Organised by the Norwegian drinks group, Arcus, the competition is aimed at finding and acknowledging the best young bartenders in the Nordic countries plus Germany, aged 20 to 26.
Berggren beat off competition from Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway with her ‘Linie in Sight’ cocktail (see below). The cocktail recipes all had to include Linie aquavit as the main base spirit.
The Arcus event was held at the spectacular City Hall in the centre of Swedish capital, Stockholm. A chefs’ competition ran alongside the bartender event. That was won by Finish chef, Taneli Myllyvirta from Restaurant OLO in Helsinki. The other competing bartenders were:
- Sondre Torgersen Kasin from Norway;
- Rolf Bender Jenson, Denmark
- Jere Vihervaara, Finland and
- Moritz Billina, Germany.
The Linie Honorary Award went to Monica Berg, for her work with “active work with aquavit behind the bar". From Norway, she was manager at Pollen Street Social in London. She is now working as a consultant for the opening of new bar concepts in London.
Before coming to London, she was bar manager at Aquavitæ, one of the first influencial cocktail bar in Oslo.
Berg is widely known as ‘Miss Aquavit’ as she loves the Nordic spirit and always has at least one aquavit drink on her menus.
She got the award because she believes that aquavit is a premium spirit which can be consumed throughout the year, and not only at Christmas with Christmas food, which is the traditional way to consume it in the Nordics.
She is a well known and respected mixologist and while showing a modern way to use aquavit in cocktails, she is said to be sowing seeds which can, and hopefully will, grow as a trend in London, the Nordics and in US as well.
Linie in Sight
- 50 ml Lysholm Linie Aquavit
- 10 ml Punsch (traditional Swedish liqueur)
- 30 ml lemon
- 30 ml carrot juice
- 15 ml sugar sirup
Says Berggren: “Make sure to have your juice squeezed and ready. I use orange carrots from Gotland, they are a big so they contain a lot of juice and flavour. Put all the ingredients in a shaker and shake with ice. Strain up into a coupette glass.”
