The first aquavits were made from distilling wine into a spirit. Since little to no grapes are grown in Scandinavia, all grapes had to be imported from other countries. This made aquavit expensive, and in turn, used sparingly, mostly for medicinal purposes. From the start of aquavit’s production it has always been infused with local herbs and spices, maybe for health, maybe for flavor. As time went on distillers learned to use grain rather than grapes as fermentables. With the use of grain aquavit grew in popularity and availability, but grain was also not an ideal distilling substrate because of the short growing season and harsh winters in Scandinavia. Governments had to frequently prohibit distilling to avoid grain shortages.

There is some argument over where aquavit came from, with both Sweden and Denmark claiming to be the founder. The first Swedish license to sell aquavit was granted in 1498. The Danes aquavit heritage can be traced to the 1400’s also; culminating in King Christian III of Denmark establishing a royal aquavit distillery in 1555.

By the mid 1700s grain shortages were becoming more and more prevalent in aquavit producing areas. In 1760’s, a Norwegian minister started to educate the public on the benefits of potato cultivation in the area. Potatoes are easily grown, inexpensive and have consistent quality. It wasn’t long before these tubers saw widespread use in aquavit production.

With this new way to make aquavit, production and popularity bloomed. In Norway it is stated that there were small distilleries in every small farm, village, and manor house. In 1800 there were 2500 aquavit producers in Denmark, 273 in Copenhagen alone.  By 1920 most of these small distilleries in Denmark had been absorbed into a large Danish distiller’s conglomerate that is now responsible for half of the world’s supply of aquavit.