Crafting Cocktails and Connection with Emily Vikre

In this episode, Stephanie Hansen chats with Emily Vikre, owner of Vikre Distillery and author of the new book Cabin Cocktails. Emily shares insights into her journey as a cookbook writer and distiller.

The Art of Cocktail Creation

Emily’s fourth book, Cabin Cocktails, features 70 seasonal cocktails, including mocktails, that celebrate the beauty of outdoor experiences. She reflects on how intuitive cooking differs from the precision required in cocktail making:

“I do find cooking recipes hard to write down for me. Especially because as a cook, I’m very intuitive... I go by those sensory inputs.”

Emily emphasizes that while cooking can be forgiving, cocktails require strict adherence to measurements for the best results. “Cocktails can be very unforgiving if you don’t have a good recipe and if you don’t follow it,” she explains.

Sense of Place

The conversation moves into the heart of what makes Vikre Distillery unique: the water sourced from Lake Superior. Emily discusses how this element influences the flavor and character of her spirits on this week’s “Dishing With Stephanie’s Dish” Podcast.

Stephanie Hansen (00:01.038)

Hello everybody and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie’s Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space. And today I am here with Emily Vikre. And she is the owner of Vikre Distillery up in Duluth and also makes a whole host of beautiful, beautiful spirits. I’m a big fan. But Emily also is a cookbook writer. And in her case, she has written this is your fourth book, isn’t it?

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Emily (00:31.574)

Yes, it is. Yeah.

Stephanie Hansen (00:33.814)

Okay, four books and four cookbooks in particular is pretty amazing. This last book is called Cabin Cocktails, and it has 70 seasonal cocktails for year-round drinks, and there’s mocktails too, I want to point out, because a lot of people are looking for mocktail options. I’m curious, you’ve had so many books. So you I’m just gonna kind of go through your canon here. You have Camp Cocktails, which was a great book and is

Emily (00:47.984)

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Emily (00:59.738)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Hansen (01:04.03)

still sold all over. It’s usually a lot of places where the True North Cabin cookbook is. We’re right next to each other, which yeah, I love. And then Cabin Cocktails, which is the new book. Then you have On the Trail, which was a new camp cookbook about easy-to-pack meals, kind of more about like taking your family actually camping and how to orchestrate that. And that book was great. And then you have another book called Fireside Warmers that had drinks.

Emily (01:09.166)

Yes, right. All those outdoorsy places.

Emily (01:24.988)

Mm. Yeah.

Stephanie Hansen (01:33.354)

Sweets. So you’ve done both cocktails, and you’ve done food books. Is one easier for you than the other?

Emily (01:38.811)

Yes. Ooh, that’s a great question. both things are things that I think cut like kind of come naturally to me to talk about, to storytell about, to develop recipes for. So in that way, one isn’t necessarily harder than the other. But I will say I do find like cooking recipes hard to write down for me.

Especially because as a cook, I’m very like intuitive in my cooking. And when I’m cooking for myself or my family, I don’t measure anything, I don’t time anything. I go by those like sensory inputs. And so it’s hard then when you’re writing a cookbook to really slow yourself down and say, okay, how much did I use here? Check my time, how long did that go for? Give it to other people to test it. and because my

Cookbooks right now have really been more about outdoor cooking and camping cooking, which isn’t even like the bulk of the cooking I do, but it is something that I enjoy. There is a whole part where you have to give that sensory feedback anyway, because everybody’s fires fires a little bit wild. So you have to learn to work with it. and then conversely for cocktails, I treat it much more like baking, where very precise. I’m measuring everything and so what those ones I have like the recipes kind of already dialed and written in a format that works for a cookbook already more easily. and this most recent book, yeah, just flowed.

Stephanie Hansen (03:11.414)

It’s funny that your your description of this whole thing is the exact reason why I have a hard time writing cocktails. Cause I feel like it’s so much easier to write a recipe than and you get like, you know, different flavor profiles and you know

Emily (03:20.228)

Mm-hmm, interesting.

Stephanie Hansen (03:32.042)

salt to taste, like okay. But like with cocktails, the level of sweet, the level of acid, the level of sour, the level of bitter feels so much more precise, just like baking to me.

