Bit of an intro
Like I said it's the native spirit of Scandinavia. Aquavit (or in this case "akevitt", I've also seen it spelled "akkevit") is typically a potato vodka flavoured with various botanicals, particularly caraway. This spirit is pretty much that. The name "Jær Akevitt" comes from the region of Jæren in south west Norway, which is where I live. That's why I chose this one. Rather disappointingly it's not actually made here, but is made with Jæren in mind and designed to appeal to the tastes of the Jæren people. This means it's mild tasting. Typically people here like potatoes and cabbage, and anything that tastes stronger than that is considered to be too spicy. Its actually distilled by Agder Brenneri (Agder Distillery) in a town called Grimstad. I'm not sure where that is, but it's not Jæren.
This particular aquavit is sold as "til alle årstider", which translates to "to all year times". They mean it's for consumption all year round. In Norway aquavit is often seen as a Christmas drink. The caraway is supposed to help digestion, and the alcohol cuts through the greasiness of a traditional Norwegian Christmas dinner making it a great after dinner drink. Jær Akevitt is intended to be consumed after every dinner. Really there's no reason you can't have any aquavit at any time of year and I reckon they're just trying tell you to buy it all year round and not just at Christmas, It'd be pretty tough to run a business that only makes sales in December.
Not a great deal more I can tell you about this really, I couldn't find much out about it. It's not matured in barrels at all, unlike the Linea Aquavit I reviewed before. It's bottled at 40%. I think it's chill filtered but I'm not certain. I don't think any colour is added, but again I'm not sure about that. With scotch they usually tell you if it's the natural colour, but I don't know what the rules are in the Norwegian spirit producing industry. I got a 50 cl bottle at 328.9 NOK. (That's £26.55, $40.69, 35.82 euros or 3161.87 Bangaladeshi Taka.) Let's take a look at it now.
Packaging
It's really just a bottle. There's no protective cardboard tube or box or tin or whatever. There were two shapes of bottle on the shelves and as far as I could tell the contents were the same. Maybe I'll pick up one of the other ones and check. I chose the taller of the two because I was in that kind of mood. Have a look:
Slender
Like I said it's just a bottle. Pretty elegant I think. Looks kind of sophisticated. Nice and simple, no nonsense, Looks clean and honest. What else can you say about a glass bottle? The label pretty much sums up Jæren. Let's have a closer look at it.
Needs to wash his hands
Jæren is pretty much the Shire of Norway. It's some of the best farming land in the country with lots of small farms. At some point I'll see about getting some pics of my Norwegian small holder friend Mr Bjelland's small holding. It's pretty awesome.The grubby hand holding the handle of some kind of farming implement is possibly the perfect image for an aquavit made for Jæren. Especially since it's made from potatoes. The label's nice and simple too, just black and white printing on a paper label. It's not even glossy, you could make it at home.
Smell in the bottle
First opening
Mild caraway at first
Something that reminded me of playdough
Very faint cucumber
Very faint celery
Later
Citrus, most like lemon rind
Playdough
Appearance
It's very pale, kind of lemonish yellow. You can see in the pictures of the bottle, but here's another pic of it.
Doesn't look as much like urine as whisky does.
Of course it's much lighter than most whisky. It's not aged, so no colour from any barrels. I assume no colouring is added so there's just the faint colour from the botanicals used for flavour. With aquavit there doesn't seem to be the same expectation that darker is better like there is with whisky and colours range from amber like scotch, to perfectly clear. This one's pretty light for an aquavit.
Neat
Nose
caraway
Celery
Maybe fresh fennel bulb, although that's very similar to caraway. Maybe they've used different parts of the caraway plant. Seeds, leaves, roots, whatever.
Fresh smelling in general. Probably counts as one of my five a day.
Something citrus, lemon rind is the closest I can get to pinning it down, but it's not exactly lemon rind.
Arrival
Light carroway and lemony citrus
Slight sweetness which gives the caraway flavour a more liquorice like quality
Development
Generally vegetal
Begins to feel a little more substantial in the mouth
Citrus remains during the development
Cucumber in the development after the bottle has been open for a couple of weeks and has had time to interact with oxygen
Finish
Citrus fades out to give way to more herbal flavours, which are quite subtle. I couldn't really pin down what any of them were.
Sweet liquoricey caraway
Faint celery
The finish lingers longer when the bottle has been open for a few weeks.
1 tsp water
Nose
Lemon rind or lemon oil (More lemon, less caraway when you add water.)
Orange peel
Faint caraway, which gets even fainter when the bottle has been open for a while.
Faint celery, increasing as the water does it's thing
Cucumber develops after a while
Lemon decreasing
A week after I opened it I got a bit of an earthy note coming in with water.
Arrival
Sweetish
Citrus, gets fainter after a couple of weeks.
Liquoricey caraway, becoming less liquoricey when it's been open a while.
Cucumber, becoming more pronounced when it's been open a while.
A definite leafiness develops after a couple of weeks.
Parsley maybe.
Development
Gently caraway
Cucumber
Slight sweet nuttiness if you hold it in your mouth for a while
Finish
Initially the finish is pretty non-existent with water, but if you open the bottle and drink a bit and then wait for a week or two the finish really improves. These notes are all for after it's been open for a while, before that there wasn't anything concrete enough to write down although there were of course still flavours there.
