Soon after OSS was implemented, absinthes.com (owned by the Rueverte company in Germany) started with great sales on their products. First they had 25% on all their Swiss absinthes and later 25% on all their french absinthes (or maybe it was the other way around), to bad for me who couldn't buy from them anymore, but that's life. Not long after, however, they went bankrupt. I guess it was too hard a blow to their business to lose the rest of the world as a customer, absinthe is after all not as popular as whisky for example. I wanted to believe that after a while someone would find away around this roadblock and everything would be as it was before, but apparently not. But we still have ALANDIA and some other, smaller vendors left.
"At least it is not as bad as it could have been" I thought. "I managed to stock up on some of my favorites before it was too late, and we still have Grön Opal in Sweden, the best of them all. I contacted Systembolaget (the Swedish alcohol monopoly) to figure out how to order a few bottles (ordinarily you can just buy them in store in Örebro). They said that I had to place an "privatimportsorder" (order for private import). I thought that was strange since that is usually used to order products from outside Sweden, and the distillery is only a few hours away, but I did as they said. After a few weeks I got a mail saying that they hadn't been able to reach the distillery and that I wouldn't get the bottles I ordered. I called every Systembolaget store in Örebro and they said that none of them had had Grön Opal for a long time and that it was not in their sortiment anymore. So I contacted Mikael Norell, CEO of Svensk Absint AB, and asked him about it. He explained that since a couple of years back Systembolaget didn't want to sell their absinthe since it was "not an interesting enough product" and so they have only been selling to Rueverte. But now that Rueverte is no more they aren´t able to sell their absinthe at all! Well, a major FUCK YOU to Systembolaget!!! They have turned away Grön/Vit Opal and the Jade absinthes (which have all been in their sortiment before) but are still keeping crap like Pére Kermann, Ditch Twisted Ritual and La Fée. I'm so furious that if you shoved some coal up my butt I'd crap out a diamond!
Mikael told me that it is still possible to order absinthe from them via "privatimport" but you will have to order at least 2 bottles at the time since there is simply a shitload of work for them to do (paperwork wise) for every order. You (as a buyer) will also have to pay an extra fee to Systembolaget for this: Of course you have to pay for the absinthe itself (that's a given), and then you'll have to pay the shipping from the distillery to whatever Systembolaget store you want to get it from (which you don't have to do with other spirits within Sweden, but OK) and the Systembolaget makes you pay an ADDITIONAL fee to them for doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Mikael gave me an example: If you order 2 bottles of Grön Opal, that amounts to 1045 kr including shipping (522,50 kr/bottle), but you´ll have to pay 1464 kr for them. That's more than 400 kr (almost another bottle) for Systembolaget to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! When confronted with this information, Systembolaget gives no explanation for this.
So for all of you thirsty swedes out there: you can still order some of the best absinthes in the world, but you have to do it through "privatimport" as I said and pay Systembolaget money they don't deserve, but it is at least possible. I will place an order within the coming days, but I will also contact Systembolaget, telling them what a great product they can get in their sortiment, ask them to put it back on their shelves (at least in Örebro) and tell them to ditch the crap they already have. And if you are a true absinthe lover living in Sweden I think that you should do the same! I would absolutely HATE to see Svensk Absint go out of business, the absinthe world would be much poorer for it. So know that you can still order it and please, give Systembolaget a piece of your mind while you're at it.
All the best!