Ah, Denmark. With your Viking heritage, Lego, and high-quality rums... – wait, what?

It’s fair to say Denmark is probably not the first country that comes to mind when you think of rum. But the AH Riise brand has a long and interesting history of spirit production that makes it something of an exception.

It dates back to 1838, when native Dane Albert Heinrich Riise moved to the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, formerly of the Danish West Indies colony. Here the keen botanist was officially appointed as the exclusive pharmacist for the island and granted a monopoly status to produce alcohol by the Danish Government. Originally this was used to create rum and bitters for use primarily as a medicine for stomach ills and other hardships.

However, the rum soon gained popularity outside of its medical function and A.H. Riise enjoyed great success creating West Indies rum. The brand was given its first of what would prove to be many awards and medals in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was eventually exported to several continents and proved especially popular in the motherland of Denmark.

Today, the current A.H. Riise Spirits company is one of the largest Scandinavian spirits brands with a portfolio that includes creators of whisky, rum, vodka, gin, bitters and aquavit. It was established back in 2016 when A.H. Riise Rum, Tranquebar Gin, London Dock Rum and Kronborg Akvavit were merged, adopting its name after its most well-known brand. Other lines in its portfolio include Santos Dumont Rum, Starka Vodka and Krabask Bitters.