Emily (03:43.109)

Yes, right. Cocktails can be very unforgiving if you don’t have if you haven’t developed a good recipe and if you don’t follow the recipe for sure. And you know, when people ask like, why didn’t my cocktail turn out? I’m like, well, first question, did you measure? Did you actually shake it when it’s had to shake it? you know, can you can wiggle and you can riff, but but it is. It’s like because cocktail ingredients often are complex.

And very multifaceted in and of themselves already. And those are the ingredients I love to work with, but they they are the ones where a little change can make a big difference. I tell people it’s like trying to combine a curry, a stew, and a salad instead of trying to combine a meat, a vegetable, and a spice.

Stephanie Hansen (04:27.904)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And also, I mean, you are, I think, for sure, from a Minnesota standpoint, I think your gins are world class. And I’m a big fan of all of your profile of gins in the Minnesota realm. But also I think your gins stand up to a lot of gins made in America, but also in Europe.

And you’re welcome. I I really I’m a big fan. But when you mix different gins, there’s also different flavor profiles. So if you’re gonna make a gin and tonic with, you know, any number of gins, it’s gonna be so different.

Emily (04:57.948)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that is a hard thing to think about when you’re writing a cocktail book for sure. And where you just kind of have to accept that there will be some variability if somebody’s gonna use Tankere or Hendrix or Vikra or The Botanist or Grey Whale, it’s going to be a little bit different. And like our Vikra gins are creative djinns, but I made all of them with the idea and the goal of being a true djinn at their

So they can work in any recipe that calls for gin and it will go with the other flavors and the proportions there, which can’t be said for all creative gins for sure. but yeah, it is, it is a thing to take into consideration. And in this book, Cavan Cocktails, where it was very much pulling from you know, European cocktail traditions and opera ski and aperitivo hour and things like that.

There’s a lot of liqueurs and pairitifs and amari that have very distinct flavor profiles. And so some of these recipes call very specifically for this type of amara or that type of liqueur. And then other ones I say, like you can use any herbal liqueur amongst these, because they all, you know, they’re all unique, but they all play the same violin. Maybe they have the same moves on the dance floor, even though they have their individual style.

Stephanie Hansen (06:34.959)

That’s a cool way to say that. one of the things I liked about this book, well, all of your books I think really have a sense of place to them, which I really like in a cookbook. It is, I think, what makes your books really appeal to me. But also the way that you position this book is more about.

like what the experience is, where you are, what you might be doing, what you might be feeling. And that really does speak to, I think, how you drink and consume alcohol, like what that setting is.

Emily (07:15.951)

Yeah, right. I think that is you know, h having started a distillery but coming from health, I’m always thinking about like what are the potential unhealthy parts of the culture and then what are the really healthy, beautiful parts of drinking culture that have existed, you know, since humans lived together, and how can we really elevate and highlight those? And so much of that is togetherness and

activities with other people and celebratory rituals and that kind of ritualized thoughtful side of it. And so yeah, this book is very much based around that. Like you’re yeah, you just were skiing all day and you’re coming in to toast to a day on the slopes or you have been out paddling all day and you’re coming back to sit on your dock together. What is the right cocktail for that moment?

Stephanie Hansen (08:07.245)

I think too when you drink with people that are very much interested in cocktail culture, and I I want to make the distinction between drinking culture and cocktail culture because I think l cocktail friends of mine, and I would put you in that circle, all are thinking about cocktails in the way that a chef is thinking about his meal at his restaurant. You’re thinking about how they’re gonna approach it.

when it’s going to be served, what the equipment that are you know, it’s so different than drinking culture, which is just like here, let me hand you something to drink.

Emily (08:46.781)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. It’s kind of yeah, it’s exactly like that, a chef thinking about it. And I think about it sometimes too, about like that difference between going and eating an entire box of like Chips Ahoy cookies for your sugar versus like eating one beautifully, you know, naturally leavened salted butter croissant that somebody spent, you know, 48 hours working on. it it’s yeah.

It’s just different.

