a gust of below zero air.  After a few entrances, everyone felt like a block of ice.  You need ice to make cocktails, but you don’t want to be the ice you wish to see in the world, er, drink.  So, we decided to put up a curtain around the entrance to keep the air out.  And, as we happened to discover that our production manager Erin has a sewing machine, boom, she got volunteered to sew it.  We didn’t make her job easy either because we chose two different kinds of fabric (the store didn’t have enough of the one we wanted!) with different weights, and thread direction, and elasticity.  But, Erin did a marvelous job.  Her grandmother would be very, very proud.  We’ve taken it down for the summer (maybe this was a bad idea?  It’s still only 40ish degrees out.), but it’ll reappear next fall because that thing is not just elegant and sumptuous, but also sewed to last.  

7.  Our chalkboards!  Technically Dave did our chalkboards.  He’s another one of our esteemed bartenders.  But, we found out he was also an artist.  The moment we let him get a piece of chalk in his hands, our chalkboards were instantly transformed.  No, they’re not for sale, sorry.

8.  Our photography!  Maybe it’s obvious that we don’t hire professional photographers.  If it is, please don’t tell us.  Caitlin and I are both self-taught photographers – though I did do a brief stint as a photo assistant in the studio at Stonewall Kitchen, but somehow I don’t think 3 months of photo assisting qualifies a person as a professional – and it’s one of the best parts of our jobs.  I used to want to be a food stylist and photographer back in the day, so photographing cocktails scratches that itch.  

9. The spirits.  Obviously. ☺

-Emily Vikre - Co-Founder, President, and Arbiter of Taste

Syttende Mai

GRATULERER MED DAGEN! Today is the most important day of the year: Syttende Mai!  In celebration of Norway's independence, we hope you have your Norwegian flags flying, your bunad on, are eating plenty of ice cream and hot dogs, and of course, toasting with aquavit!  Don't know what aquavit is?  Or, know what aquavit is but want to know more our take on it? We've created this video just for you to help you discover the joys of aquavit and how we make it at Vikre Distillery, presented by our very own Norwegian-American dual citizen, Emily Vikre!

May Boozescopes

Happy Birthday to Taurus! Art by Cameron Conlon

When someone asks us, “nature or nurture,” we say, “cosmos!”  Because what could be more fun or inspiring than looking at what the stars and planets may tell us about ourselves and our innermost desires, especially when our innermost desires are centering around what we should order to drink with dinner... 

ARIES

March 21st - April 20th

Ah, energetic, enthusiastic Aries.  Your instincts are to fight fire with fire, so when you’re looking to quench your thirst, it’s a good thing there are cocktails out there that are just as exciting and commanding as you are.  Next time you are out on the town (which we suspect will be in the very near future) grab yourself a Negroni.  From the red color down to the flaming orange peel garnish, this classic cocktail will set your energy ablaze.  As a trailblazer, you'll want to be the first to try our Cedar Negroni.  Discover the recipe on our cocktail page.

TAURUS

April 21st - May 21st

From April 19th to May 20th, it is officially Taurus time!  Relish in it, oh earthy one.  Your birthday (even if it is a couple weeks past) is the perfect excuse to indulge in the things that you love.  And we know that for you that includes good food and drinks.  Taurus types process through the jaw, mouth, and facial senses.  That means that your nose is strong, sensitive, and able to really take in a beverage’s aromas, subtle or strong.  Spend some time enjoying the fragrance of a nice glass of aromatic wine like an Austrian Riesling or a red Burgundy.  Perhaps you’d prefer to inhale the peaty smoke of an Islay Scotch.  Or have a beautifully balanced classic cocktail where fragrant floral liqueur shines, like an Aviation (may we suggest using our Juniper Gin :)

GEMINI

May 22nd - June 21st

No one loves a good cocktail party as much as you, Gemini.  So how about playing hostess with the mostest for an evening?  Bartending will come easily to you, as folks with a Sun in Gemini tend to have hands for making as well as the gift of gab on their side.  As for the menu, keep it fresh and interesting (just like you.)  We suggest whipping up a round of Ramos Gin Fizzes.  This cocktail is airy (also just like you), and the history behind it will provide you both with a story to tell your guests and entertainment for your active mind.  

