Cocktails Distilled
Cocktails Distilled
The Purity of Nordic Flavour with Mathias Tönnesson
With nature as its backdrop and the exploration of flavour as its aim, Sweden's Purity Distillery is gaining a reputation for creating liquids that are as flawless as its name implies.
The brand, probably best known for its Vodka, has just added adds Organic Craft Nordic Dry Gin to its portfolio. Offering a long flavour profile that lasts in the mouth, the gin pushes boundaries with a unique blend of juniper, thyme, basil, coriander, lingonberries, blueberries, lavender, cardamom and angelica.
So, crack open a bottle of your favourite tonic and join us as we chat with the master blender and CEO of Purity Distillery, Mathias Tönnesson, as he discusses flavour, organic farming and the love that goes into every bottle they produce.
For more information, go to https://www.puritydistillery.com
T here has always been something rather magical about Sweden, with its lakes, freshwater streams, mountains and rolling hills, so it's not surprising that one of its premier distilleries bears the name Purity. Located in Skåne, Sweden's southmost region, known for its farm-to-table philosophy and fertile farmlands, the distillery has a strong organic ethos and the desire to make spirits that imbue any occasion with a certain luxury. Known best for its Vodka, the brand also has a growing stable of gins, to which they've recently added their latest release, the organic craft Nordic Dry Gin. To find out more, we talk to Purity's master blender and CEO, Mathias Tönnesson, about flavour, smoothness, and what makes their London Dry distinctly Nordic. Thank you for joining us, Mathias.
Mathias Tönnesson:Thank you very much. Great to be here today.
Tiff Christie:What do you think it is about a London Dry style that makes it so universally loved?
Mathias Tönnesson:Great question. I think the simple reason the London Dry style is so widely loved is for its versatility and its balance. Usually a London Dry has a very prominent unipre flavour that is crisp and dry, and I think the popularity lies in the ability that you can do a wide range of cocktails allowing all the botanicals and flavours to really shine through while maintaining the classic gin character.
Tiff Christie:Now most distilleries start their gin journey with the London Dry, but you brought out a Navy Strength and an Old Tom before that. Why?
Mathias Tönnesson:Yeah, as you said in the beginning, is that we were founded as a vodka distillery doing the world's best vodka, and my idea when I introduced the gins was to start with the navy strength and the old tom gin was to showcase my expertise in flavour creations.
Mathias Tönnesson:As you know, that navy strength the gins are known for the higher alcohol content that really creates a really explosive concentrated botanical flavour that will elevate your cocktails. We base our gins on our very ultra smooth copper surface distilled vodka, and the difference with our navy gin is that it doesn't have the burn that is usually sort of in common with the navy strength as it's sort of based on a very good base spirit, so that makes the botanicals really amplified the distillate. When I did the old tom gin, I wanted to create this very silky, smooth, slightly sweet gin and that was how I was working to and when we sort of went to market with the gins, the reason I thought that the both the old tom and the navy strength were so nice so I wanted really put them forward first in the market so people can really showcase and or we could showcase our craftsmanship and doing great flavours of the gins.
Tiff Christie:Now you use one particular ingredient in your London dry, which is rather unusual, and that is Loganberries. What does that add to the flavour?
Mathias Tönnesson:One fun thing, of course, with the lingonberries is that it's native to Sweden, so this is where sort of comes in. That is a Nordic London dry gin, of course. But to answer the question, i need to explain a little bit my idea behind the development of the flavours of the gins. I started the whole project saying that I wanted to create a gin with a very long and large taste profile. That was the whole idea. I wanted the flavour sensation when you try my gins to be like a wave rolling into the beach, so there's first a touch of juniper, but then it just grows in your mouth and it stays for a very long time. And I think this is what makes a high-quality gin is that the flavour stays for a very long, long time. I usually say, instead of just being just a quick kiss, i wanted to be a really nice, long, delicious kiss of juniper in the mouth, so you really wanted to stay for a long, long time. To achieve this sort of long and large taste profile, i searched for botanicals that could really elevate the flavour of the juniper and create these long, lasting flavours.
