High Coast is a young Swedish whisky maker with international reach. Its single malt range is entirely hooked on flavour, says Sara Larsson, High Coast brand ambassador
Sweden loves whisky. Over 200 whisky clubs are registered with the Swedish Whisky Society, pouring drams the length and breadth of the Scandinavian country. They gather everywhere to celebrate the dark winters and bright, sun-filled summers characterising this affluent and cultured nation
Sara Larsson (pictured below) is leading me through a snapshot of her country’s thriving whisky culture. As brand ambassador for High Coast, she knows more than most about the passion and thirst for detail that the Swedish customer brings.

Travelling throughout this country of some 10.4 million people, she is frequently surprised and delighted with the breadth of knowledge the average High Coast fan has. “We are very transparent about our whisky-making process – this is a Swedish thing, I think. The attention to detail and looking for facts and figures. It’s one of our best-known characteristics. We reveal everything about what’s in the bottle, and our fans appreciate that,” she explains.

High Coast emerged on a riverbank in Höga Kusten (High Coast), a coastal region some 500kms north of Stockholm, in 2010. It’s a stunning natural environment, Larsson explains, painting an image of a landscape unsullied by industry, pollution or urban sprawl. People come here to hike, cycle and explore the national parks, she says, describing a wild part of Sweden dominated by forests, river valleys and dramatic coastline with a remarkably clean environment.
High Coast’s Swedish Tradition
Within this landscape High Coast has carved its own niche, distilling highly peated and unpeated single malt in the Scottish tradition that struggles to meet customer demand. “We are very attracted to Scotland’s whisky making, the peat profiles, the flavour and style. Our founders, two brothers, wanted to explore that in a Swedish context,” she says, “and that drive to explore has created this great Swedish whisky brand.” Originally called Box Distillery, it rebranded to High Coast in 2018 and bottles with the original Box name are sought after today as collector’s items.

The company is certainly thriving. High Coast reported a significant increase in both turnover and profit in August 2024, a fact that reflects the trend in whisky growth overall but is also contrary to the experience of other whisky makers in the region and beyond.
In its pursuit of excellence in whisky making, High Coast has rooted itself in Swedish tradition – the weather. “Our warehouses are built with concrete so there’s no escaping the climate,” Larsson says with a smile. This is significant when you learn that the temperature can dip to below -30 degrees and climb to above +30 in summer, she explains. “These wide fluctuations in temperature have a big impact on the spirit and how it matures,” she says, outlining the way in which flavour is pulled from the oak as it expands and contracts through the year.
“Our water of course is from an impeccable source too,” she says. “It comes from the nearby Bålsjön spring lake which is renowned for its clean, pure and soft water profile.”

Swedish Oak
Another tool in High Coast’s armoury is Swedish oak. The country is gifted with an ample supply of renewably harvested oak forests, enabling it to put a natural Swedish spin on their output. While it’s not the largest oak type used at the distillery – ex-bourbon and first-fill sherry dominate – Swedish oak certainly packs a punch when rolled out. “Our oak, particularly if we use virgin barrels, creates a whisky that is incredibly spicy and rich,” she says. “I would love to use it for everything, to be honest, but our master distiller knows best. We source impeccable barrels from around the world, but when we do a Swedish oak release, it’s extraordinary,” she explains.
You can taste the Swedish oak in their Solera bottling from 2023 or the Small Batch 18 from 2021.

“Hungarian oak is very popular with our Asian customers,” Larsson continues. “We have a distinct following in countries like Korea, Japan and China that particularly appreciate the delicate flavours that Hungarian oak produces. In Canada, too, we have a very big following. It’s hard to keep up with the demand there. For some reason, we have become known as a cigar whisky in Canada. There’s something about our flavour profile that they feel marries well with cigars,” she says, explaining that it was quite an organic trend that Canadian customers dreamt up for themselves.
“We celebrate flavour in a very clear way, and this seems to resonate with them. We don’t shout very loudly about age statements,” she says. “We keep the focus on the ingredients and the flavour they produce. We’re a young distillery, so our whisky can’t be incredibly old yet, but we have bottled a 12-year-old and not made a fuss of its age,” she says. “The team want to push our rich flavour profile over everything else.”
Not spotlighting age profile is a singular approach that bucks the trend in whisky marketing everywhere, but High Coast is a company built on confidence, she explains. “We believe in what we make and are completely invested in flavour.” It’s their selling point and the largest part of the company’s DNA – long may it continue.
Here are three bottles and an incredible limited special offer to help you discover High Coast for yourself:
This once-off grouping of High Coast single malts puts a collector’s edition in your path. Each of these bottles tell their own story about High Coast.
High Coast American Oak
The oldest bottling is High Coast American Oak which actually comes with the original labelling of Box Distillery. Produced before the rebrand to High Coast, it’s a slice of the company’s origin story. Bottled at 50.8% it was matured in American Oak and was highly lauded on release. Full of spice and oaky characteristics it was distilled in 2011 and bottled in 2016.
High Coast Quercus IV Mongolica
Matured in Asian oak, Quercus Mongolica, it was an experiment in oak species maturation but also chosen because of its ability to withstand extreme cold. The oak used to produce this bottle came from a Chinese region on the Russian border. It produced an elegant and richly flavoured single malt that carries long and deep vanilla notes. Bottled at 50.8%.
High Coast The Festival 2018
Huge spice and peat greets you at the door of this wonderful 40ppm single malt, matured in ex-bourbon and finished in new American oak. It comes layered with flavour throughout and only 1,000 bottles were produced. Smoky, meaty and charged with personality this is a single malt to savour.
Click here to check out more of our World Whisky Collection