Warm
Deeper savoury flavour
Herbs (I think parsley among others
Cucumber
Faint honeydew melon
Warm
Deeper savoury flavour
Herbs (I think parsley among others
Cucumber
Faint honeydew melon
A few extra comments
You'll notice I mentioned playdough in the "smell in the bottle" section. I recently smelled some recently produced playdough (or "Playdoh" to use the brand name) and it doesn't smell how I remember it. Now it has a plastic note to it, but in the olden days when I was a kid it didn't have that. Interesting how things change. I've said before that it's worth paying olfactory attention tot he world around you. You never know when a smell will be a useful reference. Fortunately the playdough smell didn't carry through into the drinking experience.
I found this spirit worryingly easy to drink. It's very light and quite refreshing especially after a big meal. The light and relatively simple flavours mean there isn't so much to explore, making sips more frequent. In fact I was a little scared by how quick the level in the bottle went down.
Opening the bottle, drinking some and then leaving it for a couple of weeks (with the pot back on) actually improved it slightly. Air changes the flavour of alcoholic drinks and in this case it's improved by giving it a bit of breathing time. Not a huge amount of difference, but just a little more depth of flavour and a little more complexity.
Conclusion
A very pleasant and refreshing spirit and a nice change from malt whisky. Aquavit in general is very nice after a big greasy meal, but after food in general is a nice time to drink it. This particular aquavit is very mild with subtle flavours, which I liked. The first aquavit I ever tried was in Denmark, and although pleasant and a nice accompaniment to the herring, the flavour was a little on the powerful side. I've never been an enormous fan of the caraway, fennel, aniseed family of flavours when they're overpowering. I'm not keen on Sambuca or aniseed balls for example. When it's a more gentle flavour it's actually very nice. The Norwegian aquavits I've tried have been milder than the Danish one and it's looking like a milder flavour is typical of the Norwegian version. Good move, Norway.
Jær Akevitt made for some very easy drinking, to the point that I was slightly worried about how fast it was disappearing. Thinking rationally, the bottle is as tall as a 70cl whisky bottle, but only holds 50cl, so you don't have to drink much for the level to drop quite considerably. I wasn't getting through ti quite as quick as I'd feared, but still it's does down very easily. It's refreshing too, so pouring another glass seems like a very good idea as soon as you finish the first. It's not challenging drinking and the range of flavours is not big, but that means you don't have to take much time over it.
Would I buy it again? Almost definitely. I'll probably bring a bottle with me next time I visit my Norwegian small holding friend Mr. Bjelland for a big dinner. Pleasant, refreshing and an aid to digestion. On the standard one to ten scale I'd have go give it a round of applause,
I hope you enjoyed that. I did, and it didn't even take very long to write. I'm investigating Glen Glassaugh new make spirit at the moment, but I think I might post something else in the meantime. Maybe something about a beer tasting I went to last Christmas. We'll see. As always feel free to comment and don't forget to tell all your friends to read my blog. If you tell them to read it they'll bring you gifts I expect.
I found this spirit worryingly easy to drink. It's very light and quite refreshing especially after a big meal. The light and relatively simple flavours mean there isn't so much to explore, making sips more frequent. In fact I was a little scared by how quick the level in the bottle went down.
Opening the bottle, drinking some and then leaving it for a couple of weeks (with the pot back on) actually improved it slightly. Air changes the flavour of alcoholic drinks and in this case it's improved by giving it a bit of breathing time. Not a huge amount of difference, but just a little more depth of flavour and a little more complexity.
Conclusion
A very pleasant and refreshing spirit and a nice change from malt whisky. Aquavit in general is very nice after a big greasy meal, but after food in general is a nice time to drink it. This particular aquavit is very mild with subtle flavours, which I liked. The first aquavit I ever tried was in Denmark, and although pleasant and a nice accompaniment to the herring, the flavour was a little on the powerful side. I've never been an enormous fan of the caraway, fennel, aniseed family of flavours when they're overpowering. I'm not keen on Sambuca or aniseed balls for example. When it's a more gentle flavour it's actually very nice. The Norwegian aquavits I've tried have been milder than the Danish one and it's looking like a milder flavour is typical of the Norwegian version. Good move, Norway.
Jær Akevitt made for some very easy drinking, to the point that I was slightly worried about how fast it was disappearing. Thinking rationally, the bottle is as tall as a 70cl whisky bottle, but only holds 50cl, so you don't have to drink much for the level to drop quite considerably. I wasn't getting through ti quite as quick as I'd feared, but still it's does down very easily. It's refreshing too, so pouring another glass seems like a very good idea as soon as you finish the first. It's not challenging drinking and the range of flavours is not big, but that means you don't have to take much time over it.
Would I buy it again? Almost definitely. I'll probably bring a bottle with me next time I visit my Norwegian small holding friend Mr. Bjelland for a big dinner. Pleasant, refreshing and an aid to digestion. On the standard one to ten scale I'd have go give it a round of applause,
I hope you enjoyed that. I did, and it didn't even take very long to write. I'm investigating Glen Glassaugh new make spirit at the moment, but I think I might post something else in the meantime. Maybe something about a beer tasting I went to last Christmas. We'll see. As always feel free to comment and don't forget to tell all your friends to read my blog. If you tell them to read it they'll bring you gifts I expect.
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