Meet Emil of Grand Hotel’s Cadier Bar.

Dubbed Sweden’s top cocktail connoisseur by whisky brand Mackmyra, as well as being the author of the world’s ‘Cocktail book of the year’ in 2017, Emil Åreng at Grand Hotel’s Cadier Bar is the perfect source of knowledge on all things drinks-related. We talk whisky, dry martini and Stockholm’s best cappuccino.

His incredibly thought-through compositions, usually created with a story as the starting point, plus obviously just being very good at his craft, have given Emil Åreng a reputation as one of Sweden’s premier bartenders, and won him a role as ambassador for both Swedish gin success Hernö Gin and whisky brand Mackmyra. A couple of years back, he made a roadtrip through his native northern Sweden to meet personalities and places, after which he dedicated a cocktail to every encounter. That led to his cocktail book Salongs i Norrland, which was a winner in the cocktail book of the year section of the Gourmand World Cook Book Awards. But on a normal day you’ll find him behind the bar at Grand Hotel’s Cadier Bar, where this creative force of nature runs a drinks menu that is as tasty as it is exciting. Perhaps he could tempt you with a Scandinavian Mountain Breeze – with Ice cider, cloudberries and Västerbotten cheese?

How have things worked out in the Cadier Bar during this Corona situation? Are we seeing any progress and a mild return to normality?

Just like everyone else, we have struggled, but now it’s beginning to look better, especially on the weekends. It has always been very spacious in between the tables here, but what we can’t have now are all the standing guests dotted around the whole Cadier Bar, and I suspect it will take some time before that returns to normal.

Since we have to try and look at things positively, what has been the best byproduct of this crisis, any silver lining, both for your own boozy life and possibly for the drinks industry or the especially-suffering bar industry?

From a personal perspective, I haven’t really been affected that much. There’s been less travelling and less work in general, but then focus has been on home and doing things that in the long run affect you positively, both work-wise and on a personal level. The bar industry has, in the end, done reasonably well, but a lot of people have lost their jobs and we have to try and get those people back into work as quickly as possible. But we don’t have to feel sorry for the drinks industry, since they do well in any case. People drink regardless of feeling good or bad. To help people who are much more vulnerable in our society is considerably more important.

If we look at this from a long-term perspective, even if we hopefully overcome the pandemic and the immediate troubles, what do you think might be the long-lasting effects on the bar industry?

We will always have pandemics in the backs of our minds from now on, and business owners will surely structure their business differently, but since I have as high a university degree as Pippi Longstocking I’m not really the person to come up with proposals. Doing as Wimbledon did, and having insurance against pandemics will probably be an obvious choice in the future, even if that will cost a lot. Expertise and qualifications will be the absolute most important thing for a while, and the people who really go all in to succeed in the bar business will remain to do their thing. Those cool people who have made it just by being friendly to their clique, while having a bit of an attitude towards normal guests, will disappear. Probably as quickly as the restaurants that still serve dubious meat dishes for 350 kronor in Gamla Stan, and I couldn’t possibly care less.

The restaurant business needs all kinds of different restaurants at various pricing levels, but there really is no need for anyone to trick tourists and serve some rubbish on a plate. We need restaurateurs who think about the future and the next generation, who buy locally and minimise transport, and we need to get people to be able to eat better without going bankrupt. Good food that has less impact on the environment is a human right, and our business could be a source of inspiration when it comes to those important issues.

I remember that you’re already a brand ambassador for Hernö Gin, but a few months ago you were also named Mackmyra’s Global Ambassador. How did that come about and what does the role entail?

That’s correct! Mackmyra got in touch and wondered if I would want to meet up, to sample all the whiskeys and gins they’ve created. I am a big fan of many of their products, so one thing led to another and they created a role that would suit me and my everyday life. So in March I became their Global Bar Ambassador. The role is all about spreading the word about Mackmyra to bars across the world, it has obviously been a tough start since

I haven’t been able to travel much but the future looks bright and it’s quite an easy task, showing people how to mix good cocktails with Mackmyra and trying to inspire people – from bartenders to whisky nerds to regular people who haven’t yet understood the appeal of a real Swedish Single Malt Whisky.

They don’t just call you a tasting expert and innovator, but also Sweden’s premier cocktail connoisseur. It’s windy at the top they say, how much of your time do you devote to cocktails in order to maintain that position?

Haha, I don’t know if being a connoisseur would be one of my distinct qualities, I appreciate a Pucko [a Swedish cold chocolate drink] as much as I do a negroni. I have become better at separating my private life and my work life but many of my friends have a strong interest in drinks so of course we talk about that a lot of the time, I think that contributes as well to wanting to know more about new products and what other people in the business do. Even if the business has been asleep for a while due to Corona.