Mathias Tönnesson:And one of my biggest hobbies in life is actually to cook. I love to cook. I do all the cooking at home and I love to plate and I love to work with the different flavours, and when I do sauces at home I usually use basil and thyme, for example, to create more flavours and more elevated flavour in the sauces. So when I did the desolates, i went back to my findings of how I do sauces and I started to play with using thyme and basil into the base of the gins. And what I realized?
Mathias Tönnesson:Thyme and basil, when I distill it, gives a very similar flavour to juniper. So more or less, it creates a very multi-layered juniper sensation where, when you try for it, and it really delivered on this long and large taste profile The problem was that it became too woody. It became too juniper. It gave a really good flavour, but it was too woody. So I needed something that could really balance off the flavour, because, of course, when the wave comes in, you just want the wave to continue in your mouth, and so I needed something that softened the woodiness And that's where the lingonberries and the blueberries I use as well comes in, as it softens the woodiness of the juniper, the thyme and the basil.
Tiff Christie:Do you steep, or do you vapor infuse?
Mathias Tönnesson:No, we steep. So everything is steeped for 24 hours in our steel.
Tiff Christie:Can you talk us through that distillation?
Mathias Tönnesson:Absolutely So, as I said before, we started as a vodka distillery, of course, and what's interesting when you talk about gin is, of course, what is actually gin, and the gin is actually sort of the original flavour vodka. So the vodka you use as the base of the gin has an enormous impact on the flavour. Of course, that you will achieve on the gin. Most gin distilleries industrial-made buy , mgs, industrial made, natural grain spirits And you will always have this ethanol heavy burn in your gins And it can be easily detected in most gins. What we start, of course, is with a very clean spirit We get from our distillation method. We use a copper surface distillation And what that does is it actually cleans the spirits, and it takes away all of these unwanted flavours and it creates a very silky smoothness to the gins. What we do that is very different from most other distillers, is that we add flavours in every step of the way in the distillation process. We actually add flavours. My goal is not to create a neutral, non-tasting vodka. My goal is to create a vodka that is full of flavours and character. So everything starts from the mesh that we are creating. So we do a grain mesh, so we use winter wheat and mulch barley. So that's sort of where we start. Everything It's all organic. Then we put that into our sort of specially made distillation still, and in this still we do one, two or three cycles of distillation And every cycle has 17 individual distillation steps. So that's important to remember. So in the first cycle, what happens is that the copper in the whole still is really cleaning the spirits, the alcohol, and the more copper surface you have with alcohol, the more cleaning there is of the spirit. And this cleaning really explains our name of purity. It's that we purify the spirit away from ethanol, flavours and the burn. And that happens. And this first cycle is actually six hours long distillation method. So very, very slowly, a lot of copper contact. After that is done, the first cycle, we put it back again into the still, we water it down to 50% ABV or so. And then, we run the cycle one more time for additional six hours. And what happens then is that the copper reacts with alcohol and it brings out flavors from the yeast. So we actually add flavours in the second cycle. So there's sort of a lemon flavour and there's other flavours that are created by this copper surface distillation method. That means, of course, that after 34 distillations, or after 12 hours of distillation, we create a very flavoursome base spirit And it's this base spirit that I use as the base for the gins To make my most prominent vodka, the Connoisseur 51 Reserve vodka.
Mathias Tönnesson:We actually run the process a third cycle And during this third cycle this still creates a lot of smoothness, additional smoothness to the process. So you get a very flavoursome but also super silky smooth spirit. So this whole technique that was developed by a guy called Leif Merhammer, who was the former laboratory director at the Swedish State Monopoly of Alcohol, sort of utilized the copper magic, and it is this copper magic that creates smoothness and flavour. The benefit of this is that if you don't have a lot of ethanol flavours in your base spirit, it makes all the other flavours really blossom when you mix them. So the juniper, the thymine, the basil, the cardamom, the lavender it really blossoms up when you then blend it in the gin. So that's why it's really, really important And that is everything about purity is this pure, very flavoursome base spirit that I base the gins on. Sorry, a lot of words, but it's a complicated process.
