Distillery tour at Kyrö Distillery Company

This weekend I had the pleasure to go on a tour through the premises of the Kyrö Distillery Company. You can read my first post here about the distillery that is a reasonably new venture in the village where I was born. The company is distilling whisky and gin in the old dairy building of Isokyrö. There also is a bar and restaurant Kyrönmaan Matkailun Edistämiskeskus offering the own products and various fine drinks made with them and named after local places. They are normally open on a first Saturday of each month and sometimes for special occassions.

The annual 18th Century Market was taking place in Isokyrö town centre this weekend, so the distillery and bar were open for three days frequently offering distillery tours. The tour is very much worth taking, as it was very informative and also amusing. On the tour we heard how whisky is made there and what makes it so special in comparison to other whiskies and methods. There was also a brief introduction to the local history and heritage, to which the distillery wants to be closely attached. The font they use on their branding comes from a local war memorial and the font of their new "seal of approval" comes from the wall paintings of the local medieval church. Also the seal with the bottle is a similar image to the coat of arms of Isokyrö, which shows a bear with a fir tree.

After the tour we tasted pretty much all products of the distillery, some of which I wasn't familiar with yet. I haven't been able to obtain the new products yet, so now was the perfect opportunity to taste them. Verso is the more matured version of Juuri. It's a sprout of whisky as the name suggests and has been matured for 4 months. It is already much smoother than Juuri and has strong rye flavour to it.

Then there was a new gin variation, Koskue, which also tastes very pleasant with rye notes and hints of fine botanicals. We also tried Helsingin, which I think had a bit more juniper flavours and less other spices, and the name is very inspired (Helsinki in its possessive form contains the word gin).

The distillery recently won the trophy for the best gin & tonic decided by the IWSC, and luckily for us, the winning drink was served at the bar. Napue Tonic contains Napue gin, Fever Tree Indian tonic, cranberries and rosemary, and it truly is an excellent drink. I will have to try recreating it once I'm back in England.

One of my favourite alcoholic drinks is Lonkero, or the grey gold of the north as I call it, a Finnish mix drink of gin and grapefruit lemonade. Of course the bar served the lonkero of the house containing Napue gin and I obviously had to have some of those, and it was of course better than any odd Lonkero.

Needless to say how great it was to visit the distillery and bar again! I'm hoping it won't be quite another year until I can go there again, but if it is, I will surely try out the quirky Zetor ride then. I can only recommend a visit there, if you'll ever have the chance.

Your VegHog

 

 

Tomato cordial cocktail

A week ago on Sunday I declared the upcoming week to a tomato themed week on my blog. I have utterly enjoyed eating tomatoes, cooking tomatoes and even drinking tomatoes (the drinking part comes today in the form of a tomato cordial cocktail) during The VegHog's Tomato Festival, and of course writing about the recipes and taking photos. I hope that you have also liked my posts during this week. I must say that I'm still not sick of tomatoes at the end of this, amazing! 

 

So, now to the final tomato post in this series. This unusual cocktail idea was inspired by the vibrant tomato cordial made by The Tomato Stall, which I recently purchased. The products from The Tomato Stall have come up a few times during the week, but it's just because I happen to like them. This is not a collaboration in any way. 

I used these ingredients for my cocktail:

Tomato cordial

Sparkling water

Gin

Fresh basil

Tomatoes

I more or less poured the ingredients into a jug based on a gut feeling. The end result was very tasty and interesting. It was very refreshing and perfect for a summer's day.

Have fun!

Your VegHog

Blood orange and gin cocktail

One of my best purchases in Copenhagen was this Mikkeller Botanical Gin. It's a very good quality gin made with Simcoe hops and the finest botanicals. I had a sip of it pure, and it tasted just divine. 

As I needed some cooling yesterday afternoon (well weather wasn't so hot, but I had been doing stuff all morning), so I thought I'd make a refreshing cocktail with this gin. Here are no amounts given, as I just threw everything into the cocktail mixer and enjoyed. I made mine quite mild on the gin side, though. You can keep tasting it while you go along to get the right proportions to your own taste.

