Aqua what?

Yesterday I got the chance to try this drink, Linie Aquavit, courtesy of a Norwegian buddy from Facebook. He told us that he had this when he's back home for Christmas, and I mentioned I was curious, thus he brought a bottle when he came over for us to try it out.

Taken pretty much from the web:

Aquavit derives from the Latin word "aqua vitae", which means "water of life". It is a potato based liquor flavored with herbs like caraway, dill and cumin. Some variants have a somewhat fruity hint. It is a popular drink in Scandanavian countries, but only the Norwegians have this "Linie" variant.

What's so special about these "Linie" ones is that they have a high mileage on them. "Linie" refers to the equator (in Norwegian) and it means that these liquors actually travelled across the equator to Australia and back.

What sparks the creation of the "Linie Aquavit" goes all the way back to 1805 when Jorgen Lysholm (the signature you see on the bottle's white banner) sent a batch of the Aquavit in oak sherry casks to Asia (in this case, Australia) to market it. Unfortunately it didn't sell too well and 5 barrels of it was sent back to Norway. Then Lysholm found out that these well travelled Aquavits actually tastes better and smoother after sloshing in the cask throughout the journey.

To date, as mentioned on the website, all "Linie Aquavit" will spend four and a half months on the sea before going into the market. The back of the bottle would indicate the dates of the journey and even the name of the ship it was on. (I didn't check on that when I drink it though).

Interesting indeed.

PS: This is not a paid post. :)