Tiff Christie:No, it's fascinating to understand the amount of detail and the amount of time. Absolutely The technique. Most people wouldn't spend that amount of time on a vodka base spirit.
Mathias Tönnesson:No, but that's why we continuously wins a lot of awards for our vodka and gins is that, of course, we do something different And I'm very passionate about what I do, and my goal is always to look all my friends and my inner circle in the eyes and say that I do the absolute best I can do to create a very flavoursome and very smooth spirit At purity. We don't take any shortcuts. We spend a lot of time, a lot of effort to create vodka and gin of very, very high quality. That's what we are about.
Tiff Christie:Now, I suppose a little of that effort has gone into your stills, which I believe are actually handmade.
Mathias Tönnesson:Yeah, so as I said, it's that they were sort of designed by Leif. That was the laboratory director of the state monopoly here in Sweden. He continued the research, saying that the more copper surface contact you give the alcohol during the desolation, the more flavours, smoothness and purity you actually create. And, of course, to achieve that there was no stills around. that was sort of designed for his research. So he had the still built. So it's totally unique still and of course, this still gives this unique signature purity liquid that we use in our products. That's sort of the. it's not a secret, but well, that's how we do it. It is our secret for our success, of course.
Tiff Christie:Having made the gin, how do you want people to drink and enjoy it?
Mathias Tönnesson:Yeah, it's a great question And I'm a big gin drinker, you know I love gin, i love the flavor. The challenge for vodka, for example, is that our vodka is usually best single, you know, it tastes so nice, it's so smooth. So of course if you mix that with orange juice, the beauty is lost in the, in the, in the gin. So it's a little bit different, as I said before, is that we have no burn or very little burn, very little ethanol flavor. It actually makes all the botanicals really blossom and tastes really really nice.
Mathias Tönnesson:And the reason why I created three different gins So in the portfolio of course we have the Navy strength with the old Tom and of course now the, the London dry style gin, you can make different kind of cocktails for the old Tom gin, which of course is the original style of gin was popular in UK or England. Of course it's a great marriage between the juniper flavored gin and citrus And that's of course why you have the, the old Tom Tom name in a Tom Collins. That's of course is that there is this perfect mix between the juniper and the citrus.
Mathias Tönnesson:So for example, I love a south side cocktail. I think that's fantastic with the gin, and the good thing with the old Tom is that of course is a shortcut is that you don't need to add any simple syrup, as it is already slightly sweet For the Navy strength. I will definitely recommend that drink it as a martini. I'm a spirit guy. I like high proof, but I think the Navy strength that's where you really can taste the craftsmanship, what we are doing Very pure spirit, very low ethanol levels and almost no burn, and that really makes it really really nice. I drink it sort of straight from the freezer But of course if you stir down your Navy strength with the ice to chill it, then of course it sort of also gets a little bit diluted down to 50 ABV or so, so it makes it a little bit more delicious.
Mathias Tönnesson:For the London dry style gin we have released, i made it, so it's sort of meant to be a really good base for your gin and tonic or for any sort of cocktail that you want to do. When I mix my gin and tonics, i mix them after the rule one, two, two. So one mouth, two nostrils, two eyes. So that means one, one part good gin, high quality gin, two parts of neutral tonic And then at least two garnishes, because when you have sort of your gin and tonic in your glass and you put your nose down, you want of course the garnishes to smell The citrus twist or the rosemary twig or anything like that. It should of course look nice for your eyes and then taste nice for your taste buds when you drink it. So that's, i do.
