We visited Absolut Home and The Åhus Villa in Åhus, Skåne. This is the home and origin of Absolut Vodka, and the noble drink is still produced here. Relatively new to the town is that you can visit Absolut Home and take part in the Absolut Home Experience.
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Visit to Åhus in Skåne
During our first two days in Kristianstad, we visited our blogger friends Daniela and Göran, and among other things we had time to visit the fantastic little restaurant Pia's Kitchen and the unlikely qingong Temple Yangtorp.
Then it was time for a press trip organised by Visit Kristianstad, which meant that another six Swedish travel bloggers showed up. Fun! We started with a visit to Åhus in Kristianstad municipality, where we visited The Absolut Home.
Absolute Home in Åhus
Absolut Vodka is produced in Åhus in Skåne, and it is also in this area that the brand has its history. The spirit is now produced by a subsidiary of Vin & Sprit AB, and the brand is owned by French Pernod Ricard. According to our guide, however, the French ownership has not meant any major differences, and the vodka is produced in the same place and in the same way as it "always" has been.
The man behind Absolut vodka
Lars Olsson Smith was known as L.O. Smith, also known as the Brännvin King. Born in 1936 in a village near Kristianstad, L.O. Smith was a driven entrepreneur and businessman who was not afraid to challenge the establishment.
He succeeded in developing spirits with an unusually low fines content, which he called 'Absolut pure spirits'. The spirit, later named Absolut Vodka, made L.O. Smith both rich and powerful.
The Åhus Villa
Today you can visit "The Åhus Villa" and take part in the "Absolut Home Experience", which is exactly what we did. In the villa there is also a restaurant, where we had lunch after the guided tour.
Absolute Home Experience
The "Absolut Home Experience" is a guided tour, ending with a workshop where you get to make your own cocktail or mocktail. The tour is very well directed, with nice animations on the walls, and the 90 minutes go by very quickly. Our guide, Filip, was also incredibly enthusiastic and engaging.
The factory and the church of spirits
When you have finished in The Åhus Villa, you can put on vests and go to the factory. Here we got to look into the "Liquor Church" and hear about the exclusive premium brand Absolut Elyx. Inside the holy of holies, however, there was a photo ban, so you'll have to make do with a photo of the gate and some pictures of the collection of vodka bottles.
More about Absolut vodka
The tour went on to learn more about production, ingredients and flavours. We got to taste autumn wheat and look for flavours (bread? liquorice? lemon?) in the vodka.
Cocktail workshop
The Absolut Home Experience ended with us making a cocktail or mocktail, a drink with or without alcohol. Peter chose to make a Cosmopolitan (with alcohol) and I, Helena, made a Cosnopolitan (without alcohol).
Vodka before lunch felt a little too cool for me, haha. There was full concentration in the room when we mixed our drinks, and only when we came to the "shake moment", which was accompanied by music, it became a little "wilder".
Lunch at Absolut Home
After the Absolut Home Experience, we finished with a lunch in the villa. The restaurant here is actually listed on the White Guide! The sun was shining and although it was little cool we could sit outside on the nice outdoor terrace - lovely!
We started with a herring buffet and then chose different main courses. For me it was a good fish burger with beetroot and for Peter it was a salad with roasted pork, which he was very pleased with.
See more in Åhus
We must conclude by saying that Åhus is a wonderfully charming little town by the sea. On a sunny spring day, like the one we were there, it's perfect to stroll around the cosy neighbourhoods, and maybe enjoy a locally produced ice cream.
Video from Absolut museum and ice cream
Facts about Absolut Home
- Address: Vallgatan 5, Åhus
- Find here: Driving from Kristianstad takes about 20 minutes.
- Opening hours: See the booking calendar on the Absolut Homes website.
- Activities: Absolut Home Experience, Flavour Tasting and Cocktail Class (course for those who want to improve their cocktail mixing skills).
- Prices: The Absolut Home Experience costs 295 SEK for adults, including a cocktail with alcohol (2019). The same tour with a non-alcoholic mocktail costs SEK 245. Young people (12-17 years), students and seniors (over 65 years) have some discounts. Children up to 11 years old enter for free when accompanied by a guardian. Lunch at the restaurant costs 135 SEK, or 175 SEK if you combine the herring table, lunch dish and coffee with a small sweet (2019). Please note that prices may change. See the website for current prices.
- Service: Restaurant Villan serves lunch (Monday - Sunday) and dinner (Thursday - Friday). See the website for the menu and for any changes.
- Read more: You can find more information on Absolut Homes website.
You might also like:
Culture in Lund - an open-air museum in the city centre
Birgit Nilsson Museum - starry-eyed in the Scanian soil
Swedish vineyards - 4 farms with Swedish wine
Things to do in Ängelholm - our 9 best tips
Fredriksdal in Helsingborg - museums and gardens
Disgusting Food Museum in Malmö - a "disgusting" visit
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Eva/Living like Eva says:
Interesting, and instructive for me who wanted to place Åhus in Denmark 🙂 .