Stephanie Hansen (09:18.071)

As someone that owns a distillery and has seen the we’ll call it the sort of rise and then leveling off of alcohol consumption and producing products in the state of Minnesota in that vein. Are you feeling like we’ve kind of gotten to a level that maybe is where we’re gonna be for a while? Because everybody was really excited about all the Minnesota make made distillery products.

There was a lot. Now we’re sort of losing some breweries. We’re losing some distillers. And it seems to be settling in. Is that good for you for business?

Emily (09:56.338)

That’s a great question. I was literally thinking about this in the car today when I was going and picking my kids up from school. Because yeah, I think as in a lot of industries, when like the laws changed and it allowed the industry to open up, there was a big rush into it. you know, anything that becomes trendy is of course gonna see a spike and then a decrease. And I do think generally that’s healthy and has allowed those of us who

went into it from a perspective of like, I’m really here for the creativity, for the quality of the product. I’m not doing it just because it’s local, but also because we want to make something really world class and that really adds to the conversation and people’s experience. you know, it those are the players that continue and stand out versus people who are chasing a trend or but it is also really hard because it does favor people like business

That were started up really well capitalized from outside investors versus the small players, you know, those of us who are operating really independently, it becomes much harder. and there’s also so many things going on, like on a national scale with regards to imports and exports, with regards to consolidation in distribution changes in different states that privilege certain states over others.

That are maybe even bigger players in what’s happening in Minnesota than just how crowded it got. I think that part’s really hard because it negatively impacts Minnesota businesses in ways that people can’t necessarily see if they’re not in the industry. and so that’s challenging. But I do think, you know, there’s comp competition isn’t a bad thing. It’s important. But then also there are like unfair unfair parts of it too. And so it’s important for people to keep.

Supporting the small businesses, but it’s also true, like nobody should be required to buy something just because it’s local. You wanna enjoy it too.

Stephanie Hansen (11:58.85)

Yeah. Is being from Duluth a help or a hindrance for you in how the products come to market?

Emily (12:07.741)

Well, that’s a deep question, Stephanie. because I would say both. Both because you know, Duluth has a reputation as a great place. It is a unique, beautiful, amazing place and has amazing resources. It’s why we wanted to be here. and it it has these like good associations for people that in some ways make our marketing easier and make the selling easier, makes it easier to stand out.

At the same time, we are kind of out state. We’re outside of the more metropolitan hubs where a lot of the resources are or where the distribution is, where you know, it’s hard to get down to like sell into the restaurants and things like that as often. So that is hard. And yeah, so it kind of it kind of goes both ways.

Stephanie Hansen (13:00.385)

You when when we were together last, I think something you said that has just stuck with me that I never really thought about. But you know, Duluth is on, you know, gorgeous Lake Superior, right? And we don’t think about water probably as often as we should, and maybe we’re thinking about water more now. But you made a comment about the terroir of Lake Superior water and how that impacts your product. And

Emily (13:28.283)

Yeah, I think it’s critical.

Stephanie Hansen (13:30.507)

It was such a cool way to think about it. Can you just talk to me a little bit and help the reader understand and the listener understand why that’s important to you and why that sense of place?

Emily (13:43.29)

Mm-hmm. this is another thing that’s very multifaceted, right? Because this the sense of place to me is important on a spiritual level because Lake Superior is such a massive presence that orients all of life around it when you’re in Duluth. So there’s that. It is like such a massive source of inspiration, but it also is a critical ingredient. We use it in our fermentation process, and that is why so many breweries in

Cropped up in Duluth, the water is really great for fermenting. But then when we are distilling, ironically, we’re removing all of that water and creating a distilled spear. When you distill, even for something that winds up being 35-45 proof, you’re distilling it up to, you know, 96% to 98% alcohol, potentially. So then when you are bringing it back to the proof that you want it for the bottle, you are adding water.

into it and that water can add a huge amount of character to your spirits. And so you know, some places use reverse osmosis to get the most like completely empty for lack of a better word, water they can. Other places like us just use filtration to try to keep more of the character of the water. And that adds the water that you use adds a lot of the flavor and texture to the final product.

