Alcohol tax, gone up again Options

[Bruno Rygseck]

in Finland. More people will make short trips across Gulf of Finland to get cheap Estonian booze. I won't.

[hartsmar]

Stop complaining...

[Alan]

cheap Estonian booze

Here?

[Bruno Rygseck]

Hmm, interesting.

[Bruno Rygseck]

Stop complaining…

My sympathies to Sverige. I remember in 2006 in Helsingor (Denmark) I was looking for a bottle of Lasala and went through literally a dozen of liquor shops. The town was swarming with middle-aged Swedish people trying to find the best booze deals -- there was also some whisky tastings which shocked me a little (but these were civilized people, that would have been impossible in Finland). I eventually found the bottle and then out of curiosity went to see the harbor where people lined up with their acquisitions to get back on the boat. A few kilometers across the strait was Sweden, Helsingborg, where they were returning to. There was at that time a sort of limit of 10 liters of hard liquor per person per day (I don't know today's situation).

[Provenance]

Why would a whisky tasting be impossible in Finland?

[Bruno Rygseck]

Government monopoly liquor stores. If not impossible at least highly unlikely to happen.

[Kirk]

It's like that in Virginia, buying booze is like going to the department of motor vehicles, except at the DMV they know the product.

[Jaded Prole]

Unfortunately True

[Kirk]

They will special order anything you want, Vieux Carre for instance, I ordered a bottle of that when it came out, after a year of asking about it once a month I cornered the manager and told her I could buy it on the internet and get it over night, she said no, no, don't do that, I can special order that for you, "go ahead" I said and I'm still waiting.

[Jaded Prole]

Before she can order it for you, it has to be approved in Richmond and added to the book of available spirits. The illusion of control is a costly thing -- better to order online, which is officially prohibited but they don't enforce it.

[Provenance]

Government monopoly liquor stores. If not impossible at least highly unlikely to happen.

Until now, I had thought Finland to be very…civilized.

[Bruno Rygseck]

Thanks. The Alko monopoly is something for which Finns have a love/hate relation. It started right after the prohibition ended (in 1932) and during the decades it has become quite service-minded towards customers. But concerning Alko's selection of strong alcohol drinks it seems that their purpose is to sell clear unflavored grain alcohol in competitive prices compared to what travellers bring from Estonia -- I once counted about 20 different "brands" of 38% to 43% ABV in a store -- in order to keep the tax Euros in Finland.

And, also here "cocktails" of the bacon/Fisherman's Friend/gummibear variety dominate the shelves (well, not bacon really). No absinthes to speak of, modern Pernod 68 oil-mix absinthe, maybe Kübler or F. Guy. Ordering something that is not in their selection is very difficult, although it was 2005 when I tried so things may have changed.

And if I wanted to know more about Alko's selection of better drinks above 22%, I have to go to a store and ask. The Finnish Alcohol Act namely prohibits all marketing of strong drinks meaning that they cannot have any kind of catalogue online, unlike the Swedish Systembolaget… and the act may become even stricter in the future.

[Provenance]

How regrettable. If you make it to the States, I'll be glad to get you a strong drink. You need it.

[Kirk]

stand behind the line