My favourite Finnish drinks at the moment

I wanted to write a separate post about the current drinks scene in Finland based on the impressions I had on my holiday. Or let's say, this is just about the drinks selection I made and the places I went to and therefore quite limited in that sense. The craft beer trend is very much happening in Finland at the moment and there are many good small breweries offering all sorts of beers. Also the ciders are moving more into the craft direction, which I can only salute. There's also a strong trend for quality whiskies and gins becoming more and more popular. I will introduce here a few fairly new products, which I find excellent, but remember that there is much more available.

Long Kyrö, a gin, cranberry and rosemary gin long drink by Kyrö Distillery Company is a fairly new drink launched this year. I'm a fan of their whiskies and gins anyway and this is just another great product added to their selection. The flavours of cranberry and rosemary with gin are just beautiful together. I visited the distillery's first ever music festival and had a great time there sampling their drinks and listening to the wonderful music acts. Currently my favourite cocktail is the brightly orange Sainio, which contains sea buckthorn juice, lemon and Napue gin. My partner prefers Perttilän Silta with Juuri whisky, lime and ginger beer.

Vaasa is a small town close to my home, so we went there for a daytrip. When the hot day started turning into a thunder storm, we went to the Little Pub to take shelter. Just like its name, it's a little pub beside the marketplace. I had Long Kyrö also there, but they had a really good drinks selection in general and knowledgeable bar staff.

There was a new bottle shop called Pien in Helsinki that had just opened the same week we were there. They are selling beers and ciders from Finnish craft brewers, and also some organic foods. We purchased few bottles there to sample later.

Hiisi brewery is an excellent small craft brewery producing lovely beers with nice artwork on the labels. Their philosophy is to produce non-boring tasty beers and I think they are doing pretty good job at it after having sampled a few of their beers.

Prykmestar's wild strawberry and rhubarb cider is one of my summer favourites. It's so refreshing and has delicate flavours. Who could ever resist wild strawberries.

In Helsinki we also visited Stadin Panimo, a craft brewery and bar. They had excellent beers, but also a refreshing and nicely coloured pink grapefruit long drink.

Crafty Craft cider by Saimaan Juomatehdas must be my current Finnish cider favourite. It comes in small cans and has been made purely from apples by fermenting them and it's vegan and gluten free. These ciders are fairly dry yet so refreshing and there's something about drinking cider from a can.

So this was my quick recap to the holiday. I think now I've run out of Finland themed posts for a while. I'll need to concentrate on some other countries next, at least until Christmas.

Mikkeller gin & tonic with strawberries and blood orange

We just had quite heavy thunderstorms here, so I thought it would be nice to think about more sunshiny things. Actually not really, as I really like thunderstorms and this time I even managed to stay semi-dry, so can't complain. Anyway when it was warmer and sunnier a while ago I made these gin & tonic drinks with local fresh strawberries and blood orange that had kept in fine condition in the fridge. Now I've definitely run out of blood oranges. I used Mikkeller gin that is a special thing to have and I buy a bottle maybe couple of times a year. I really like it, it's really brilliant quality with nice artwork. It makes me miss Copenhagen again!

So here's the drink and the ingredients for one glass were about the following:

4 cl Mikkeller gin

200 ml tonic

2 strawberries sliced

½ blood orange sliced

Have further a good week, almost weekend now!

Your VegHog

Caple Road Cider

Caple Road cider (5,2 %) cooled, straight from the can is my new favourite in the world of ciders. I've been buying this cider for a while now and am not tired of it yet. Now it's also starting to spread into more places and I keep detecting the small yellow cans here and there, most recently in a Nicholson's pub. It's the first canned craft cider made by the Westons orchard, whom I often trust in my cider choices anyway.

The taste is very refined and just suitably dry for my taste. It's oaky, fresh and very appley. There's also a hint of vanilla in the flavour.

Keep your eyes peeled and try this cider, if you'll find it anywhere. Well, obviously online it's quite easy to find at least.

Have you been making acquaintances with any new drinks lately? I would be happy to get recommendations.

Your VegHog

Ginger shots

Don't let the title fool you, this post is not about alcohol. Quite the contrary it's about a health drink that I have started fancying more and more and that can easily be blended at home. The shot refers purely to the size of the drink. 

