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Whisky and memory share the same language. Both unfold slowly, revealing layers you didn’t know were there. In Between You and I, Highland Park and chef Björn Frantzén explore that connection by creating a single malt designed to make you feel as much as it makes you taste.
The collaboration brings together the Orkney distillery’s 226 years of craft with Frantzén’s sensory, emotional approach to flavour. Their 16-year-old release doesn’t arrive with a list of tasting notes. Instead, it asks whisky enthusiasts to connect taste with personal tasting notes and recollections.
For Frantzén, that connection takes the form of orange zest, rock music, and the scent of marzipan in his grandmother’s kitchen. There are hints of tropical air, tonka beans, and the stillness of winter forests. “Taste is a very personal thing – it can evoke so many memories or emotions,” he says. “For me, it’s a totally new way of tasting whisky.”
The design reflects that individuality. Each box has been spray-painted in layers of orange, blue, and heather, inspired by Frantzén’s graffiti background. The texture feels deliberately raw and is a reminder that imperfection can be its own kind of beauty. Inside, the whisky tells its story through sixteen years of maturation in Swedish oak, sherry-seasoned casks, and ex-Bourbon barrels.
Even the booklet inside avoids instruction. Instead of tasting notes, it poses questions: What memory does this flavour bring back? What sound or place comes to mind? The idea is to make whisky more conversational, to turn the act of tasting into something shared.
“Between You and I is an exciting new expression of flavour,” says Paul Condron, Highland Park’s Brand Director. “It’s about sparking dialogue and finding connection through taste.”
Released globally earlier this month on October 14, the expression invites a slower, more mindful approach to whisky – one that celebrates emotion, craft, and the stories that stay with us long after the glass is empty.
