Single-shot distillation means the distillate is bottled at the strength the still produced, without a concentrate being made and later cut with neutral spirit. It halves what a run yields, and that is why a recipe of twenty-six botanicals can still arrive with a full body. Bareksten works that way at Oss Craft Distillery in Bergen, nineteen of the twenty-six plants gathered locally, and bottles at 46%.

A list that long usually blurs, and the berries are what stop it. Blueberry and lingonberry give a tart red-fruit weight that no herb could provide, elderflower adds a honeyed floral note above them, and rose hip contributes its own dry tartness lower down. The herbs occupy the middle: mint cooling, chamomile soft and apple-like, lavender and red clover extending the floral register, arnica and rose flowers filling in behind. The spices come next and they are numerous, cardamom and grains of paradise lifting, cinnamon and nutmeg warming, caraway and aniseed and fennel supplying an anise thread that runs the length of the palate. Citrus peels sharpen the top, rhubarb adds a green sourness, and juniper with angelica and orris root anchors the base. At 46% and undiluted by any second spirit, everything holds its shape.

Complexity of this order does not need help from a mixer. A neutral tonic, a glass filled right up, and a pour heavy enough to keep the berries audible. A lingonberry or two, if you can find them, follows the recipe more literally than any citrus would; lemon peel is the practical substitute. Double Gold at San Francisco in both 2017 and 2020 suggests the method is worth the yield it costs. Halving your yield to keep a fuller body is a decision taken at the accountant's expense. It ends fruity, spiced and full.