Brännvin
Swedish liquor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the Nordic countries, Danish: brændevin, Faroese and Icelandic: brennivín, Norwegian: brennevin, Swedish: brännvin (Finnish: Viina), is an old Nordic term for distilled liquor, generally from potatoes, grain, or (formerly) wood cellulose etc. Beverages labelled brännvin are usually plain and have an alcohol content between 30% and 38%.
It can be plain and colourless, or flavoured with herbs and spices, such as Akvavit. The common style of brännvin in Iceland, spiced with caraway – Brennivín, although, not unique to the country, is considered to be Iceland's signature distilled beverage.
Etymology
The word means "burn[t] (distilled) wine", stemming from Middle Low German: bernewin (Old Swedish: brænnevin). It also exists in Dutch: brandewijn and German: Branntwein, gebrannter Wein, ultimately cognate to brandy(wine), also French: brandevin.[1]
In Scandinavian culture
A small glass of brännvin is traditionally called a snaps (Finnish: snapsi; compare German schnapps), although not on Iceland. In Sweden, and among Swedish-speaking Finns, such is commonly accompanied by a drinking song, called snapsvisa.[2][3][4]
Brännvin was central to the semi-mythical world in the songs of swedish composer Carl Michael Bellman. For example, in Fredman's Epistle no. 1, the first verse begins:[5]
Outside Scandinavia
In the US, a Chicago producer makes a bitter brännvin (beskbrännvin), called Jeppson's Malört.[6] "Malört" (pronounced [ˈmɑ̂ːlœʈ]) is the Swedish word for the plant Artemisia absinthium, wormwood, often used as an ingredient in absinthe.[citation needed]
See also
References
External links
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