Absolut One Source Story
Crafting Absolut Vodka is a holistic journey born from our Swedish tradition in vodka-making commitment to our source and community. Having One Source and One Community means we respectfully control the entire process from seed to bottle, tracing the very product that is in your hand all the way back to our farmers.
Åhus, Sweden
One Source
One source is our production philosophy, meaning that every aspect of our production journey takes place in and around the small village of Åhus, Sweden. All ingredients for Absolut Vodka are sourced from southern Sweden. Every drop of water and every seed of wheat comes from one water source, one village and one community. This is the reason why no matter where you are in the world Absolut will always have the same high quality.
Winter Wheat
We only use hardy winter wheat from the area surrounding Åhus in Southern Sweden. The fertile fields in southern Sweden are ideal for growing wheat, with yields around twice as high as the global average for wheat production.
Pristine Water
We always tap our water locally from our own wells that are more than 140 meters deep. The water has been filtered through the Swedish bedrock for thousands of years and gives a natural mouthfeel that you cannot create in a lab. After all, 60% of vodka is pure water, so it’s quite a big deal.
CO2 neutral distillation
By continuously improving and keeping focus on how we can be more sustainable we have made our distillery one of the most energy-efficient in the world*. Today, we have CO2 neutral distillation**; a fact we are very proud of.
* 2018 Bier Benchmarking Executive Summary
** Carbon emissions offset by planting trees that absorb CO2 over their lifetime.
One Community
Vodka has been produced in Åhus for more than 100 years and we believe that creating vodka of impeccable quality requires shared values. It requires trust in traditions and knowledge that have been passed down through generations of farmers and distillers.
Farmers like Family
The winter wheat is sown, grown, harvested and delivered by our community of approximately 400 farms in Southern Sweden. With shared values in terms of quality and sustainability, we work together to promote sustainable farming techniques through practices such as crop rotation, ensuring the best quality wheat, while at the same time improving our impact on our community. We don’t do this to be on trend, we do it because this is our backyard. And we’ve always done it this way.
Sustainable Farming
For us, sustainable farming starts with shared values – and acting on them. By working together for our collective future, making smart choices for the environment and therefore ourselves, we stay true to what we have strived for long before it was on trend – being a more sustainable brand.
We promote Sustainable farming techniques through our Cultivation Concept, promoting greater quality winter wheat and sustainable farming techniques. It has a strict set of protocols for the quality of the wheat supplied by the farmers. Rigorous checks take place for each wheat delivery to ensure the correct moisture level and wheat cleanliness to name just a few quality parameters. An important practice for our partnering farmers is called crop rotation. This means that they rotate the crops between for example rapeseed, wheat, and peas on a yearly basis. Crop rotation keeps the soil healthy, minimizing the need and use for fertilizers and pesticides.
We don’t like to waste a thing
From our raw spirit distillation, we get a by-product called stillage or drank in Swedish. It’s rich in protein, so we feed thousands of pigs and cows in our near surroundings. Every day.
The clear, but green glass bottle
Yes, our bottles are clear. But also, pretty green. We are big fans of sustainability and constantly strive for improvement. Today, every Absolut Vodka bottle is made with more than 40% recycled glass.