ABSOLUT uses only the hard winter wheat grown in the rich soil of Southern Sweden. It's this winter wheat that gives ABSOLUT its distinctive character and consistent quality.

Sown in the fall, the wheat is protected throughout the winter by snow and frost, so that in spring the strength of the seeds helps them win the battle against weeds with minimal need for fertilizers and pesticides.

To achieve the perfect wheat, ABSOLUT works with about three-hundred local farmers whose families have grown winter wheat for generations and who have been specifically trained to grow carefully selected varieties. Opus, Tulsa, Liva and Skalmeje are some of the names. What determines whether a certain variety is perfect for ABSOLUT is the level of starch yield, low input of nitrogen, and strong resistance to disease.

Each contracted local farmer keeps a diary that records information about the grower, place of cultivation, type of soil, the seed and harvest yield and a wealth of other information that lets us know our standards are being met. Our farmers know ABSOLUT only buys wheat that satisfies or surpasses our stringent guidelines. We work closely with our farmers, who are committed to cultivating a wheat with character and courage like their own.

All in all, there are over twenty steps in the bottle check process. From sensors that check if a bottle has been rinsed, to image inspection of each bottle's thread, opening, and bottom. But out of all the steps and tests to making sure every bottle goes out perfect, manual inspection is too important to leave to a machine. It takes the human eye -- lots of them.

The production line at ABSOLUT has two stations where everyone who works at ABSOLUT takes their turn every day for two thirty-minute shifts examining bottles for imperfections. Scratches, faults, particles.

Collectively, 600,000 bottles pass before our eyes every day. To us, this level of team commitment to perfection goes without saying. The goal is that no bottle should leave our facility that is anything less than faultless.

In 1879, Lars Olsson Smith, the founder of ABSOLUT challenged the vodka establishment in Sweden by introducing a new refining process called "continuous distillation." This unconventional method led to a vodka so pure that he called it Absolut Rent Bränvin -- absolutely pure vodka.

At ABSOLUT, clean taste starts with clean grains and clean water. The goal is perfect clarity and a well-balanced profile. Our distillers’ craftsmanship is what makes it possible to determine the exact levels of pressure and temperature needed to achieve this.

Under their watchful eyes, wheat is mixed with pure water from our own well. Our high quality water helps make sure no impurities affect the product. The mixture then goes through six column stills and hundreds of layers at exact levels of pressure and temperature.

This distillation method is still used in making today’s ABSOLUT VODKA, launched in the U.S. as the first market in 1979. That continuity is one reason every bottle tastes exactly the same.

Each bottle of ABSOLUT VODKA is carefully rinsed with ABSOLUT VODKA. Only ABSOLUT VODKA itself is pure enough to clean and prepare a bottle to be filled with more ABSOLUT VODKA.

Every year we use over one million liters of ABSOLUT VODKA to rinse the bottles before filling them with ABSOLUT VODKA -- that's more than what would fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

This step of the bottling process is crucial as it removes all impurities. The rinse process guarantees that what's found in every bottle is 100% ABSOLUT VODKA and 100% pure.

Pure water helps make sure no unwanted impurities affect the profile of our vodka products. The ground water that's a crucial raw material for every bottle of ABSOLUT enjoyed everywhere in the world comes from a single source -- our own well in Southern Sweden. That well taps into one of the world's largest underground reservoirs -- where the water has been naturally filtered for about 15,000 years.