And I wouldn’t call myself the best at cocktails, but what I can say is that there are a lot of older people in the industry, part of various academies who really shouldn’t be there anymore, as they don’t have a clue what’s going on anymore.

New young blood is needed to push the business forward, because there seems to be a little moss growing on some of the people at the top.

Do you remember your first cocktail? And what was your most recent one?

I have no idea what it was, but I was horribly bad the first years, but luckily I managed to hide my incompetence with cream and sprite. Nowadays I work with simple flavours, three ingredients can be enough to elevate a liquor to unimagined heights. As for most recent, I worked the Cadier Bar last Saturday so I made everything from old fashioneds to champagne cocktails.

Going back to Mackmyra, they are proud to challenge the norms of the whisky world and sometimes even include Swedish flavours, to highlight Swedish nature to audiences abroad. How do you feel they do with their seasonal whiskies generally, and what’s your view of the new Jaktlycka, containing such Swedish staples as blueberries and lingonberries?

I think it was very much for that reason that I took the job, they are very progressive and want to challenge an industry that is very stale. It’s great to have some Swedes who could care less how the Scots always did things and instead just do their own thing. Jaktlycka was very successful if you ask me, there is a natural fruitiness in a lot of Mackmyra’s whiskies and that is enhanced here with both blueberries and lingonberries. I’m actually going away later today to test mixing cocktails wih Jaktlycka.

As a renowned whisky guy, how do you usually drink your own whisky?

Just straight up, I want every whisky to be a surprise for your mouth. I don’t smell it so much beforehand, you can do that later, just down with it and let yourself drown in the flavours. And I hate that there’s only ONE way to drink whisky, just do it however you please as long as you are happy with it yourself.

Do you still work with stories as much when creating new cocktails or do you sometimes just stick to having various flavours as a starting point?

That comes down to how I feel on the day, but with both the Cadier Bar and with Open/closed in Umeå, my focus was on creating stories for the

cocktails and then making it work flavour-wise. The important thing is of course that it tastes good, but if the drink happens to come with a story, that’s something I love and that won’t go away. But honestly, sometimes you come up with such an amazing combination that a story doesn’t even make a difference.

Of all the cocktails you have created, is there one that you, more than the others, want to be remembered by coming generations?

I really don’t know but I guess I just hope that some of the creations I have come up with have either helped make progress in the business or elevated someone’s home mixing. My next book will be about that so hopefully the books I have made can live on for the benefit of future generations.

Speaking of books, you have a new one coming out here soon – Jakten på en perfekt dry martini (The Quest For The Perfect Dry Martini) – together with Hans-Olov Öberg. Why did you want to write a book on the dry martini and are you saying it’s really difficult to make a good one?

Hans-Olov wrote the book Jakten på en perfekt gin & tonic (The Quest For The Perfect Gin & Tonic) and this time he wanted to add a professional’s perspective to it, and that’s where I came in. The book is made up of a lot of recipes. So no, it’s not that hard to make a good dry martini, but it can be difficult to find a version that you like. People are really divided here, you either like it or you don’t. Here we have created a lot of recipes to inspire people, perhaps help them learn to like the dry martini.

What do you prefer personally, the classic I presume?

Hans-Olov has never liked it, but I have always loved it. Six centilitres of gin, a bit of dry vermouth and two dashes of orange bitter and you’re good to go. Just stir it real cold, so cold that you cannot hold the glass and then it’s ready. Plus a good olive on top.

What about Hans-Olov, did you find a recipe for him?

No, haha. Well he might have learned to like the original by now. He has been drinking it non-stop for four months now, so he’s gone through a learning process.

What are the three things you cannot live without in your bar?

Liquor, ice and my shaker.

What kind of upcoming trends do you see in the bar and cocktail industry and are there any of the prevailing trends that you sometimes get really tired of?

Even more locally-produced ingredients I hope. We have everything from rye whisky to aperitivos in Sweden now so to say that some bars will eliminate ingredients that require long-distant transport is not at all strange. But those people in the industry who work and sit down with their guests, to the point where it’s hard to tell if they’re part of the staff or of the group of guests, should probably have a rethink. If you have so much time that you can sit down and talk about your life with 12 people, you should probably change clothes and clock off.

Finally, if you are free and your Cadier Gar is offlimits, where do you go and what do you drink?

I would go to Schmaltz to have a dry martini, or stay at Telefonplan where I live and have brunch at A.B. Café. They’ve got the best cappuccino in Stockholm. But my late nights always wrap up with a beer or a negroni at Tjoget.