Röda Huset in Stockholm is a cocktail showcase of Scandinavia’s best produce. Hamish Smith speaks to cofounder Hampus Thunholm about the lengths to which he goes to make his drinks speak Swedish. 

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When we opened in September 2021, the big idea was to showcase Scandinavia, its flavours and traditions, spotlighting its cocktail community. Vimal Kovac, the founder and head of hospitality group Stureplansgruppen, believed in my concept from the start and gave us the chance to see it to fruition. The name, if you’re wondering, literary means Red House. We have an old saying here that the Swedish dream is to have a partner, kids, a dog, a Volvo and a red house with white corners. We wanted to be part of the Swedish dream, if you like.

How do you work with ingredients?

Spirits take somewhat of a back seat in our cocktails – they are more the seasoning to our food. Instead we focus on Scandinavian produce. In a country where the yearly temperature ranges from -30°C to +30°C and the growing season is limited, we have to adapt to the seasons. We work closely with four farms and two apple orchards, reacting to their harvests. It takes a lot of planning to secure supply for the entire year. For example, last month we bought close to 2,000 litres of apple juice from one of our orchards.

So the plan for next year’s menu is more or less set already. We have to work like this so our partners can plan what they grow. During the year we are in constant contact with the farms on their crops’ progression, as well as talking through new crop ideas. It’s time-consuming but very rewarding and inspiring work.

Can you walk us through your preservation techniques?

It is very important for us to respect the produce and the unique flavour of each season, the variety and the grower. We do not use produce that is out of season, we preserve it when it is in season. That means during the end of harvest season, it gets very busy. We need to juice, centrifuge, freeze, ferment, bake as soon as we get the goods in. Our most important tool and technique is probably our huge walk-in fridge and freezer, which enables us to store and keep enough supply for almost a year.

Tell us about the more unusual Swedish ingredients you use

We use ingredients such as cloudberries and Arctic raspberries, but we never set out to introduce rare Scandinavian flavours to the world – more to showcase how, for example, raspberries taste right here, right now. I guess you could say this brings a sort of Scandinavian cocktail terroir to our drinks. We want to celebrate the forests, meadows and producers of Sweden and Scandinavia and what they have to offer. Combined with the philosophies and know-how of our ancestors but with modern know-how and techniques too.

Talk us through two drinks that sum up Röda Huset

The Sweet Vernal Grass with Good Cream (or Kolagräs in Swedish) won us Best Signature Cocktail in Sweden two years straight at Bartenders’ Choice Awards. It’s cream from the best dairy farm in Jylland, Denmark, which we split with Granny Smith juice from Kattvik Orchards in Southern Sweden, then filter our in-house vernal grass liqueur based on Absolut Elyx and sweeten the whole thing gently with Galliano. Another cocktail is Apple & Hops. It has evolved since it first came on the menu, with the apple variety changing and the strain of hops. For our latest version, we just finished off pressing a batch of late-harvested Ingrid Marie apples – by harvesting them later in the season you get a spicier, cardamom flavour-like profile. This cocktail only has three flavours – the apples, the Swedish hops and the whiskey – but used with respect and the right techniques you get something amazing and way more complex and delicious than it might look.

What’s been the reaction?

In the beginning it was a mixed response – there were those who liked us and those for whom the concept didn’t resonate. It was also a bit out of the ordinary that guests need to book, that it’s seated service and that we don’t do classics or bespoke cocktails but only our menu of Scandinavian flavours and produce. But we knew it was just part of the journey we set out on. Looking at it now, three years in we, knock on wood, have Stockholm’s trust.

Do you feel bars that showcase their environment and culture are a big part of the future of mixed drinks?

Our greatest hope is that this trend is here to stay – not that all bars should work strictly locally and with the seasons, but to offer more diversity in each local bar scene. And, for environmental reasons, we all must be a bit more considerate in how and what we shop, demand and serve.

What’s next?

Well, we are opening a new bar on the floor above. The bar as it is now will remain but put more focus and emphasis on the dining experience (with a great bar) while the new space will be strictly a cocktail experience. A key reason for this is we’re doing too many cocktails right now. The greatest problem one could have! We pretty much outgrew ourselves in three years, but with 18 spaces at the new bar, we will be able to dig even deeper into what we do and create a brand new experience, philosophy and menu on how to approach and see Scandinavian cocktails.