Meet Oskar Ericsson, creator of Icelandic Himbrimi Gin

Himbrimi is a bird. The word translates from Icelandic to heaven howler. If you like to fish, it’s your enemy. If you like gin, it’s your best friend. Meet Oskar and his Icelandic gins.

My interview with Oskar

Hi Oskar, what city are you from?

I'm from Reykjavik, Iceland.

And your gins are called Himbrimi. In what year did you launch your products?

It was in 2013. That was the year that I started to develop our product — first, I made it in my kitchen, and it was only for private consumption. Then, I really got into it and decided to take it further. It took about three years to find the finances to take it to the next level.

You are an artist. Tell us a little bit about that.

My background is in video art. I used to do a lot of video art installations, which I love. And it's such a beautiful medium to work with. Especially because with video, you're working with time-based art. So, it’s very dynamic, there's a beginning, a middle and an end. Just like distilling. My gin project was supposed to be much smaller. It was done as kind of a side project because to live on your art is really tough in the 21st century, especially if you don't want to sell out. 

I really relied on my art when I was designing the label. The minute you take the bottle, that’s when you see the label, you read the back label, only then do you open the bottle. Then, of course, you smell the gin, you pour it and you drink it. These steps are very important. It’s compelling to actually create a timeline before you plan how the steps will be laid out.

What inspired you to create a gin?

I knew I wasn't going to make a whisky—it also takes many years to do it. I wanted to create a drink that I could take with me when I went fishing. My Dad is Dutch, so I have these Dutch genever roots. And when he tasted Himbrimi Old Tom Gin, he said that it tasted like a Dutch genever called korenwijn which means grain wine. It was a very malty tasting gin. I wanted to make a gin that I could drink pure. 

Where does the name come from?

It’s the name of a bird, the loon. This is a bird that you often see when you go fishing. Himbrimi means heaven howler, which is the Icelandic name for the loon. If you see a loon when you go fishing it is not necessarily a good thing, because it probably means that the loon has already eaten all the fish—it’s your competitor. So, we kind of made a joke out of it, if you see a loon you might as well just go home and start drinking. You're not going to catch any fish.

What happened to get your brand off the ground?

Well, first we were distilling under another distiller’s license, and it was very expensive. So we thought about increasing our production so we could have our own distillery. Because Iceland is such a small market, we decided to target Europe and America so we could make some margins. And soon, by 2018, production was really increasing. We already had a clear concept, we had won awards and it was going well.

Then something happened during the pandemic, right? 

Yeah, so what happened was, we were never really interested in expanding too heavily but we were approached during the pandemic by a very interesting group of investors from the US who had tasted Himbrimi, were familiar with the brand, and convinced us that they were the right people to take this further. So we decided, after about half a year of talking back and forth, to accept the other offer and to expand. That is what happened.

During the pandemic, Iceland was one of the few countries that was welcoming visitors, did that help your brand gain exposure?

Yeah, that is true. Just 20 years ago, nobody knew about Iceland, I mean, it was kind of like an unknown country in Europe. But you know, after the volcano erupted and after our financial crash, we got into the media and Iceland became a very interesting destination for a lot of people. Nevertheless, it's very expensive. So there are a lot of high-end visitors coming here and a certain percentage of them went on fishing trips. And because our gin is often consumed by people who fish, it got noticed.

There are many gins in the market—what is particular about your gin and what does the fact that it is produced in Iceland mean for the taste profile?

That is a very good question. We are still looking for a gin on the market that comes anything close to ours. Ours is a very unusual and unique type of gin. It is sweet and very herbaceous. It is really full of juniper berries. But, first of all, this is a macerated gin based on 18th century gin and the old bathtub gin recipes. Compounding or a typical bathtub is not a really good way of creating gin because the water that you are using isn't really suitable to make an infusion. In our case, we use Icelandic water, which has an extremely high pH making it very suitable for this kind of gin. It is very difficult to make. We often had to recall whole batches of gins because we weren't happy with them, but through the years we really managed to master the recipe. We have now switched to 100% organic or wild because there's some herbs that are wild but not certified organic so we cannot get 100% organic certification.

Are all the botanicals from Iceland?

No, they're not, unfortunately. Some of them are important but they're not available here in the wild. However, the arctic thyme and angelica flowers are local: we pick them ourselves here in Iceland. This gin is much more of a whisky style. It’s beautiful to drink neat. If I could make you two drinks to convince you about our gin, I would make you a Negroni and an old fashioned. I would suggest more whisky-based cocktails. According to all the legends out there, Old Tom was a very logical missing link between a whisky and a gin, and that is really what we think our gin is. There are very few compound Old Tom gins, but if you look into the history, the reason why Old Tom Gin was sweetened is because it had a very bitter taste to it and they were trying to mask the impurities as well. In our case, we don’t overly sweeten our gin, we just add a bit of honey. 

And what about your other gin?

Our London Dry starts off like the Old Tom. We infuse it with herbs for about two weeks, much longer than you would normally do. If you make a compound gin, you might infuse it for 48 hours. In the case of our London Dry, what we do is we just take the whole batch of Old Tom gin without the honey. We take the herbs and the berries and put it in our custom made still and we distill it. So our London dry is basically the same recipe as our Old Tom, but with a different method. And it makes the flavor profile very different. It's very interesting to try them side by side, and even better to actually mix them together in a cocktail. Because it’s like you’re using two gins from two worlds.

Okay, are you planning on launching other products? 

We have launched an Aquavit, but it will not be part of the Himbrimi line. You won’t be seeing Himbrimi rum or whisky or vodka for example. 

Why should people visit Iceland?

Iceland is neither Europe or America. It is really almost a tiny continent on its own. It rose from the sea 60 million years ago. And there are no natives except the fox. It is unlike any other country in the world. I mean, you could compare it to Hawaii as far as its volcanic energy, but of course the weather is completely different. It has some of the cleanest water in the world. You can drink water straight from the tap. You can walk around in Iceland and there's nobody around—you really have this sense of isolation. So, for someone who wants to escape the mundane and disconnect, it’s great. It’s almost like going to another planet.

Five questions for Oskar

Your most inspirational artist?

Bjork.

The favorite thing to do on your day off?

To be with my family… And going fishing!

How many hours do you sleep per night?

I have a two-year old so, if I'm lucky, I can get around seven hours. But that is really on a good day.

Sharlafied Trivia

Leander Deeny played the “skinny” Captain America as well as the bartender in this scene.

What's your favorite superhero?

It's probably Captain America because although he is a traditional super-hero, he really rebelled against the system. 

If you couldn't live in Iceland, where would you live?

Probably in Holland, where some of my family is.

Where you can find Oskar and Himbrimi Gin

Instagram: @ginhimbrimi

Facebook: Himbrimi Gin

Website: himbrimi.com