CANCER

June 22nd - July 22nd

Cancer, a water sign, is ruled by the moon, which represents emotion.  With your sensitive and watery nature, it’s no wonder that Cancers love a life textured with all their favorite things.  Cancer finds comfort in the home, so whether it’s spending time with your closest friends and family or curling up with a bottle of wine for some blissful quiet time to yourself, you do you, Cancer!  When you find yourself craving a cocktail, go with one that reminds you of what you hold dear or one that lets you indulge in a little of your nostalgic tendencies, like the cocktail you had on your first date with your significant other or one your family always makes on your favorite holiday. 

LEO

July 23rd - August 23rd

Bold Leo, you’ve got our attention.  As a fire sign, Leo is, unsurprisingly, associated with the colors we typically see flickering in flames: orange, red, and gold.  No need to hold back, you light up a room.  You certainly don’t mind standing out, so why not order a drink that matches your mighty roar.  We know what you’re thinking: shots of Fireball? Sure, that’s an option, but it’s not your only one.  Why not try a Last Word.  This classic and potent combination of gin, lime, and two unique liqueurs is as intense, powerful, and bold as you are.    

VIRGO

August 24th - Sept. 22nd

Forget show-offs and show-stealers, flashy and overdone isn’t your style, Virgo. For you, elegance, beautiful simplicity, and excellent execution is where it’s at.  At a good cocktail bar, a perfectly crafted Martini - timeless, sophisticated - may be just what the doctor ordered.  If you feel a little less reserved than usual, order it dirty or have a Gibson.  If you are the one in control of drink-making, utilize your craftsmanship skills and unique attention to detail.  Stay true to yourself by topping your cocktails only with classy and practical garnishes.  You’ll wow the crowd with the final product, no need to cover it with excessive cherries on picks or colorful umbrellas.

LIBRA

Sept. 23rd - Oct. 23rd

Libra, symbolized by the scales, is always looking for balance.  Since bartenders always strive to craft perfectly balanced drinks, it seems only right that we should enlist our Libran friends to be our official taste-testers.  As the judge of the Zodiac, Libras are always assessing right and wrong.  This air sign also appreciates sharing, building relationships, and 1-on-1 exchanges.  So, Libra, if you want to drink in a way that compliments your natural tendencies, feel free to take any cocktail recipe you try and adjust the flavors to your own preference using your keen sense of balance.  Not enough lime in that daiquiri recipe? Add another splash.  Too much vermouth in a standard Manhattan?  Tone it down.  You’re the one holding the scales.   Also, stay clear of drinks with weird electric colors.  Blue Chartreuse or Kinky is just not going to be for you, as you gravitate toward pastels and neutral colors. 

SCORPIO

Oct. 24th - Nov. 22nd

When the Sun travels into Scorpio, days become shorter and light fades away.  Whether it be the dark back corner of a dingy bar or the hidden depths of your subconscious, Scorpio relishes time to be with the darkness.   In this fixed water sign, sexy and badass mingle in one powerful package.  No wonder Scorpio is associated with the rich, gothic colors red and black.   Stinger by your side, you have no problem showing the world you mean business.  Next time you’re making nice with midnight, hone your edgy desires with a glass of Absinthe or maybe even try your hand at mixing up a gothic cocktail.  If nothing else, get something with Angostura bitters. You share similar qualities.    

SAGITTARIUS

Nov. 23rd - Dec. 21st

Yeehaw Sagittarius, live wild n’ free, baby!  Voted most likely to have fire in their eyes and a flask of whiskey in their pocket.  Catch one if you can, but certainly don’t count on it.  This sign is associated with the archetype of the explorer and is constantly on the go.  If you are a Sagittarius, consider catching your next Happy Hour post motorcycle or mountain bike ride. If you are a Sagittarius who loves cocktails, consider making a pilgrimage to important bars from cocktail history (think The Roosevelt in New Orleans or Bar Basso in Milan).   You can accomplish anything you set your mind to.  

