Three Arctic cocktails: Cloudberry Sour, Northern Lights and Lingonberry Spritz. The wild ingredients behind them and bookable tasting experiences.
The same Arctic conditions that make Lapland's wild berries extraordinary make them exceptional in a glass. This is cocktail culture built on foraged ingredients you can't get anywhere else.
Arctic conditions produce extreme ingredients, plants that develop higher concentrations of flavour and nutrients to survive the cold and the endless summer sun.
Most of the best cocktail bars are in Rovaniemi, Levi or Saariselkä. Hotels with walking-distance access:
Finnish gin · cloudberry liqueur · lemon juice · egg white · sugar syrup
The signature Arctic cocktail. Cloudberries, the gold of the Arctic, ripen for just 2–3 weeks each July in subarctic bogs. Their honey-sweet tartness works perfectly in a sour. The egg white foam carries the scent of the fell straight to your nose.
Finnish vodka · blue curaçao · tonic water · edible shimmer · lime
The show-off cocktail. Blue-green shimmer swirling in a glass, a deliberate tribute to the aurora borealis. Best ordered somewhere with a window facing north. The glitter settles in about 30 seconds; drink it before it does.
Prosecco · lingonberry juice · elderflower liqueur · soda water · fresh lingonberries
Deep ruby-red, tart, refreshing. Wild Lapland lingonberries, Finland's most-picked berry, balance the floral elderflower against the bubbles. Simple but precisely right. The kind of drink that looks beautiful in a candlelit bar.
The rarest Arctic berry, grows only in subarctic bogs, 2–3 weeks a year. Used in liqueur, sorbet, sour mixes.
Finland's most beloved wild berry. Tart, earthy, versatile. Used in juice, liqueur, and garnishes.
Collected in early spring when the sap runs. Clean, faintly sweet. Used in craft spirits and cocktail mixers.
Foraged from fell meadows. More intense than cultivated thyme due to the extreme growing conditions.
Bright orange berries with more vitamin C per gram than oranges. Used in sours and shots.
Several Finnish distilleries produce gin infused with Arctic botanicals, birch, juniper, cloudberry, spruce tip.