I made these refreshing morning ginger shots from fresh ginger blended into freshly pressed lime juice and cloudy apple juice. This drink is so healthy and revitalising in the morning. You can make them even more punchy by adding more ginger. I promise you, you will get awake.

Have a good week everyone!

Your VegHog

Beavertown Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale

Here comes a quick drink recommendation for the season: Beavertown Brewery's Stingy Jack Spiced Pumpkin Ale. I just had to push this post in before October ends.

I always tend to like the Beavertown beers, but with this pumpkin ale they really have outdone themselves. It's a very spicy drink with many different flavours. There's a background of heavy nutmeg and juicy fruit esters, a gingery tingle on the tongue and a banana flavour. The colour of the beer is deep orange, suitably for the season. The mouthfeel is oaty with some barley, nutmeg and spicy flavour. I strongly recommend this beer and am quite sad that I have none left for this evening.

Once again, have a good time with your Halloween celebrations!

Your VegHog

Lately in my kitchen

I wanted to write a quick post about the new products that have recently entered my kitchen and what I have been cooking. I have been buying all sorts of lovely new foodie stuff again and would like to show you a few interesting items. I haven't added any links to the products, but I'm sure you'll find info online, if you want to.

Twin Peaks is in this case an Anglo American Pale Ale by Thornbridge microbrewery. As a long time fan of the TV series Twin Peaks by David Lynch, which probably is the best series ever, it was a no-brainer for me to buy this beer. I watched Twin Peaks as a teenager when it first came out and was so fascinated by it all. Still today it puzzles me very much. Good times waiting for the new season while drinking this beer!

I was very curious when I saw this product Tapped in my local health food shop, it's a refreshing drink made from Finnish birch sap. I'm very much a fan of the stuff and it's great to see that it's now available in the UK as well. It's an exciting one to harvest in the spring for a few weeks only. My family members tend to freeze large blocks of it to be able to melt them occasionally in the winter. Birch sap has many health benefits. Tapped also comes in a couple of flavoured versions, but surely the original has to be the best. I like the packaging that looks like a birch branch, I'm just not quite sure about including characters in the name that aren't Finnish, but maybe that's just the quirky and funny twist.

I liked the look and sound of this Pineapple Chipotle Salsa very much, so I bought it as well. I haven't tried it yet, but can't wait to sink my rye nachos into that one on one lazy Saturday film night.

This Herb and Spire Pairing Wheel will become really handy when developing new recipes. It's interesting to see in beforehand, if your planned creative combinations are actually going to fit well together.

I have been cooking many tasty dishes lately, unfortunately I have just been too busy to post them here. I'm sure that I will cook most of them at some point again. I have also been cooking my regular Weekday meals like pasta with tomatoes, mozzarella and rocket, or bean sprout and tofu stir fry. I have been eating a lot of vegan stuff, there are very good options for autumnal vegan dishes. Seasonal vegetables, for example pattypan squashes and kohlrabi have often been on the menu recently.

And do you recognise this seal of approval? Soon this wonderful product will be introduced here on the blog as well. I haven't actually tried it yet, so more about that very soon.

What lovely new food or cooking stuff have you obtained recently, please share! Have further a good week!

Your VegHog

Teerenpeli Single Malt Whisky

Do you still remember Teerenpeli from a recent post of mine, a Finnish restaurant chain with proud range of own beers, ciders and whiskies? Back then I promised to write something more on their products. Now I feel that the suitable time has arrived to write about their single malt whisky, as the days are growing bleaker and the nights darker. Also the weekend is soon here - good times!

I have been very much into whisky lately, which quite surprises me, and I was happy to have some of this Teerenpeli product left. So here are my thoughts on the Teerenpeli Single Malt Whisky 43 %. It's a 8 years old whisky and quite smooth in general. There is a slight smoke flavour in the foretaste. The aftertaste contains sweeter components, such as vanilla and caramel. Finally there is a really strong earthy taste in the aftertaste, pretty much like tar. I know that flavour well, as Finns often flavour sweets with tar.

Try it, if you'll ever get the chance!