And kind of gives it, yeah, some core essence. And there was a really interesting study done. Did I tell you about this? With whiskey from some Scotch whiskey and some Japanese whiskey. They decided to try to study the impacts of the proofing water by having the Scotch distillery send their distillate to Japan, to the Japanese distillery, and the Japanese distillery sent their whiskey distillate to Scotland, and they used each other’s water to proof it down.

And suddenly this Japanese whiskey really tasted like it came from Scotland and the Scottish whiskey really tasted like it came from Japan because the water gave it that tear water.

Stephanie Hansen (15:46.896)

I think about that when I buy your product because I think about you and like your family, and obviously I want to support Minnesota makers, but I also think about like this beautiful resource and this unique place that only can be gotten by the water from Lake Superior. And I never thought about that before. I thought about that with wine. And you know, you talk a lot about terroir with wine, you talk about it with whiskey.

It really I hadn’t really thought about it much as it pertained to gin in particular, ‘cause I like gin. So I think about that a lot now and I’m really glad that you shared that. So I wanted people to hear that ‘cause I think it really just is a connection to the place of where the products are made.

Emily (16:19.484)

Mm-hmm.

Emily (16:33.007)

Yeah, right. And that is such a goal of ours is connecting people, whether or not they can come visit to this place that is so unique and so beautiful and special and wild and quirky.

Stephanie Hansen (16:43.403)

You have a business with your husband, obviously. You have the distillery, you have a spirits business. W how do you have time for cookbooks and why are you still doing cookbooks? Is it lucrative for you or is it more of a creative outlet?

Emily (16:47.932)

that’s a great question too. It’s more of a creative outlet. before starting the distillery, and when I was in graduate school doing my PhD in food policy and nutrition, I was also doing recipe development and food writing. And I did that for a couple of different places, including Fi Food 52. And so, and I was a food blogger for a number of years. And so that was kind of my creative outlet during graduate school. And so then

with having the distillery and having recipe development in a different way become such a big part of what I did. I was missing that sort of story. Well, I mean, you do storytelling in the marketing for a business for sure, but I was missing that kind of slowed down, bigger picture, not just brand focused outlet. And yeah, so I was super excited to have the opportunity to work on cookbooks. It’s funny, it’s actually like some of my very

earliest memories as a very, very tiny child were of looking through picture cookbooks, like looking at the photos, trying to read the recipes and just imagining what it would be like to be able to cook them and dream thinking the greatest thing in the world would someday to be able be to write a cookbook. Like that would be the coolest thing. And then telling myself like no, you will never be able to do that. Right. And so

Yeah, the I surely had massive imposter syndrome the first ti first cookbook I wrote, but it also was just like such a joy to get to do something that I’d literally dreamed of since I was a toddler.

Stephanie Hansen (18:33.401)

That’s so cool. That’s so cool. I think the first cookbook I looked at was the Boys and Girls Cookbook. And there was like a clown cupcake where you like cut out part of the middle of the cupcake to make like the hat for the clown. And you had ice cream. And I just remember thinking like, wow, people can make these things and kids and kids can make them.

Emily (19:00.987)

Yeah, exactly. I think the one I was looking at, yeah, had like a cake that used MMs to decorate it to look like like a garden and like a little bird singing in the garden. And I was like, that’s genius.

Stephanie Hansen (19:09.825)

Yeah. It’s so funny. Are there cookbooks that inspire you today? Like do you have ones that you always go back to or ones that you just look at because they’re beautiful?

Emily (19:22.021)

Ooh, I love Alice and Roman’s cookbooks. I think they’re beautiful. I love how approachable they are in her whole style of cooking, and her writing style. So definitely those. I love my gosh, I’m blinking. I mean I use the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook all the time just because I enjoy like their methodical approach to recipe development. I like

Stephanie Hansen (19:43.086)

Yep.

Emily (19:51.42)

The I I’m like blanking on people’s names, but Otto the Autolengi cookbooks, really beautiful, really great recipes. And then Nigel Slater. I just have always loved his food writing. So I turn to that when I’m looking for like writing inspiration.