This is what I used:

Mikkeller Gin

Sicilian blood orange juice

Lime

Ice cubes

Mix the gin and blood orange juice and press the lime juice into it. Add the ice and shake. Serve cold and enjoy!

Even though it's Sunday today, I just might make a couple of sneaky glasses of this drink. I have decided mainly to relax all day.

Your VegHog

2nd blog anniversary + G&T with L&B

I almost missed the blog anniversary this year, even though it's only the second one! It was always in the back of my mind that I'd want to make a special post for it in January. However, time then flew and before I knew it, the 7^th was here. The lack of time and preparation made me choose a quick option to mark the occasion and I thought that a celebratory drink could be a nice idea (more my style than a cake any day).

The idea for this Lemon and basil gin cocktail came when I was flicking through The Forest Feast again and saw the Lemon-Basil Mojito (p. 70-71). Since I had just purchased a new bottle of Kyrö Distillery Company's good rye gin called Napue (my review here), I decided to go more into the G&T direction today. So I just threw gin, tonic water, lemon wedges, fresh basil and ice together without any further measurements. It became a very refreshing drink – simple and good!

Hereby I raise a glass to you all, my lovely readers, and thank you for reading my blog, commenting and being nice! Let's hope that there will be many more anniversaries as I'm really enjoying the blogging.

Thank you!

Your VegHog

Kyrö Distillery Company – Going back to the roots

I was born in the small town of Isokyrö in western Finland in the late 1970s and spent most of my childhood and youth there. The main trade of this quiet place is agriculture, but now unheard things are happening: a whisky distillery, Kyrö Distillery Company, has been founded there! I was very excited when my mum told me these news in June. She had even cut out a local newspaper article for me about the distillery (because that's how they still do it in those parts of the world!).

Even the building where the distillery is located has fond memories for me. That place is none other than the old dairy building of Isokyrö. They used to produce Oltermanni cheese there, which I'm pretty much obsessed with. My grandparents had cows that produced milk for making that cheese. In the early 21^st century Valio moved the Oltermanni production away from Isokyrö and I claim that after that the taste of Oltermanni slightly changed. And it looks like it wasn't just my imagination, as back then Valio even confirmed to me in an email conversation that the taste can be different when the cheese is produced elsewhere – such shocking revelations!

Anyway, there is no longer need for bitterness about Oltermanni's sad departure from Isokyrö as the dairy building has now been put to good use by the Kyrö Distillery Company. They distil rye whisky, which is first of its kind in Finland. A 100% rye whisky, like they make it, is a rare thing even on a global scale. Finns like putting rye pretty much everywhere, but surprisingly a pure rye whisky hasn't been made there before. The five founders of Kyrö Distillery Company say that the idea of making rye whisky struck them in the sauna, and that is the very place where many successful Finnish ventures have started! 

Every time I visit Finland I go to Isokyrö to see family, and when I had my last holiday in August, I got really lucky as the distillery pub was open for the public. I already wrote a post about the 18th century market in Isokyrö, and during that market the distillery had opened the pub and organised tastings and viewings. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go on a tour or to the tastings, but for the next visit that's definitely on my list. These are still early days for the pub, but in the meanwhile it opens once a month, if I'm correctly informed. 

In the pub they served lovely fruity cocktails, long drinks and the real thing. I tasted Juuri (Root), which is the unaged rye whisky and I also had cocktails named after local places, such as “Perttilän Silta” and “Pukkilansaari” and long drink of the house. These were made of Juuri and the other product of the Kyrö Distillery Company, Napue Gin, which gets its name after the very village the distillery is situated in. There is a memorial of the Battle of Napue (1714) very close by and the typeface of that monument has been used to create the clean design of the Kyrö Distillery Company's products. They call it Napue Sans! I find the whole branding of the company to be very modern, but strongly mixed with tradition, and that's what makes it so appealing to me and surely to many others.

*These are old VegHog archive photos from the Battle of Napue memorial site taken 2011 and 2012.

You might know that I'm bit of a lightweight when it comes to hard booze, but of course I had to taste these products straight. On a normal day I might rather opt out for a cocktail. Here are a few tasting notes and other thoughts on these drinks.

