Sunday 6 December 2009

6th December

Today I got these fabulous red drinking glasses! I love them, they're just like the blue ones in Nora's kitchen and goes perfectly with the plates I got yesterday.


In a larger scale doll's house these glasses could be used as shot-glasses for Aquavit. (From Latin: Aqua vitae - drink of life, "akevitt" in Norwegian) Most Norwegian Christmas meals are rather heavy (with much fat), so it's usual to have a glass of aquavit with them to ease the digestion.

I'm not much of a drinker, so I have just tasted it a few times, but aquavit is an important part of Scandinavian drinking culture. It typically contains 40% alcohol by volume and is made from potatoes. It is flavoured with herbs such as caraway seeds, bog myrtle, anise, dill, fennel, and coriander, with caraway as the dominant flavour.

The earliest known reference to aquavit is found in a 1531 letter from the Danish Lord of Bergenshus castle, Eske Bille to Olav Engelbrektsson the last Archbishop of Norway. The letter, dated April 13, is accompanying a package: "[...] Dear lord, will your grace know that I send your grace some water with Jon Teiste which is called Aqua vite and helps the same water for all his illness that a man can have internally. [...]"

(Source: Wikipedia)

To the left: A bottle of the Norwegian Linie akevitt (Line aquavite)

16 comments:

Sans! said...

My goodness, we have Aquavit here too :):). Guess when it comes to alcohol, they travel real fast, unlike minis. You make them sound so harmless, Helene, almost like herbal tea, but I have tried them before and they are like tequila, very potent.

On those glasses, if they can be used as shot glasses, they must be tiny! How big are they? I was looking at a pen cover the other day (Friday) and thought to myself, Helene can use this for mugs (maybe cos I just saw the blue ones in Nora's kitchen.)

Pubdoll said...

Hi Sans, well I did write 40% alcohol didn't I ;-)
In fact the only time I have had too much to drink, I drank three shots of aquavit. I have never had aquavit since :-)

And the glasses are 1.2cm tall. Perfect size for milk or mineral water in my scale.

Petra said...

Hej Helene,
I like these glasses too. I have a lot of glasses in 1:12 and don't mind to use them in the lundby-house. But it would be nice to have such tiny glasses. Perhaps I will try to make some with "Trinkröhrchen", we call them "Strohhalm".
Have a relaxing sunday!

Mimmi said...

Kjempefine glass! Vi har noen i samme fasong i full størrelse.bryin

Pubdoll said...

Hi Oese, I think they are called just straws in English, in Norwegian "sugerør". I have used straws as sewage on my lego facade. (my son's idea), but I have seen that other miniaturists has made glasses of them as well.

Pubdoll said...

Takk Anne Mari, ja jeg liker designen på dem kjempegodt. Jeg var veldig glad når jeg fikk tak i de blå, så dette var en veldig hyggelig adventsoverraskelse!

Rebecca said...

Very stylish glasses! A lot of detail in such tiny pieces.

Thank you for the history of aquavit. What, I wonder, did people drink in Russia and Scandinavia before they had potatoes? Perhaps alcohol made from grain, as whisky is? (And whisky is Gaelic for 'water of life', too! And I have just discovered that whisky, vodka and water all come from the same Indo-European root, *wed-, *wod-, meaning 'water, wet'!)

(ps I would tend to use sewage/sewerage for what goes through the pipes and into the sewers)

callsmall said...

Terrific little glasses! Very stylish! And thanks for the Aquavit background - you must know there is a very famous restaurant in New York City with this name and while I have never been the food is supposed to be excellent! Aquavit sounds like a drink the Italians drink: Anisette. It is probably 40 % alcohol as well and is made from anise. VERY strong and sweet, and very nice to have a shot in espresso after a big pasta meal!

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Rebecca! At least in the middle ages they drank beer, made of grain :-) According to the wikipedia Aquavite can be made of grain as well, but I don't think it's done in Norway anymore.

(And thank you for correcting me. Trond spotted the "sewage mistake" I did afterwards, too bad one can't correct comments without deleting them. I often mix the words in Norwegian and therefore got the wrong word in English as well :-))

Pubdoll said...

Thank you callsmall, yes I was so pleased to get them! I hadn't heard about the New York restaurant, how great! Thanks for telling me! I haven't tasted Anisette, but I have tried Pernod (Anise), which I think must be quite similar. I liked it...

pueppilottchens-spielzeug-blog said...

aha, aquavit is made from potatoes and has 40% alcohol volume! anyway, i like it, it´s great after a dinner with to much heavy food :)

and the little red glasses are the best! we have some like these in BIG (but not red) and we like them for juice and milk, too.

*nicola

Pubdoll said...

Hi Nicola, glad you liked my post and my glasses :-)

Natalie_myminiworld said...

aw! love the glasses :-)
they brought back memories as my parents had glasses just like those in clear glass! ;-)
Nora has such great taste!

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Natalie! So nice this post could bring back childhood memories for you :-)

dalesdreams said...

I'm late to the party and am playing catch up. ;)

Those glasses look like a fabulous addition to your minis, so mod! :)

Pubdoll said...

Thanks Dale welcome to the party, better late than never :-)
And yes, I absolutely love the glasses!