(P.S. Bruce Lee was a Sagittarius.  Just sayin’.)   

CAPRICORN

Dec. 22nd - Jan. 20th

Strong, sturdy Capricorn.  You were born in the cold, barren, winter and made to survive and thrive.  Hard working Capricorns will use everything at their disposal in order to endure.  So for you, unwavering one, we suggest barrel-aged anything. Scotch, bourbon, aquavit, aged rum, anejo tequila... You’ll be able to appreciate the craftsmanship and intention present in each sip.  Maybe you even want to try buying a small barrel and aging your own cocktail!   And because Capricorn rules the skeletal structure, when you find a spirit you love, you won’t just taste it, you’ll feel it all the way down into your bones. 

AQUARIUS

Jan. 21st - Feb. 18th

Dear Aquarius, you are a rebel with a cause. You’re known for your fresh ideas and you will work to see positive changes on a community level.  You think about who you want to be in this world, and live out that vision.  Your ideal cocktail is made with local and ethically sourced ingredients.  Sipping a drink made up of components you can get behind will satisfy your desire to act in favor of the greater good and your thirst for adventure.  Learn the stories behind the spirits you enjoy.  And why not visit your local farmer’s market, where you can participate in your community and look for cocktail inspiration from what’s in season!  Rhubarb, radishes, berries, basil, melons, apples...with your creativity, you can create unique juices, infusions, syrups, and shrubs from any ingredient that speaks to you.  

PISCES

Feb. 19th - March 20th

There’s no better way to describe you than to say that still waters run deep, Pisces.  Fish gotta swim, and whether it be into a pool of emotion, a sea of unknown, or a puddle of passion, a Pisces is more likely than any one to dive right in.  This is one of your best qualities, dear watery one; take full advantage of your ability to let the moment sink in.  Spend time at bars that offer the experiential aspect you hold so dear. Tiki joint?  Local dive?  It’s up to you.  Once you’re there, map uncharted waters and order that cocktail no one else in your group would. Or, you could always grab a glass of nice red wine, because, you know, Pisces is associated with Dionysus, God of Wine! 

-Squid the Star Dog & Cosmic Cait

Painting by Cameron Conlon.  Follow her instagram, @burtthaflirt

Cocktails 101

Emily Vikre, Melissa Coleman AKA The Fauxmartha, and Erik Eastman of Easy & Oskey got together and did not utter a word about cocktails. Just kidding. Truth be told, they spent the entire day recording recipes, recommendations, and more.

Watch The Fauxmartha's nomcast: "Cocktails 101 - How to stock a home bar and shake a killer martini. Or is it stirred? Special Guests: Vikre Distillery and Easy & Oskey Bitters."and keep an eye out for more videos, coming soon to an internet near you!

Photo by Thomas Osmonson

 

Hack Your (Home-grown) Hangover

by Chelsy Whittington, our visitor experience manager

Last week our cocktail room played host to the 18th annual Homegrown Music Festival and everyone went to bed early and drank not very much at all.

Wait. 

That’s not right.

What I meant to say is that everyone partied admirably hard and spent the daylight hours mainlining coffee and worrying what sort of pictures were going to surface on Instagram. For those of you not from these parts, Homegrown is eight days of music and art sprawling throughout countless venues in the Twin Ports. What started as a birthday party for Father Hennepin’s Scott Lunt has become an epic undertaking, staffed almost entirely by volunteers, featuring only local bands who do it for the love of the game and maybe some free drink tickets.

