“To sip elegantly or to gulp? To drink alone? Before breakfast or after six? Fine liquor or cheap beer? When, where and how to drink is something you learn as you grow up. Like anything else. Try it out. Both drunkenness and partying.” 

People’s relationship to alcohol has always been a substantial indication of a country’s culture. Stockholm’s  Museum of Spirits is focused exactly on this relationship between Swedish and booze. Located on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm, Spritmuseum is a live example of how an afternoon’s visit in a museum could turn into an unforgettable experience. “Here, your senses will be drawn into the ins and outs of spirits”. You will be told that in rural Sweden there was a drink for every day, for every occasion. You will find out how important is Friday for the locals: “Friday is everything. It’s a transition from weekday to weekend, where playfulness and pleasure get their due. Friday is expectation, play, pleasure, relaxation…”
Either you are a liquor lover or you are a huge follower of art and craft, this museum is a 100% guarantee that you will find something interesting to talk your friends about.

You will also have the chance to learn some very important things about ethanol alcohol and how its consumption affects your body: Much of the misery of alcohol, headaches, bad taste and hangovers, were all blamed on foul smelling fusel oil (a by-product of distillation). Lars Olsson Smith, changed the market with cheap fusel-free spirits. Absolutely pure using brand new technology, he became the King of vodka. In 1877 he launched Tiodubbelt Renadt Branvinn, the first fusel free vodka in Sweden. Its name was changed to Absolut Rent Branvinn in 1879. He died in 1913 but his memory lives on. 

The first showroom of the museum hosts an exhibition called Face it! It is a selection of 68 pieces from Absolut Art Collection. Here, you will have the chance to see the first artwork made for Absolut, made by Andy Warhol. You will also be able to admire paints and artwork made by Keith Haring, Alfredo Ceibal, Martin Jamtlid, Robert Indiana, Shirley Rabe Masinter, Jean-Paul Gaultier and many other artists. All were produced as part of a strategy for building and communicating the brand. When the Swedish government sold Absolut Vodka along with the rest of Vin & Sprit AB to French liquor company Pernod Ricard, it was decided that the art collection was of special cultural value to Sweden and would therefore be kept by the Swedish state. Spritsmuseum is today an independent foundation, but was first established as Vin & Sprit AB’s very own corporate museum.
Don’t miss the chance to go there in case you visit Stockholm. I promise…you are going to love this!

Ever since the middle ages vodka has been used as medicine. It makes a fine solvent that dilutes and preserves aromas and the active components in herbs and healing plants. Have a drink and it will be all right.

When alcohol goes in, reason goes out. After a drink or two the alcohol rushes on into the brain’s reward system, which like a rocket sends off a billion feel good signals. 

Punch, yummy! Then, as now, a meeting point for party people. With adult strength and childish taste. 

Spiced vodka: a Swedish national drink from north to south. Any self respecting town or region had its own special blend. 

a bicycle in the beautiful entrance of the museum