Brennivín
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brennivín is an Icelandic schnapps, considered the country's signature alcoholic beverage. It is made from fermented potato pulp, and flavoured with cumin, caraway seeds or angelica. It is sometimes called svarti dauði (“black death”). Also at times it is drunk as a "chaser" after sampling "hákarl", which consists of putrified shark meat, to mask the meat's taste. The word brennivín literally translates into English as 'burning wine'. Despite its unofficial status as national beverage, many Icelanders do not actually drink it, and a majority of the ones who do, drink it only when feeling patriotic or when trying to impress foreign visitors.
This general distaste for the drink can be attributed partly to its strong taste and high alcohol content (37.5% ABV) and partly due to its reputation. Despite the fact that Iceland presses huge taxes on most alcoholic beverages, brennivín is actually one of the cheapest liquors available in the national alcohol store, Vínbúð, and is thus often associated with alcoholics.
Brennivín is similar to Scandinavian Akvavit, especially the Danish variety. In Swedish it is also called brännvin. The steeping of herbs in alcohol to create Schnapps is a long-held folk tradition in all Scandinavian countries. Brennivín is featured in the Halldor Laxness novel Iceland's Bell.
The label is black and was originally designed to discourage people from drinking the beverage. It used to have the letters ÁTVR inside the circle but now it has been replaced by a coastal outline of Iceland. A Luxembourg based Icelandic company also used to produce and market this drink internationally with a skull on the label.
[edit] Cultural References
- After Heba Thorisdottir introduced Brennivín to Quentin Tarantino he decided that this should be a drink that the character Bud, from the Kill Bill movies, would be drinking. So in Kill Bill Vol. 2 you see Bud drinking Brennivín. There was a scene where he explains to the character Elle more about the drink but it was cut before the release of the film.
- Along with that, Brennivin is mentioned in a popular Foo Fighters' song "Skin and Bones," the line being "brennivin and cigarettes."
- In Iceland, it is consumed on Þorláksmessa ("St. Thorlac's Day"), which falls on December 23, the feast day of St. Thorlac. In western Iceland, it was customary to eat cured skate on this day; this custom spread to the whole of Iceland. The skate is usually served with boiled or mashed potatoes, accompanied by a shot of Brennivín.[1]
