SHARE
COPY LINK
NORTHERN DISPATCHES

ALCOHOL

‘Northern Swedes need to know you before they’ll drink with you’

While viewing an acquaintance's small illicit alcohol still, ex-Londoner Paul Connolly ponders the surprising reticence of northern Swedes to drink in company.

'Northern Swedes need to know you before they'll drink with you'

Eskil, an old chap with a tidy haircut and a tightly clipped beard, is leaning against his small illicit alcohol still in his garage, cackling as he tells his story about his best friend, Erik.

“It was day three of our session in the middle of summer four years ago. When the sun doesn’t go down you must drink! Erik had drunk so much hembränt he just fell into his own barrel of vodka. It took four of us to drag him out.”

Eskil takes his glasses off and wipes the tears of laughter from his eyes.

“He was shouting at us as we pulled him out. ‘Let me go, let me go, it’s the way I want to die.’ He wanted to drown in his own chateau de garage. Of course, his wife was very angry. She said he smelled of potato vodka for weeks after. She even made him sleep in the barn for a day or two once he’d gotten rid of the still. She claims he hasn’t touched alcohol since.”

Eskil winks.

“But I know better, of course…”

The northern Swedes’ relationship with alcohol is complex, probably more so than in the south, where the younger generation at least, are far more bar-‘literate’.

They may still have that northern European tendency to binge drink but they’re not repressed or ashamed to admit they like a tipple. Up north, at least in the rural areas, it’s a whole different ball game.

Donna and I greeted the state-run alcohol store monopoly Systembolaget’s recent announcement that it is to trial a home delivery service with excitement.

Our nearest Systemet is an hour’s drive away. Where we lived in London our nearest off-licence was a 30-second-walk away. Or a one-minute drunken stumble. A delivery service would be great news for us.

But our neighbours in the village don’t seem to be so enthusiastic about Systembolaget’s plan.

We’ve hosted three dinners now and alcohol has not featured even once. We’ve offered our guests beer or wine but each time our offer has been rebuffed, although we’re pretty sure that at least one of our guests was keen on the idea of a glass of wine. But she bowed to peer pressure and reluctantly refused when everyone else said, “Oh no, water is fine.”

Our impression is that the idea of Systembolaget home deliveries simply adds another dimension to the potential for alcohol embarrassment up north. What if people start talking about the fact that you get weekly deliveries? Will they think you have a problem? Can’t they wrap up the delivery truck in a huge brown paper bag?

One of our English friends up here says that she gets odd looks from her neighbours when she suggests a gin and tonic at 5 in the afternoon.

“I think the northern Swedes’ attitude to alcohol is a little like the English attitude to recreational drugs. If we enjoyed a joint we wouldn’t light up the minute we crossed the threshold of someone’s house for the first time. So it is with northern Swedes and alcohol. They need to get to know you before they’ll drink with you.”

This reticence is crazy, of course. Anyone with eyes knows that northern Swedes like their drink.

At around 11pm on Midsommarafton this year, we took a drive round the village in which we had rented our first house. It was like a scene from US zombie drama The Walking Dead, with people of both sexes and all ages doing that strange, stiff-legged, weaving shuffle of the paralytically drunk. I’ve never seen that many people so utterly drunk in the UK – not even in Glasgow.

Back at the still in Eskil’s garage, the friendly retired engineer offers me a taste of his product. It’s surprisingly good. Does he sell it?

“No, it’s only for me and a couple of my friends. It’s a dying art. It takes too much time and alcohol isn’t so expensive anymore. I think maybe in 10 years there will be no more stills here.”

After I thank him for his time and, for probably the tenth time, promise not to reveal his real name or whereabouts, I turn to walk back to my car. As I open the door to my car Eskil calls to me:

“You know, I don’t think Erik fell into his vodka. I think he jumped in to escape his wife!”

And with that, he hoots with laughter again and slaps his thigh.

Paul Connolly

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ALCOHOL

Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU 

More than one in ten Spaniards drink alcohol every day, making them the Europeans who drink most regularly after the Portuguese, new Eurostat data reveals. 

Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU 
Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP

Thirteen percent of people in Spain drink alcohol every day, a similar rate to Italy, where 12 percent enjoy a tipple on a daily basis, and only behind Portugal, where 20 percent of people have an alcoholic drink seven days a week.

That puts Spaniards above the EU average of 8.4 percent daily drinkers, data published by Eurostat in July 2021 reveals. 

This consistent alcoholic intake among Spaniards is far higher than in countries such as Sweden (1.8 percent daily drinkers), Poland (1.6 percent), Norway (1.4 percent), Estonia (1.3 percent) and Latvia (1.2 percent). 

However, the survey that looked at the frequency of alcohol consumption in people aged 15 and over shows that weekly and monthly drinking habits among Spaniards are more in line with European averages. 

A total of 22.9 percent of respondents from Spain said they drunk booze on a weekly basis, 18.3 percent every month, 12.5 percent less than once a month, and 33 percent haven’t had a drink ever or in the last year. 

Furthermore, another part of the study which looked at heavy episodic drinking found that Spaniards are the third least likely to get blind drunk, after Cypriots and Italians.

The Europeans who ingested more than 60 grammes of pure ethanol on a single occasion at least once a month in 2019 were Danes (37.8 percent), Romanians (35 percent), Luxembourgers (34.3 percent) and Germans (30.4 percent). 

The UK did not form part of the study but Ireland is included. 

Overall, Eurostat’s findings reflect how the Spanish habit of enjoying a glass of wine with a meal or a small beer (caña) outdoors with friends continues to be common daily practice, even though 13 percent does not make it prevalent. 

Spaniards’ tendency to drink in moderation also continues to prevail, even though a 2016 study by Danish pharmaceuticals company Lundbeck found that one in six people in the country still drinks too much. 

READ ALSO:

SHOW COMMENTS