Absolut Vodka was launched in New York in 1979. Soon the whole city was talking about it, then the USA and finally the whole world. But the recipe behind the pure and natural flavour of Absolut is actually much older than a good 40 years. This also applies to the Absolut bottle, which has since become an icon: the inspiration for it was an 18th century medicine bottle from an antiquarian bookshop in Stockholm.