suomalaista juomaa

I've already mentioned sahti and piimä, my two favorite Finnish drinks. Here are some others that I've tried:

Kotisima is a partially fermented drink that tastes like fermenting cider or grape must. "Koti" means home and "sima" is mead, but it's actually made from water, sugar, brown sugar, and yeast, not honey. It's lightly flavored with lemon and raisins.

Koskenkorva is a sort of vodka made by the same company that produces Finlandia. It's less expensive than Finlandia and contains a small amount of sugar. It tastes more or less like cheap vodka but dissolve some salmiakki candy in it and you get salmiakki kossu, a much more interesting drink. The latter concotion is greenish black, sweet, salty, and tastes like licorish - imagine Pernod or ouzo with some salt in it. You can buy it premixed or make your own; the latter allows you to use the iconic Koskenkorva bottle with the grainfield logo. Believing in traditional recipes, I used orthodox Fazer brand "Tyrkisk Peber" salmiakki; the result is a little saltier and a little less sweet than the premixed stuff, and it has an interesting spiciness as well.

Lapponia makes various berry liqueurs. I bought the buckthorn one (by accident) and the cloudberry one (which is what I was looking for). Both berries are orange; buckthorn tastes a bit like a mirabelle plum while cloudberry has a unique, rather exotic, flavor. Both liqueurs are a bit too sweet for my taste, but then I don't really like liqueur other than Chartreuse (and crème de cassis, but that only for kirs). I'd be interested to try eaux-de-vie made from these fruits, however.

The water here is quite good, also!