Marcus Samuelsson Has Always Loved SKYY Vodka, Aquavit Is Just A Good Friend

For years, all the food blogs and newspapers connected Marcus Samuelsson with aquavit: not just the restaurant, but the sexy Scandinavian liquor that tastes like firewater and turns drinkers into Viking demigods (for half a night). “Marcus, why aren’t you with that nice aquavit?”, people would ask at parties, and Marcus, holding a vodka martini, would murmur that he liked aquavit, but just because he’s Swedish-Ethiopian, doesn’t mean that he and aquavit had to be together. They’re just good friends. Friends. 

So when Speakeasy found out that he’d signed on to endorse SKYY Vodka, they (secretly) were all, “OMG MARCUS IS SEEING OTHER ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES!!!” Then they wondered if maybe Marcus was endorsing SKYY Vodka for the money, and, after heated debate in which both sides made “Team Marcus/Team Aquavit” t-shirts, decided to ask Samuelsson himself at a party celebrating his latest endorsement.

It turns out that Marcus — and many good Swedes — drank vodka all the time growing up, and aquavit simply didn’t know about it. “Oh my God, we drank vodka at all the celebrations –- Christmas, a midsummer party –- and we ate a lot around it,” he told them. He’s actually something of a vodka connoisseur, and plans on using his position with SKYY “to demystify for people how they can make a great cocktail.” (And by the way, he says it’s not for the money: he rejects 95% of endorsement proposals that come his way.)

Somewhere, a jilted, crying aquavit is angrily composing a Taylor Swift revenge song and burning that teddy bear Marcus once gave her.

[WSJ via Grub Street]