There are three things you should know about aquavit before anything else.
1) It’s a category of caraway-flavored Scandinavian liquors, four times older than Ballard and veritably limitless in its scope.
2) Out of hundreds, only one foreign aquavit survives as an import to the United States, meaning Americans’ understanding of a drink once culturally integral to many of our ancestors has virtually disappeared.
3) You can learn more than 98 percent of the world knows about aquavit in a single trip to the Swedish Club in Seattle this summer.
That’s thanks to Lexi, proprietress of Seattle’s Old Ballard Liquor Company and one of only 10 U.S. producers of the botanically flavored beverage. Lexi is whip-smart, no-nonsense and on a mission to share her aquavit passion with willing learners. Through inexhaustible research she’s crafted a nine-page guide and corresponding two-hour class on what seems at first to be a niche spirit. Attractively titled “Drink Like a Viking!,” the guide’s pages contain everything from history to aquavit styles by country to an illustrated guide on toasting like Swedish film star Max von Sydow (straight-faced eye contact is integral—you’ll practice this).
The class will teach you that niche spirit, aquavit is not. Its neutral grain base is designed for ferrying a range of flavors as wide as that attributed to the world’s gins and genevers. You’ll taste about 20 distinct aquavits: some, carried back by hand from across northern Europe, may very well be the only bottles available to you within U.S. borders. The $75 class fee goes to maintaining this collection and renting the room overlooking Lake Union. Lexi’s time? “This is my passion,” she says, dismissing the idea. “I want people to come to the class and get as excited about this spirit as I am.”
Part of the fun of aquavit: having almost lost touch with the beverage, there is a massive amount we don’t know. That said, Lexi knows a lot, and illustrious alumni of her class have included everyone from Murray Stenson (“one of the best classes I’ve taken in 37 years of bartending”) to the Tom Douglas team (serving Old Ballard aquavits across the gamut of T.D. restaurants). If you manage to come up with a question Lexi isn’t entirely sure on, you can bet a bottle that she’s at home that night poring over old books and sending messages to select contacts in hot pursuit of the unequivocal answer.
One more thing you’ll learn: for drinkers in northern Europe, aquavit is not an accompaniment but the primary activity. If you live in the area, make it yours and take the class. It’s worth every dollar.
Aquavit Educational Workshops || $75 per seat (15 seats per class) || The Swedish Club, 1920 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle
