Authors’ Distillery’s gin is the best in Finland in 2022

Writers and alcohol. It is a double sled that is often combined with each other. It would also seem to be an obviously winning combination.

Readers’ Gin, produced by Authors’ Distillery founded by authors, was recently chosen as the best gin in the 2022 dry gin category at the whiskey festival in Helsinki.

Other peaks such as Kyrö, Helsinki Distillery, Teerenpeli and Arctic Blue were left behind.

This is not the first award that a gin made in a piggery in Mäntsälä has won.

A year ago, Readers’ Gin won gold in the International Wine & Spirits Competition with the world’s best gin & tonic, and silver in the Best Spirits category.

The writers who founded the distillery Tuomas Kyrö, Christian Rönnbacka and Soili Pohjalainen clearly know what they are doing (although in connection with strong alcohol it is not always possible to talk about clarity).

But the writers immediately turn their eyes and thanks to the master distiller Ari Kauran in the direction of.

– Ari is a wizard who is truly uncompromising in his work, the writers describe their master distiller.

The distillery, founded in 2019, has three gins and one rum in its selections, and it is seriously aiming to go abroad.

It is known that Authors’ Distillery is the first distillery in the world that plans to expand on a franchise basis. Operating with a license is more familiar in the fast food world.

– It opens up opportunities to make Readers’ Gin elsewhere than just in Mäntsälä, Kyrö states.

The goal is to find the best-known authors from different countries as the distillery’s advocates and to transfer the entire brand concept, recipe and trademarks with a license to a local cooperating distillery.

According to Kaura, copying the recipe is perfectly possible if the distillery has a similar technical hybrid boiler. There are 700 similar liquor kettles in the world.

A recipe has been created for each distillate, which can be transferred to one of these 700 kettles with one push of a button. It would revolutionize logistics, when full bottles of liquor would not be shipped around the world.

The first international name to speak for the distillery is a Swedish bestselling author Jens Lapiduswho has already acquired the company’s shares.

One of the distillery’s original dreams came true this year, when Readers’ Rum, the first rum distilled in mainland Finland, was bottled.

Although the whole distillery idea left Rönnbacka Whiskey tourfrom the book (Docendo 2018), rum has always been in the sights.

Making it is significantly cheaper than whiskey, because the prices of the high-quality Spanish sherry casks needed for good whiskey have skyrocketed.

– Whiskey is at the culmination point, where quality and price no longer meet, Kaura reflects.

And acknowledges:

– I still dream about whiskey. But I want to make good whiskey, not just drinkable.

The taste world of rum is close to whiskey, but the price difference is big.

If you connect writers and alcohol together, you will also find similarities between literature and the alcohol business.

Kyrö states that sometimes he wonders if he reads Franz Kafka or an email sent by Valvira. The opposite has equally absurd plot twists.

But Kyrö assures that they will not give up, they will only create.

– As a completely legal business, this is surprisingly difficult, Pohjalainen sums up.

A good example is here: If a person who is fond of the drink puts a picture of gin on their Instagram and Authors’ Distillery’s social media account likes it, an illegal activity has taken place.

It is also illegal if there is a video on the distillery’s website where a bottle of gin is taken from the shelf and not opened, let alone pouring alcohol into the glass. It was too cinematic a clip, so it’s illegal.

– However, the drink is made legally, Rönnbacka reminds.

Kaura returns to Kafkaism.

– The law vaguely states that the promotion of alcohol marketing is prohibited. It is then interpreted as it is interpreted.

Kyrö laughs that there are still nine days left to join the dangerous industry.

More investors are being sought for the company with the crowdfunding, which expires in a little over a week.

Finally, one more story, because you can’t avoid them in the company of writers.

A year ago, we were faced with the problem of not being able to find a bottle manufacturer in Finland. After all, the products of writers can only be sold from a book-shaped bottle, so the search was expanded to Europe and eventually the whole world.

A factory was found in China, from which 35,000 bottles were ordered at the beginning of the year.

– I had a very strange communication with the help of Google translator, and I came to the conclusion that the order was successful and the bottles are coming across Siberia by train, says Kyrö.

What happens in February? The war starts and there is a threat that 35,000 bottles will be left somewhere between Siberia and Vaalimaa. The bottles will eventually be delivered to Finland, but:

– Two days after that, VR announces that train traffic across the eastern border will end, Rönnbacka concludes.

There is drama in the alcohol business.