Mathias Tönnesson:Gin and tonics, one, two, two. Then I do, of course I have basil as the base, as one of the botanicals. So in my jeans I have juniper, thymed basil, lingonberries, blueberries, coriander, cardamom, lavender and angelica And of course any basil based cocktails, a basil sour, for example. It makes of course, a perfect mix to use my London dry, because it has, of course a natural small hint of basil that adds to the flavor.
Tiff Christie:Presumably, the gin has gone out to a number of bars in your area and a number of bartenders who I assume you would know quite well. Have there been any that have created drinks with the gin that you didn't expect?
Mathias Tönnesson:Oh, great question. If I think about it, there was one bartender in Lund And in Lund this is sort of university city that's very close to the distillery And he had a purity gin espresso martini on his menu And it was the first time I actually had a gin based espresso martini. And actually the botanicals and the gin really, really mixes very well with the coffee And I thought that was a very interesting mix Because of course you know you say that espresso and martini, as they sing you to recipe, need to be sort of with vodka and coffee. But of course, if you add botanical flavor into the espresso, you actually created a little bit sort of elevated experience of the espresso martini, and so that was probably the cocktail in its simplicity. But that really made me think how you can actually use gin instead.
Tiff Christie:You, of course, produce organic spirits. Yes, What does that mean, both to you and the liquid?
Mathias Tönnesson:To be organic or organic distillery for me is very personal. In Sweden we are very committed to sustainability as a Swedish society And for me it's personal in the way that I want to leave the world better to my kids than when I came into it. So for me it's natural that we try to be as sustainable as we can in every step of our desolation. We have solar panels at the distillery. Of course, for electricity We only run on renewable energy. We try to be as green as we can in all transportation etc. But then of course, also being organic, that means of course that we support the organic farming of our Swedish farmers. We try to sort of have healthy farming products, free from any components that harm humans or the nature. So of course, no industrial pesticides, insecticides, fertilizer or GMOs. So all of that sort of need to be totally controlled from the farm to the distillery. And I think that's super important because I believe that we need to be very careful of the nature we are in and really support the great work that organic farmers do, because of course it's more difficult to be an organic farmer than a large farmer using all the industrial maids.
Mathias Tönnesson:So in my view, i also think that organic products taste better than non-organic products. I think the extra love that organic farmers put into their work comes all the way to the ingredients that we use then for desolation. I saw one study, a comparison in wines not in the spirit section but in the wine is that there are more organic wines winning higher awards than non-organic wines, and I think that comes back to that. If you're an organic farmer and if you're an organic distiller, you do that for a reason Because you love it and you put the extra effort in. I'm not saying that other distillers don't do that, but I think it makes us organic distillers a little bit more into the details And we deliver, kind of a mind-toot, I suppose, isn't it The way you look at things.
Mathias Tönnesson:Absolutely. I think that's the key thing.
Tiff Christie:Purity is a family business, is distilling something that your family has always done.
Mathias Tönnesson:No, not at all. But we are a crazy family that loves flavours in all forms. My mother, she was a young chef and she loves to cook. I'm really brought up in a wine family. My parents have a fantastic noses for wine and they spend most of their lives in the wine world tasting wines. So unfortunately I didn't inherit the superpowers from my parents with their noses, but I had maybe some luck in that I got good taste buds instead. So of course that helped me a lot in the development of all the flavours I do. I had some luck of creating good liquid that other people also enjoy.
Mathias Tönnesson:But I think if you're brought up in a family that loves flavours, it's important, as I explained with the genitonics, the one-to-two rule. You know it looked nice, tastes nice and smells nice. It's the same with food. You know when you plate it you know it should look nice, of course, because that makes it taste nicer. And it's the same with wine, of course. When you smell the bouquet of wine it really sort of opens up your taste buds.