The bottle, which is an important part of the Absolute brand, is made in my neighbourhood: in Limmared. Inspired by old-fashioned pharmacy bottles.
A few years ago, art from the Absolut Art Collection was shown at Glasets Hus in Limmared, the crazy cheeky art collection where the world's top artists made art with the Absolut bottle as a motif. That collection was excluded from the sale to Pernod Richard!
13 May 2019 - 8:49
Helena says:
It is probably not uncommon to mix up Åhus and Århus 😉 Nice that the bottle is made in your home region, I did not know that. We recently saw Absolutkonst at the Spritmuseum in Stockholm ?
13 May 2019 - 17:36
Ditte says:
What a nice, tasty and rewarding visit here at "Absolut Home".
Thanks for the fun and rewarding info!
13 May 2019 - 8:51
Helena says:
This was an interesting visit! ??
13 May 2019 - 17:36
Emma, sun like sun? says:
Haha, I was also going to place Åhus in Denmark! Ahhh Århus, it's called in Denmark. 😀 Geography is not my strongest branch, so to speak.
Interesting for you to see more about Absolut. Their bottles are so beautiful. The content is not really my weakness but drinks are fun and delicious.
(Giggled a bit at the blur in the last photo, looks like they have two big grey hats hanging over their heads!)
13 May 2019 - 9:35
Helena says:
The thing with Åhus and Århus is not quite easy ? And fun with the synvilla, I had not thought about it! ?
13 May 2019 - 17:37
Ama de casa says:
What an interesting and well-directed tour! Great that you both got approved as well 😀.
Have a great start to the week!
13 May 2019 - 10:46
Helena says:
Yes, diplomas are jewellery! ? Thank you very much!
13 May 2019 - 17:38
Britt-Marie Lundgren says:
What a fun "study visit"! First the exhibition at the Spritmuseet and now Absolut Home!
13 May 2019 - 14:13
Helena says:
It was a good combo! Completely unplanned though ?
13 May 2019 - 17:38
Mr Steve says:
Nice visit. Another place I had no idea about. But now I do.
13 May 2019 - 15:07
Helena says:
Neither did we, before ?
13 May 2019 - 17:39
Ann-Louise Paulsson says:
So interesting about Absolut Home, which I had not heard of before. However, I have walked past the factory in Åhus, when I was there with American friends a few years ago. Åhus is so cosy, became incredibly eager to go there now. 🙂
13 May 2019 - 17:18
Anna says:
How nice that you have been to Åhus where I grew up and to Kristianstad where I live?
It will probably be a holiday in Sweden this summer for us and then it was extra fun to get tips on things to do near where you live. Have never heard of Pia's kitchen but it looked super cosy.
Åhus absolute I must book in this summer. The house was almost dilapidated before Absolut bought it and now it is so nice. When I was little, I was in the house a few times when my mother worked at Annamodeller for a while and the owner lived in the house then. But that was in the 70s so it's a while ago?
Super fun to read about your visits and get tips on what we can do on our home holiday?
13 May 2019 - 17:37
Mr Nils-Åke Hansson says:
Here in Ödåkra we have Spritan, which has been given new life not as a liquor factory but with many different activities. A boost for the village
http://helsingborg.lokaltidningen.se/nyheter/2018-09-28/-Nytt-liv-i-Spritfabriken-%E2%80%93-stj%C3%A4rnkock-och-skjutbana-flyttar-in-3197096.html
What a great weekend you have had. And we were also in the neighbourhood
13 May 2019 - 19:33
Janne says:
Too bad you fall for Absolute's lies. L O Smith did not create vodka. He made an "absolutely pure spirit" in the 19th century, which meant he used column distillation, just like on the continent.
In the late 1970s, Sweden's Vin & Sprit wanted to sell spirits in the US, and developed a brand new vodka. Absolut. The only similarity? Both are made in column distillation. They took the name from L O Smith, nothing else, and he has as much to do with Absolut Vodka as Superman does with Donald Duck.
13 May 2019 - 22:18
Lovisa Kragerud, Archivist The Absolut Company says:
Hi Janne,
There are several links between LO Smith, his Absolut Rent Brännvin and Absolut Vodka. It is true that LO Smith used column distillation, which he pioneered in Sweden in the 19th century. The factories set up by LO also continued to produce Absolut Rent Brännvin even after the state monopoly was introduced in 1917, when Vin & Sprit took over LO's company. Sixty years later - in 1979 - Vin & Sprit started producing Absolut Vodka.
Absolut Vodka is a product that is strongly inspired by Absolut Rent Brännvin, although the distillation process has evolved over the years (which is natural when over 100 years have passed). It's based on the same principles (including column distillation) that LO used to revolutionise spirit production in the latter half of the 19th century, which is why the name Absolut Vodka was chosen - to honour LO Smith's legacy.
20 May 2019 - 8:59
Lena - good for the soul says:
What a fun place! I've been to Åhus, but didn't know it existed. Or it did not exist when I was there. Mocktail was a new word for me 🙂.
Hug Lena
18 May 2019 - 7:00