In the spirit of the day after (for the entire week of Homegrown virtually all of Duluth is having one big fat day after), I thought a selection of, shall we say “recovery beverages” might be in order. We’ve all tried our hand at Bloody Mary's (or Bloody Marins, if you’re doing the recovering at Vikre) but I’d like to propose a few new additions to the roster, featuring my ever so favorite spirit: Øvrevann Aquavit.

And while our best advice to you is to be a homegrownup and not drink so much as to become hungover in the first place…

We all know it happens, even to the best of us.

So without further ado...let’s start with some beverage backstory. Perhaps it's a regionalism. Most likely, it's a regionalism specifically centered around my childhood home where my mom used to make me Orange Julius when I was under the weather. To be even more specific, she made me Orange Julius and served them in a limited edition light up Lord of the Rings commemorative chalice that I think maybe came from a fast food restaurant?

(Don’t worry, if you really want to recreate the healing magic of the chalice, I’m sure you can hunt one down on EBay.)

And so, when I was brainstorming a feel better beverage this was the first thing that came to mind. You get the sunshine-y pick me up of vitamin C, B vitamins from the milk and electrolytes from the salt. Will it will be delicious without Aquavit? Sure. But if you are truly in need of a little hair of a tiny Scandinavian dog here’s my secret: it will be better WITH aquavit.

Øvrevann Orange Julius

Ingredients:

• 3 oz Øvrevann Aquavit
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ 6 oz. can of frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 ½ cups ice
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Generous pinch Vanilla Salt**

Method:

      Blend it, pour it. This makes about 3 cups which as you can see is       enough to make a adequate beverage for yourself and a friend.

**If you take nothing else away from this post at least go make yourself some vanilla salt by scraping the seeds of one vanilla bean into ¾ cup of flaky sea salt then chucking the salt and the whole bean into an airtight jar and letting it hang out till you need it. You’ll need it sooner than you think.

Now, if you're not the type to mise en place an Orange Julius or have the forethought to make vanilla salt, I do have a second option for you: The Aquavit Pickleback. Though this combo was popularized with whiskey, Aquavit is a natural choice seeing as how dill is one of the traditional botanical components often used in the spirit. And then, let's take it even further up the recovery scale and use delicious lactofermented pickles and get all of that good bacteria working for our weekend. Again if you want to skip the Aquavit, some folks swear by just a shot of pickle juice the morning after. The choice is entirely yours…

The Aquavit Pickleback

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. Øvrevann Aquavit
• 1 oz. Lactofermented pickle juice

Method:

      Shoot Aquavit. Shoot pickle juice. Feel like a champ.

Distillery Mamas

Happy (almost) Mother's Day!  On this weekend, when we celebrate the most important women in our lives (Hi mom!  Love you!), we thought we would also take a moment to celebrate all the fiercely fantastic women who keep our distillery running.  The many moms of our distillery baby, if you will.

You see, both the fields of distilling and bartending are hugely dominated by men.  Mostly gruff bearded men in work hats, or tatted-up mustachio'ed men in dapper vests.  We have some of them working with us, in fact, and we love them very dearly!  BUT, we are extremely proud of the fact that when you take a look (seriously, just look at our staff page), at Vikre we have A LOT of women running the show.  As evidenced, for example, by this totally not staged photograph.  Ok, it's a tiny bit staged, but only because we're usually moving around too fast to capture us in one place.   

One of our two co-founders and the president of our company is a lady.  As are the two people who do the bulk of the actual distilling.  Our brand and media manager is a lady and so is the person who runs all the visitor experience services, i.e. our bar, tours, events, and community outreach.  And we have so many epically amazing women bartenders too.  

Sarah Lee and Erin, the women of our production team

So let's hear it for the ladies! And, in the immortal words of Beyonce, I give you this query and answer: "who run the world? Girls."  And remember, always listen to your mom. And DEFINITELY give her a call on mother's day! :)  

Extreme Coldness

Extreme coldness. It’s what makes Duluth, Duluth. Our partisans (see: Emily) call it “pristine,” and “wild.” They say it makes them proud to live in Duluth. It makes them feel like they earned it.