Mathias Tönnesson:A fun side story to the gins, actually, of being sort of a family-owned company, is that of course the executive tasting panel at Purity is the family. That's how involved everyone is involved. And when I developed the gins, it was quite fun because I developed all three of them in parallel the Old Tom, the Navy and the London Drive And of course we couldn't really decide or I couldn't really decide what gene to launch first, because I actually thought all of them were really nice. So I created a sort of a tasting for the family and my sisters, Lulun and Catherine they really loved the Old Tom, so that was their favourite. And my father, my twin brother, martin, they really liked the London Drive and I was totally sold on the Navy strength, so we couldn't really decide which one was the best. So what do you do then in the family business? Well, you know, you try to please everyone, so you launch all of three of them. So that was the story why we have three gins, and that is just coming from the family.
Mathias Tönnesson:As I said before, i really liked the London Drive, but my favourite as a distiller is the Navy strength And that's why on the label of the Navy strength there's a white cross and that is not, unfortunately, the Scottish flag, it's actually the letter M in the Royal Navy My name. I wanted to put my signature on the label that, as a distiller, this is my favourite. The reason why there's a green label on the London Drive is, of course, the showcase of my use of thyme and basil, coriander and uniper. And the reason why there's a red label on the old Tom is the warm sweetness you get in the mouth when you drink the old Tom solo. So that was the whole idea with that. It's a lot of fun being a family business. Everyone is super, super involved in coming up with great ideas, some new blends and stuff like that, so it's a lot of fun. It makes my life much more fun that the family is involved.
Tiff Christie:As well as having the family involved in making it fun. from that angle, the area that the distillery is located is actually quite well known for its exceptional spirit range, and there are quite a lot high-profile very distilleries around you. What is it about that particular area?
Mathias Tönnesson:Yeah, so not far away from our distillery. So of course it's the largest distillery and that's the absolute distillery. So of course they do a very good vodka in a different way. But of course I think having absolute close by opens up the possibilities for a lot of other distillers. So you know, purity is there. We have one of the or what I think is the best Swedish whiskeys from the, from the VN distillery, the small island between Denmark and Sweden, and the most distiller there is Henrik Målin, fantastic distiller, making fantastic rye whiskies and different kind of whiskeys.
Mathias Tönnesson:And I think southern Sweden is farming center of Sweden, so farm to table is important. So of course it's important in the food, it's important in the food production, in the gastronomy, but also in the distilleries. So we are quite a tight group of distillers to enjoy our companies. But we also trigger ourselves in saying that if I know, for example, that someone else has done a good product, i want to do a better product. And of course and I think that's important that we have this friendly atmosphere, that we want to show off how good we are And I think that triggers everyone to do the best. So I think that's important. But the southern Sweden is very much about food and farming. It's flat And, of course, there's a lot of wheat fields around, so there's a lot of crops crop as well.
Tiff Christie:Now, having produced the Vodkas, for which you have earned quite a lot of awards,, and now released the gins. What is the future of purity? Where do you go from here?
Mathias Tönnesson:Yeah, good questions. But you know I'm super passionate of what I'm doing and I love flavors And I always say that I have the best job you can have, you know, inventing new flavors, Volcas and genes. You know that that's fantastic And I have a lot of new ideas, of new flavor profiles that we will probably see within the year or two. Of course, we'll really have a plan of two new products coming over the next months or next year that we are now playing around with. And there's a lot of things For vodka. Of course it's. You know, how do you create flavor in unflavored vodkas? That's sort of a big complex And to persuade people that there is actually quality differences in vodkas, in the gin, of course you work with botanicals So you can, of course, have different sort of journeys for your taste buds around the world to create different experiences based on flavors. So I think that's a lot.
Mathias Tönnesson:In Sweden, unfortunately, i'm not allowed to sell from the distillery, but hopefully that will be allowed maybe next year, and my goal is to do a elderflower gin from the treehouse outside the distillery, so it's super local in the flavor profile, of course. So there's a lot of things where we can do that. We are still an unknown brand, as you said that we have one. Most of the awards you can. You know the trophies, the double golds, the golds, the diamonds, et cetera, for our craftsmanship, but we're still unknown.