Stephanie Hansen (20:07.307)

Yeah, ratios is a good one for that if you’re interested in sort of the technology science recipe piece. Alison Roman was just interviewed by Ina Garten on a podcast, and she said something I thought that was really interesting that I think feels kind of like something you will be able to relate to, in that

Emily (20:14.353)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Hansen (20:29.975)

We’re in this sort of period of fast cooking, weeknight cooking, five ingredients or less, like high protein, low energy dinners, you know, just it’s we’re in this feeling of sort of frenzy about cooking sometimes, I think, and a lot. And what she talked about is her methodology that feels really interesting to I think think about is to slow down.

Like let’s not why are we rushing? Why do we have to rush this thing that feels yeah, and and if we value like the ingredients, the food, the time with our family, the community we’re creating, whatever that is, maybe we don’t need to rush, maybe we need to just slow down or also like understand when it’s not a weeknight meal, like you know, we don’t have a kid going to soccer today, so maybe we’re gonna slow down and take the time and spend the time.

Emily (21:01.987)

Mm-hmm. Where are where are yes. Like where do we think we’re headed?

Stephanie Hansen (21:30.037)

As someone who’s a younger cook and kind of in the zeitgeist of mm the next group of cooks I think coming along, I was impressed to hear that from her because I think sometimes we’re just feeling so frenzied about cooking all the time.

Emily (21:47.484)

Right. There’s such a push, yeah, to do it fast to get it done. It’s very like utilitarian. how can and also like it has gotten shoved into the whole like optimization culture too, where everything has to be optimized, everything’s and like if there was one thing I came out of of doing a PhD in nutrition with, it was like you can’t boil things down to their nutrients, right? Like you don’t need to optimize your protein and optimize your fat because it is an evolving science. There’s

People like science is so important, but we also, you know, are limited by what we decide to look at in that moment. And that’s just part of the process. And there’s so much wisdom in the cultures that have been built for thousands of years around food production and food sharing and drink production and drink sharing that are gonna withstand any of the latest fads and that it doesn’t it’s more optimal to like

have some really enjoyable food and drink that you take your time with and that you share than to like optimize every part of your diet. And I also think yeah, there this there’s like there is kind of people certainly are busy, but I think there’s a certain amount of like manufactured rushed feeling as well. Like you have to hurry this up, you have to hurry that up, you want to get it done fast. Yes, sometimes because you have to get your kids to soccer, but a lot of the time it’s like

They’re telling you this so that you can get back to scrolling and you can get back to shopping or whatever. And like, how much more of your life are you gonna experience if you do slow down, look at your ingredients, take the time to chop, take the time to smell, take the time to shake, take the time to sit down. you’re gonna feel like you’re living your life, you’re pulled into the moment instead of pulled out of the moment. And I think that is a beautiful thing to gift ourselves with.

Stephanie Hansen (23:41.508)

I felt that when I read this book, when I looked at the pages and I felt the scenery and I experienced what you were trying to identify with the drinks in particular, the cranberry thyme ginger cosmopolitan. though I love a cosmopolitan, I always say I’m bringing the 90s back, but that you know, thyme and ginger is like, yeah, that’s a natural component with cranberry.

Emily (23:57.158)

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Hansen (24:10.887)

And that one stuck out to me. And also, you had a blueberry sherry cobbler. Sherries are very underrated and people don’t know what to do with sherries. So that drink appealed to me. How did you think of that one?

Emily (24:26.243)

I I agree with you about Sherry. I love Sherry. It k it’s certainly an acquired taste, I think. Like the first time you taste Sherry, you might be like, What the heck went wrong with this? but as you get into it, you discover so much like nuance and so much interest to it. And so I really enjoy Sherry, knew that I wanted to integrate it into at least a few of our cocktails. And being a little bit of like a cocktail history nerd too, I just like the history of the cocktail the sherry cobbler and you know the

whole history of ice and this invention of the straw, which was to drink your sherry cobblers. and so I thought, yeah, it was, I mean, I’m not gonna be able to remember it accurately. So I’m not gonna try too hard, but like I want to say it was like the early 1800s, ice became easier to import. And so it was just like the sign of being with the times to use ice and everything. So people started to use make icier drinks and the one of the most popular ones was the sherry cobbler, which is

Stephanie Hansen (25:01.933)

I don’t know anything about that.

