Koskenkorva Vodka Lingonberry Spruce Flavoured

Koskenkorva is a long-running Finnish distillery, and this bottling sets its barley vodka against two ingredients straight out of the Finnish landscape: lingonberries and spruce shoots. The base is multi-distilled from locally grown barley and pure spring water, barley giving a clean spirit with a touch of grain weight, which makes a steady foundation for the flavours. Lingonberries bring a sharp, cranberry-like acidity, while young spruce shoots add a resinous, piney, faintly citrus note that Nordic cooks have used for generations. Bottled at 37.5%, it keeps the fruit and forest aromatics fresh rather than burying them under strength.

The nose is all cranberries, wild berries and fine coniferous wood with a delicate freshness, the palate fruity and spiced with cranberry, light citrus and aromatic spruce, and the finish long with a fruity acidity and fresh forest notes. To play the resinous, berry character, keep it simple and long: pour over ice and top with a dry ginger beer, then add a sprig of rosemary as a stand-in for the spruce. The ginger's spice meets the wood note while the rosemary lifts the pine, turning the bottle's forest theme into a clean, savoury highball.