Braastad is a small family company with its own 40-hectare grape plantations, where it produces cognac from start to finish. Braastad, or actually Tiffon's cognac house, was founded in 1875. The Braastad name was only adopted later, when the Norwegian Sverre Braastad came to work for the company and married the…
Together with Koskenkorva, Finlandia is the flagship product of Rajamäki Distillery, the biggest alcohol producer in Finland. Finlandia was recently sold to Brown-Forman and due to that has gained more attention in the USA market and slowly also in other continents. Finlandia Grapefruit, i.e. grapefruit-flavored vodka, was released in 2006. It’s…
Ginjinha or simply Ginja is one of Portugal's national drinks. It is a liqueur made from cherries (ginja ~ sour cherry), produced only from natural ingredients, i.e. no dyes or other preservatives besides sugar have been used. The cherries have been extracted in strong alcohol, which is most commonly aguardiente, i.e.…
Söul is an apple schnapps made in Saaremaa, Estonia. The producer, Wösel, is a few years old company that started with the production of flavored vinegars and has quickly expanded to various other drinks. In the alcohol selection, they have also gin made with 12 different herbs. The apple schnapps is…
The birth of Blue Curacao is related to a story where a distilled spirit made from bitter, small oranges made from the island of Curacao was put into wooden barrels and shipped to Europe. Apparently, the bitter orange somehow reacted with the wood, and upon arriving in Europe, the distillate in…
Coffee liqueur is the basic product of most alcohol manufacturers and of course also Estonian Liviko produces it. Arabica coffee beans, sugar, water and rectified spirit have been used. The product is bottled quite inexpensively in a plastic bottle with a very simple label. 50 cl cost €5.65. The liqueur is…
Viru Valge is the most well known Estonian vodka, the flagship product of its producer Liviko together with Vana Tallinn. Cornflower flavored special vodka was released in honor of Estonia's 100th anniversary in 2017. High-quality rectified spirit distilled in Latvia has been used for its production. The aroma of corn flower…
Kuemmerling is a traditional German herbal liqueur/bitter. Kuemmerling was developed by Hugo Kümmerling, who started developing herbal liqueurs in 1921. The development process of Kuemmerling took 17 years and after that another 25 years passed before it was put into industrial production. Kuemmerling has been produced since 1968 by the family…
Courvoisier is perhaps the smallest of the "big four" cognac producers, who control more than 80% of cognac sales. The cognac house owned nowadays by Beam-Suntory was founded in 1835 by Emily Courvoisier. VSOP is a blend of distillates that are said to have matured for up to 12 years. However,…
Disaronno is a legendary Italian liqueur whose recipe is said to date back to the 1500s. The production of Disaronno amaretto started at the beginning of the 20th century and is still produced by Illva Saronno. Disaronno Amaretto, or Amaretto di Saronno as it used to be earlier, remained the company's…