As a relatively new Duluthian, whose brain hasn’t been through too many freeze-thaw cycles, I just call it “ridiculous.” It makes me feel brave…on the days when it doesn’t make me feel scared.

As a distiller, the cold is an inescapable physical reality. When it’s -30F outside, which is a regular operating condition in Duluth, mechanical systems work differently. The diesel in our distillery truck turns to jelly. The cold air in our chimney is too heavy for the hot exhaust gases from our boilers to fight through, so instead of rising, smoke just pours out into our mechanical room. That’s if the boiler isn’t too frozen to fire at all. In the winter of 2013 our boiler partially froze, and Canal Park Brewery’s boiler partially froze, and Bent Paddle Brewery’s boiler froze solid – all in the same week.  It was one of those scary weeks.

The primary distiller’s downside to cold is that it slows barrel aging. This is part of why Kentucky Bourbon ages in 5 years but Scotch whisky takes 10. Whisky in Scotland basically takes the winter off from aging.

But mostly, for a distiller, cold is a good thing. Because distilling is about boiling and condensing, and the condensing takes cold. In Scotland, distilleries traditionally did their condensing with creek water. In the summer, when the surface water got too warm to do the job, they’d take a few months off. Between the whisky taking the winter off, and the distillers taking the summer off, it’s a wonder any whiskey ever got made!

condensers on the still

Here in Duluth, we have cold water year round. Our tap water comes from Lake Superior, which is ridiculously cold. In the winter it comes out of the tap around 40 degrees. In the summer it runs around 50 degrees. So when we began, we began by using this cold water to do our condensing. This was an energy efficient choice, but not a water efficient choice. In the last year we’ve been using as much as 200,000 gallons of water a month, and while this is not at all an unusual amount for a distillery, it was not a resource use we felt good about. So when we came up with our strategic plan for 2015, we set a goal of reducing our water use by 50%.

Given Duluth’s extreme cold, you’d think cooling process water would give you an embarrassment of options. Over the last year, I’ve investigated many many options. I considered an open cooling loop to the lake. I considered a closed loop with a heat transfer coil in the lake. I considered a closed geothermal loop digging down from an old storm sewer under the distillery. I talked to engineers, to engineering professors, to engineering students, to geothermal contractors, to industry cooling contractors, and to process water experts. I called every imaginable resource, including the city, the utility company, non-profits that specialize in energy use reduction and making manufacturing more environmentally friendly.  But, mostly they suggested solving the problem with electricity by mounting a big old electric chiller on the roof and calling it a day. This would mean running a big compressor all year long to create cold – in an atmosphere already overflowing with extreme coldness! This, interestingly, is the way almost all breweries do their cooling, even in cold places like Duluth.

But, this did not satisfy me. I did not want to reduce our water use by dramatically increasing our electricity use, particularly given that most of our regional electricity comes from coal.

So, I kept talking with people until, I found a couple folks willing to help. One is a process cooling specialist from Alabama, and the second is a civil engineer in Duluth. This is what we did (in case you’re interested):

Our cold process water runs through the condensers on the stills, and the fermenting equipment (more on our fermenting equipment – which we affectionately call “the brewery” – soon!). It comes out hot. This hot water runs over to our barrel room, and through a few refurbished fan coil units. These are basically just radiators with fans that we found in a basement, and they push some of the heat out of the water and into the room. This means the barrels get heated up during the day when the stills are running, and then cool off at night. In the winter it’s enough heat to keep them around room temperature instead of freezing. In the summer it’s enough to make the barrel room miserably hot. This diurnal variation is exactly what we want to facilitate whiskey aging.

the radiator in the barrel room

Then that still-quite-warm water runs back over to the distillery and into a 2,000 gallon reservoir. From the reservoir, the water is pumped through a heat exchanger where it’s cooled off, and then back out to the distillery and brewery process.  All in a nice closed loop.

