This is a course held in connection with the Trøndelag Food Festival 2025.

In this course, you will hear a little bit of the history of Norwegian whisky - where and how it is made, and what makes it especially good. 

You will understand how the world's simplest recipe - water, yeast, and malted barley - can result in the world's most complex and multifaceted drink. At the same time, you will hear about how making whisky can also save an old fishing village from death, turn island hopping on the coast into a gourmet experience, and win high-profile architecture awards. 

Since you cannot legally make this drink yourself, you will get four good and illustrative tastings along the way. With the lessons learned from this, you will probably appreciate the next good whisky you are served even more, and you will be left with a better understanding of what it takes to create an exciting universe of flavors. And you will never again be afraid to put water in your whisky - here you will learn why the pros do it all the time!

About the course leaders:
Roar Larsen is a former SINTEF researcher and chemistry professor, who completely changed course in mid-life, and together with his wife Trude Tokle started the world's first Arctic gin and whiskey distillery. 

In the tiny old fishing village of Myken on the Helgeland coast, they have produced single malt whiskey and gin since 2014, and have won awards in several major international spirits competitions. With desalinated seawater straight from the Vestfjord, and good Trøndelag malt from Skogn, the distillery was named "Craft Producer" of the year for 2025 in one of the largest competitions. 

There are only 13 people living in Myken, but 7 of them are employed at the distillery, and are now in the process of taking their craft out into the wider world. Now you can be one of those who can say "I knew them well even before they took the world by storm"!