One of my favorite things to do when we travel is to explore the local drinks situation (alcoholic and not). I could spend hours in the local grocery/wine/liquor store just studying the shelves. Ken is not as enthusiastic about this activity, so I usually send him off to climb a mountain or something.

When we’re traveling, I post my little travelogues on the go and off the cuff. Instagram only allows 2,200 characters per post, so I have to be stingy with words. Maybe that’s a good thing. 😉 One of the reasons I started this blog is so I could take a pause after our trips, and look at something(s) more in depth.Like the local drinks situation.

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Without further delay, here is my drinks culture report from Tallinn, Estonia:

Beer

Depending on who we asked, either beer or vodka is most popular alcoholic beverage in Estonia. Traditional Estonian beer, koduõlu, is farmhouse style – unfiltered, and made with local ingredients – usually malted barley and/or rye. And, get this – juniper branches. The juniper branches are added to the mash tun, which becomes the base liquid for the beer. Fascinating.

Production of farmhouse style beers almost faded into the woodwork during Soviet times, in favor of a standardized pale lager recipe that everyone had to follow. There’s really only a couple of commercial breweries that make farmhouse beer today. I was told Pihtla Õlu’s farmhouse ales are the ones to look for. Unfortunately, I did not get to try them. Guess we’ll have to make an encore trip to Tallinn.

The most popular beer in Estonia is A. Le Coq, which is also Estonia’s largest and oldest brewery.

That said, microbreweries (craft brewing) have gained enormous traction in Estonia in the last few years. Most of the beers we had were pale lager in style, but we did have a KPK Red Lager in the Telliskivi District one afternoon that was outstanding.

Vodka

Historically speaking, vodka was the most consumed alcohol in Estonia, but people (especially younger people) are drinking less of it in favor of beer and cider. I would not classify myself as a vodka drinker, but one of our guides suggested we order a dry rye vodka martini at our hotel bar. Alright, I’m game. Holy mother of good drinks. Absolutely transformative. I shouldn’t have, but I had two. And I tracked down a bottle of Estonian rye vodka to take home with me.

Wine

There’s not much of a wine scene in Estonia. The only wines Estonia makes are fruit wines – again, mostly from locally available fruits – currants, rhubarb, raspberries, and sea buckhorn (see below). Rhubarb is super popular in Estonia. You can get rhubarb flavored anything. To my surprise, I enjoyed a pretty solid rhubarb sparkling wine while we were in Tallinn.

Also: I had a rhubarb Negroni one evening – incredible. Must remember to attempt to make this at home.

Vana Tallinn

Vana Tallinn is Estonia’s iconic national drink. It’s a rum-based spiced liquor – like a glass of baking spices – vanilla, caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It’s available everywhere, and the Estonians put it in everything. In the three days we were there, I had Vana Tallinn straight, on the rocks, in coffee, in tea, and in hot chocolate (my favorite). And although I didn’t try it, you can even get even craft beers made with Vana Tallinn. I left Estonia a huge Vana Tallinn fan. I definitely brought a bottle home with me. Wonderful stuff.

Limonaad

Bought this at a grocery store because I was curious. Looking at the name, you might think this would bear some resemblance to lemonade, but you would be wrong. It tastes like someone melted banana runts candy and then mixed them with carbonated water. So, so sweet. Like drinking a bottle of diabetes. 1/10, would not recommend. 

Sidebar: The pig on the label is awfully cute. His name is Limpa.

Valgeklaar

You know how much I love a good sparkling apple juice. Valgeklaar is more of a sparkling apple soda. Sweet, but light at the same time. My favorite of the non-alcoholic drinks I tried in Estonia. Would definitely buy/drink this again.

Kelluke

Kelluke was introduced in 1965 – during the Soviet times in Estonia. It’s basically Estonian Sprite. I don’t drink Sprite in the US, so can’t say I would buy another bottle of Kelluke. Didn’t even finish this one. But if you’re a Sprite fan, give it a try.

Sea Buckhorn Berry Juice

We tried this bright orange juice on our food tour, and I could not stop thinking about Tang. I was a big fan of Tang as a kid. And when your brain is expecting “the astronauts drink”, anything less is just disappointing. It was decent, not great. Locally, this is super popular for its health benefits. Our guide said it has ten times more vitamin C than oranges. That’s a lot of vitamin C. Nobody is getting scurvy around here.

And that’s a wrap on everything I drank in Estonia.

Terviseks!