the heat exchanger and pumps 

Now the heat exchanger works by transferring the heat from the water to a second medium, which is glycol. The glycol (basically food-grade antifreeze, and a key ingredient in Fireball™, hehe) is pumped through the heat exchanger, and it takes on the heat from the water, before it runs up to a hybrid adiabatic cooler on the roof. What the heck is a hybrid adiabatic cooler, you ask?  It is essentially just a giant radiator with a fan. Most of the year, given our extreme cold, that’s all it takes to shed the heat. In the summer, when the ambient temperature is higher than we want our process water to be, the cooler sprays water into the air as it passes through the radiator, allowing it to shed a couple extra degrees. That’s the “adiabatic” part. We benefit here from the fact that it stays pretty cool on the lake even in the middle of the summer, and it’s almost always windy up on our roof.  The glycol leaves the cooler, well, cooler, and comes back down to the heat exchanger to take on some more heat from the water.  

roof top cooler unit 

The water reservoir allows us to store cold, and to buffer changes in the temperature of the process water, which can really mess with the distilling process. By the end of the day, the reservoir will be pretty warm, but overnight it cools back down so in the morning we have nice cold water to start with. This allows us to run a smaller system than we otherwise would.

water reservoir

We’re still in the first month of operating this cooling system, so the numbers are still shaking out. I think we’ll have reduced our water use by about 90%. And we’re still getting the controls hammered out so it can efficiently regulate itself. In spite of everything we’ve done to anticipate the challenges, I’m sure we’ll have some problems to solve when it’s -30F next winter because there’s almost nothing that doesn’t freeze at -30. But at the very least, we can say we’re saving lots of water for the sturgeon and for the next bottle of gin.

Lake Superior 

Boreal Juniper Gin takes home the gold!

"Heia, Heia, Heia!” Our Boreal Juniper Gin took home the gold in the 2016 San Fransisco World Spirits Competition!  The rest of our Boreal Gins, both Aquavits, and Vodka won silver medals, awarded by a panel of spirits-industry experts.  Bravo, team.  You make our distillery proud.  Bobsled. 

Our New Spring Cocktail Menu!

TASTING FLIGHT - 8

Your choice of four of our spirits, 

tonic, soda & lime

_____ & TONIC - 7

Your choice of clear spirit,

house tonic, lime

_____ OLD FASHIONED - 8

Choice of clear spirit, sugar, bitters, orange twist

With Voyageur Aquavit +3   

KON-TIKI - 21

Øvervann Aquavit, lingonberry grenadine, roasted pineapple syrup, orange hazelnut falernum, lime, molasses Voyageur Aquavit float. (Serves two)

FJORD LIFE - 11

Boreal Spruce Gin, mango lillet-ish, lime, 

grapefruit, chili

FUNKY MONKEY - 9

Boreal Cedar Gin, orange juice, grenadine, 

rosemary anise bitters

THE LADY IN THE BOTTLE - 9

Boreal Cedar Gin, preserved lemon syrup, rosewater, fig bitters, sumac sugar rim

THE TRAGEDY OF PROHIBITION - 12

Boreal Juniper Gin, lemon, lime, sarsaparilla syrup,  orange blossom water,  

cream, egg white,  fizz

SWEDISH SNÖ CÖNE - 12

Lake Superior Vodka, black currant liqueur, lemongrass riesling syrup, lemon

PROFESSIONALISM - 11

Boreal Juniper Gin, Lake Superior Vodka, lemongrass riesling syrup, snap peas, tarragon

A PAL & A CONFIDANTE - 11

Voyageur Aquavit, golden spice syrup, heavy cream

_____________________________

ONE EPICALLY DELICIOUS SNACK - 12

NW Smokehaus salmon, salami, beet pickles, sweet spiced nuts, blue cheese ball with caraway brittle, dill butter, goat cheese, rye crackers

JUST THE NUTS - 3

** are you a designated driver for your group?  Let us know and we'll hook you up with a free non-alcoholic cocktail.**