TableYear round

Schnapps Blending

Caraway, dill, and the hedgerow

Akvavit is neutral spirit flavoured with caraway or dill and then, historically, with whatever a household had — bog myrtle, wormwood, St John's wort, blackcurrant leaf. Every family had a recipe and most of them were secret and slightly medicinal.

Blending your own is an afternoon with thirty jars of infusion in front of you and a pipette, building something from a base spirit and then arguing about it. The results range from genuinely good to undrinkable and both are instructive.

The rules of drinking it are stricter than the rules of making it. Small glass, cold, never sipped, and only after somebody has sung.

It belongs to specific meals

It belongs to specific meals rather than to an evening on its own. Crayfish in August, herring at midsummer, the Christmas table, and never much in between — Sweden drinks a good deal less of this than its reputation suggests, and drinks it ceremonially when it does.

You take a bottle away with you, which needs a word about customs allowances and is usually fine.

Year round and better paired with the meal it was built for, so if you are here in August we will put this on the afternoon before the crayfish.

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