Stephanie Hansen (25:07.694)

Sure.

Emily (25:25.245)

sweeten sherry and citrus over a lot of crushed ice, but then that is hard to drink. And so kind of the straw was developed from actual straw to be able to stick it through all that crushed ice to be able to suck up your sherry cobbler.

Stephanie Hansen (25:37.68)

Crazy. Yeah. That’s crazy. I love that story. That’s awesome. as you think about what your next steps are, do you anticipate that you’ll stay in this space? And I mean, you just wrote a book, so it takes usually they say one or two years before you get around to even thinking about the next one. Is that sort of your cycle?

Emily (25:43.365)

Yeah.

Emily (26:00.284)

Yeah, right. Yes, for sure. I definitely, it’s like having kids too, right? You like need enough time to like recover from the process and forget exactly what happened before you’re like, I could do that again, right? and let ideas marinate. And it’s one of the things I like about writing books again in this fast-based culture is they are still slow. It’s a slow process to write it, it’s a slow, thoughtful process to photograph it, it’s a slow process to edit, publish, print. I love that. I love how much intentionality is put behind it.

Stephanie Hansen (26:05.09)

Yes.

Emily (26:29.829)

And so yeah, it’ll be at least another couple of years, I think, before anything else comes out. But I have joked that, you know, because I have camp cocktails and now I’ve, you know, upgraded to cabin cocktails, maybe next I have to do chateau cocktails.

Stephanie Hansen (26:44.269)

I like that. Or like there I the idea of I always think that you know, I don’t know why, but I tend to drink more and I’m traveling. So like the idea of a travel travel cocktails or you could certainly you could branch out into R V life. I can see that being a real a real fit, yeah.

There you go. Well van little van life. Yeah. yeah, I also have been really enjoying doing more like dinner parties and gatherings around themes. And so maybe exploring that idea, just continuing to play on the gathering side of it. Yeah.

Stephanie Hansen (27:16.121)

There’s so much of that right now on Instagram in particular. And I’m like lurking on all these people that are having these very cool parties. Tomatoes are really like a big theme right now because we’re just coming out of tomato season. And you have a a t is it tomato and gin cocktail in the book.

There’s yes, there is a tomato, basil gin and tonic.

Stephanie Hansen (27:40.245)

Yes. So tell me about that one and how that got inspired because tomato was not on my ginantonic portfolio.

Emily (27:48.242)

Yeah, it was a friend of mine who made a tomato gin and tonic for me. And she was like, You have to try this, it’s crazy. And I was like, I love this. I’m super into this because yeah, I’ve never been a big bloody mirrory person. It’s just like a little too tomato-y for me, but I do love tomatoes, so it was really fun to start seeing tomatoes integrated into drinks in other ways and yeah, kind of took the the tomato idea and decided to

Turn it into a shrub and give it that sort of play up its tangy and sweet notes and then add it into the gin tonic. It’s very refreshing and summery and fun.

Stephanie Hansen (28:24.855)

Yeah, it looks really wonderful. Yeah, I can’t wait to make it. Well, it’s been great chatting with you. I hope I’ll see you again in Duluth here before too long and we’ll be coming up actually I I have a book signing coming up there in at the end of November. So we’ll make sure we get by the distillery and and say hi.

Emily (28:33.085)

Same.

Emily (28:38.202)

Awesome.

Stephanie Hansen (28:44.919)

All right, thanks for everything and we can I’ll put a link to all your books. Is there places that you like people or prefer people to follow you on social or?

Emily (28:55.457)

I mean on Instagram is a great place to follow us and it’s just at Beaker Distillery.

Stephanie Hansen (28:59.343)

Okay. All right. I will include that. It is Emily Abikra. Thank you for being my guest today. I’ll put links to all the books and we’ll talk soon. Okay. All right. Bye.

Emily (29:06.439)

Thanks for having me.

Sounds good. Have a great day. Bye.

Stephanie Hansen’s Jenn Lueke

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