Mathias Tönnesson:And, of course, my goal, my personal goal, is to get people to drink better quality spirits. I hate when you try gin where people make shortcuts, buying cheap industrial med spirits. You just mix it with some juniper and you call it gin And I think that's terrible. So my personal goal is, of course, to get people to drink a better quality Same thing. You know, when I cook at home, i will never base my chicken dish on a bad piece of chicken or a bad piece of meat.
Mathias Tönnesson:If I'm going to do a meat dish or fish, you know you need to have good quality ingredients to deliver a great course. And that's the same thing when you make martini or if you make cocktail, you need to have a really high quality spirit. So your cocktail in the end is of high quality, flavor wise. I think that's important. That's a, of course, a long and big discussion I have with bartenders is to get them to understand that it's not just because your CFO have decided to buy in some cheap gin for your cocktails. It's important to have this high quality so you can look at your customers and say I've actually made this cocktail on the best ingredients possible to deliver this experience to you as a customer. And I think that's what I love to have in these discussions. And, of course, i meet a lot of bartenders and retailers having these discussions to gradually teach them to use better quality based products in their cocktails.
Tiff Christie:If people are drinking your gin with these better ingredients and more detailed production methods, what is it that you want them to take away from the experience?
Mathias Tönnesson:When you're doing purity, you should always know that there's a lot of love in that bottle And it is love from my master distiller, Stefan Magnusson, who's at the still every day really producing all the liquid. From the love from the brewmaster that actually creates the mesh with the winter wheat and the molested barley And, of course, me doing the blends. There's no shortcuts in the purity And I want everyone really to appreciate the artistry and the craftsmanship that goes into a purity bottle. We are small distillery that love what we're doing And I want that love to be in the bottle. When you treat your best friends with a cocktail, that's our gift to you as a consumer. We do our best so you can be at your best, you can be the hero for your friends and deliver great cocktails. That's my. Part of the puzzle is to do really, really good spirits that you will love and that your friends will love when you mix it for them.
Tiff Christie:Now, if people are looking to be the hero of their cocktails, where is the gin available?
Mathias Tönnesson:Yes, so you can find it, of course, at various online retailers around the world. Of course, it depends on what market you're in. If you're close to Amazon, or if you're in US, of course Total Wine, bedmose, all of the online players You can, of course, visit our website, where there's links to your local markets where you can buy it. Or, if you're in US, head to your closest Total Wine stores to have all the gins and all the vodka on display. But I recommend, depending on what market, go to our website first, read about the products and there you can see links to where you can buy the products.
Tiff Christie:So I assume you're in most states in the US.
Mathias Tönnesson:Yes, we are sold in 26 states in US, so more or less all the open states, not the closed states. Then, of course, we are in most countries in Europe as well, so you can find us online. Okay, what about Asia? Asia we are working on. If you have luck, if you go to South Korea, taiwan, you will find our products. You will soon find our products in Singapore and in Thailand. Our products are, in my view, of course, fantastic, so I really invite everyone to try the spirits and not only trust what I'm saying, because, of course, i'm biased saying that I do my best, but, as you said before, we have won a lot of awards. We were just awarded 95 points at Wine Fuselage magazine in US, which is the highest ever level of any vodka over the last five years. The Navy String became the best gin in the world by International Spirit Challenge 2020. Of all competing gin, the London Dry Yas won a gold medal at ISC. So not only trust me, but also trust the collected expertise from the industry that also praise the quality of purity.
Tiff Christie:Now, if people want more information, be it about those awards where they can get the gin, or generally about your philosophies, they can, of course, go to the website, which is puritydistillerycom, or connect with the brand via your socials.
Mathias Tönnesson:Yes, you're lovely. And just send us an email as well. It will end up in my inbox. We're not bigger than that, so if anyone wants to have a discussion with me or any ideas for new flavours or any fun things they have seen, just send us an email through our website as well, and it will end up in my inbox, and I would love to have that sort of inspiration from everyone around, all your listeners.
Tiff Christie:Brilliant. All right, well, Mathias, thank you so much for taking the time.