Absinthe - The Green Fairy

Right now there is a small selection of absinthes at Systembolaget (the Swedish alcohol monopoly), both good and bad, but if you want a wider selection (and good quality) then you should really check out a few German websites (described bellow). Unfortunately, these are only available for countries outside of the EU (and of course Germany), this is because of the OSS reform that took effect on July 1st 2021 and in practice prohibits companies to selling alcohol to private individuals in other countries within the EU (or at least that is how I have come to understand it).

I often see a lot of Americans asking where they can find genuine absinthe, and my answer is always ”German websites”. They ship to most western countries and have very resonable shipping costs. They also send you coupons from time to time. I´ll tell you about a few down below because if there is an absinthe you want, chances are that at least one of them have it in stock.

ALANDIA: Not all of their absinthes are genuine but they have a fair selection of products. They also have some brands which are made for them especially and I must say that they are pretty good. They sell some sample bottles, mostly of their own products, but I can recommend that you try them. Shipping to Sweden was about €15 for up to 6 bottles and have never taken more than 6 days for me, sometimes only 2 days. They also have a "Delivery Guarantee” which means that if your absinthe doesn’t arrive, or if it is damaged, then you get your money back or they resend your order for free. They pack their products with care though, and all of my orders have found their way to me safely. And with every order they send a small package of Haribo candy and/or absinthe themed stickers, postcards or fridge magnets. Of course they also have a selection of glasses, spoons, fountains, posters and more, which they continue selling to EU countries even post OSS. And if you are curious and have the money, they also sell vintage absinthe. Their blog can also be worth a visit, where they go through absinthe history among other things. The only thing I feel they could improve is the communication. Some times I´ve written to them and it can take a few workdays before they get back to me, but I think I´ve always got an answer sooner or later.

Absinthes.com: The biggest site I’ve found so far, they have a very respectable range of absinthes, and most of them are genuine. Should you be unsure which ones are the genuine stuff, then they have a category for that which you can brows. They have about the same prices as ALANDIA, although it’s easy to be fooled as ALANDIA displays their prices in € and absinthes.com in $. The shipping time and cost is about the same as ALANDIA´s, they pack your order very safe as well (lots of corrugated paper and bubble wrap) and they also send Haribo candy. One time I got a fortune cookie instead XD They also have a wider range of fountains, glasses, spoons, posters and so on than ALANDIA do, and they sell vintage absinthe, but here you can also buy samples if you can’t afford a whole bottle. At first I was told that absinthes.com would keep selling accessories to EU countries, but later they confirmed that they would not. A very big advantage they have is that they are the soul retailer of our Swedish absinthes: Grön Opal and Vit Opal from Svensk Absinthe AB, and Valkyria Distillery´s absinthes. Especially Grön Opal and Vit Opal is very well thought off, and they have both been given the number one spot on the Wormwood Societys top-list of absinthes! I can REALLY recommend Grön Opal if you haven’t tried it yet! If you don’t know what you like yet I can defiantly recommend these guys, they have a lot of samples (5 cl) you can order, and bottles with just a little more in them (10 cl and 20 cl). They are very polite in their correspondence and reply to you very fast. And they also have a blog, but more elaborate and informative than ALANDIA´s I think. If you create a user account they will send you (I think) 10 emails about a week apart, introducing you to the world of absinthe. I was actually happy to get these emails every week, a very interesting read. The only bad thing about them is that, except for Mansinthe, they don’t carry Matter Spirits absinthes, one of my absolute favorite distilleries. In those cases I turn to ALANDIA instead.

absinthe.de: This is the site a placed my very first order from, but shortly after that they stoped shipping to Sweden because of our insanely hight alcohol taxes. But now I´ve been told (by a partner in crime who have written to them) that they ship to Sweden again, even post OSS! Packaging, shipping time and shipping costs are about the same as ALANDIA and absinthes.com if memory serves, and if you’ve visited those sites then the range of absinthes should be familiar. They also sell ALANDIA´s own products, as well as Matter Spirits lovely products, they are absolutely worth a visit!