Juuri – Like I mentioned above, Juuri is the unaged whisky and the first matured batch will be available in 2017, but it's in itself already a very accomplished drink.

Juuri tastes like eating toasted rye bread with honey. There are also some anise notes and hint of raisins and caramel.

Napue – For me a local gin was always going to be a very welcome drink as it is so versatile to use in cocktails and long drinks. Napue gin is also made of rye along with diverse fine botanicals. I read somewhere that it even contains sea-buckthorn, my favourite berry!

The rye smell hits you first, but the gin also has an initial smell of juniper and fresh botanicals. The foretaste is peppery, then berry and juniper tastes linger on the tongue. I think in the aftertaste I was able to get a hint of the sea-buckthorn, even if I might just have been imagining it. There is a strong rye taste throughout.

Now Master of Malt has both Juuri and Napue in their selection and they ship them almost everywhere in the world (check their page if your country is included). That means happy days for us expat Finns who can now get piece of home in the post. 

Thank you Kyrö Distillery Company for bringing a breath of fresh air to Isokyrö and good luck for the future! I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon.

Your VegHog

Watermelon and gin cocktail

Just when I promised you autumn recipes I'm coming with something that couldn't be more summerly: a watermelon and gin cocktail. Of course this drink can be enjoyed in any season, so I decided to post it instantly. It was quite a good mix for a refreshing cocktail and so wonderfully red – try it!

½ medium watermelon

1 lime

200ml gin

200ml tonic

Ice cubes

Squash the watermelon with a blender and pour the liquid through a sieve to remove the seeds. Add the juice of a lime, gin, tonic and ice cubes and there you have it!

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Finnish Gin Long Drink - Lonkero

In my opinion one of the best alcoholic beverages in this world is the Finnish Gin Long Drink, Lonkero to its friends, the grey gold of the north. Nowadays several brands and flavours of the long drink exist, but the classic is the best: gin in a tin with a grapefruit lemonade type of drink, at strength of 4,7% or 5,5% alcohol.

This drink was the first ready made alcoholic mixed drink in the history when it was created to quench the thirst of visitors to the 1952 Helsinki summer olympics. These days it's still one of the most popular alcoholic drinks in Finland, and I miss it so much when I'm in England. It should be exported more widely as it beats gin and tonic 5-0. Lonkero's taste is smoother and finer due to the grapefruit and the gin is more subtle.

But anyway, please don't take this appraisal too seriously, it's only my opinion and I appreciate that people have different tastes!

What's your favourite drink, dear Hogger?

 

Pineapple, coconut and gin cocktail

Fancy a refreshing cocktail? On a hot day make a pitcher of this drink, which basically is a fruity gin & tonic. It's quite exciting to use a fresh coconut as well for a change. Good luck with opening it!

A few ingredients are needed:

Pineapple juice

Juice of one coconut

1 lime

Tonic water

Gin

Ice cubes

Put ice cubes and approximately equal amounts of gin, pineapple juice and tonic water to a pitcher. 

You can make the cocktail stronger or milder on gin after your own taste.

Add coconut juice and press lime to the drink. Use a few lime slices as decoration. 

Mix all well together and prepare to be refreshed.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Pink grapefruit & gin cocktail

It's time for a little drink after all that heavy cooking and baking, and also my last drink related article was a while ago. I'm not the best friend of cocktails being more of a cider hog but sometimes a refreshing cocktail can be nice. So let us mix a G&G cocktail and practise for the summer for it'll come one day. One could even claim that this is a fairly healthy drink with all those vitamins but maybe I don't want to exaggerate.

Take:

Gin

Fresh pink grapefruits

Fresh lime

Crushed ice

Press juice out of the pink grapefruit and lime. Pour some gin into a nice glass and then grapefruit and lime juice on it. You can regulate the alcohol amount easily according to your preferences and taste. Crush some ice to go with it, mix and enjoy!

I can't wait until it's warmer and I can enjoy this outdoors.

Until the next time!

Your VegHog