Legit Walker

Absolut Vodka has announced a new bottle, the brand’s biggest design update since 1979.

The new bottle design is said to be influenced by the Swedish vodka brand’s home of Åhus, Sweden, where every bottle of Absolut is produced and distilled in or around.

“Our new look reflects the efforts we put into the making of our vodka,” said Charl Bassil, global vice president of marketing at Absolut.

“We’ve taken a look at ourselves and have landed in a place where we’ve kept our distinct DNA, communicating our provenance, heritage, and authenticity more clearly than ever before.”

The new design also features enhanced legibility, the address of the original distillery on the front label, and founder Lars Olsson Smith’s name on the medallion seal of the bottle.

“We were keen to capture our rich, quality story and make that clearer on the bottle, signposting to what makes our vodka unique,” said Elin Furelid, global head of product portfolio and design at Absolut.

“We have of course kept the most important design elements that make Absolut, Absolut.”

The new Absolut Vodka bottles will be available in the US from September 2021 before a global roll-out.

The disastrous consequences of the unfolding climate crisis is enough to drive some people to drink, so making alcohol from planet-heating gases is perhaps a logical next step.

A company in New York City has created what it calls the “world’s most sustainable spirit” by making a vodka out of carbon dioxide that has been captured from the air. The 40% proof drink, appropriately called Air vodka, removes a pound of CO2 from the atmosphere for each bottle made, its maker has claimed.

The Air Company, which started manufacturing the vodka from a Brooklyn plant in 2019, produces about 5,000 cases of the product a year, with a new factory planned to ramp up production. The business, which was a finalist in Elon Musk’s Xprize, hopes to be at the vanguard of companies that create things from captured CO2 – other uses include the reinforcing of concrete and the production of materials to replace certain plastics and metals.

“People thought we were batshit crazy when we started – some still do, I think,” said Gregory Constantine, an Australian entrepreneur who started the climate-friendly distillery with Stafford Sheehan. The duo claim that traditionally made vodka, which involves the fermentation of grains, releases about 15lb of CO2 for each bottle made.

The Air Company takes CO2, either sucked directly from the air or captured at source at industrial facilities, and combines it with hydrogen created through electrolysis – the process where electricity is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The technology used to merge these elements creates ethanol which, when combined with water, becomes a vodka.