B r e n n i v í n

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE

enjoy your leisure time.... 

B r e n n i v í n

  

If you can sip this drink without wincing, you're stronger than most people of Iceland have ever tasted. Scandinavian liquor made from fermented sweet potatoes soft, and plant seeds. These drinks are usually accompany two delicious nan antique dishes such as rotten shark meat (rotted shark meat then baked and dried in the sun to dry so that the poison is lost) and hakarl (fermented shark meat).

Brennivín (BREN-nih-veen) is a brand of schnapps that is considered to be Iceland's signature liquor. It is made from fermented potato mash and is flavoured with caraway seeds. It is sometimes called svarti dauði ("Black Death").

At times it is drunk as a "chaser" after sampling "hákarl", which consists of putrefied shark flesh, to mask the fish's taste. The word brennivín literally translates into English as 'burning wine', and comes from the same root as brandy, namely brandewijn which has its roots in the Dutch language (also compare German Branntwein).

Despite its unofficial status as national beverage and a traditional drink for the mid-winter feast of Þorrablót, many Icelanders do not regularly drink it. The drink has a strong taste and high alcohol content (37.5% ABV), and carries an equivocal reputation: despite the fact that Iceland levies huge taxes on most alcoholic beverages, brennivín is actually one of the moderately priced 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, called brændevin. In Swedish it is called brännvin, and in Norwegian brennevin. 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The label used to have the letters ÁTVR inside the circle but now it has been replaced by a coastal outline of Iceland.

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enjoy your leisure time....