Introducing Absolut Chicago - A crowd-sourced limited edition design by Chicago’s own Threadless community

Continuing its trendsetting tradition of artistic collaboration, Absolut has teamed with Chicago’s critically acclaimed online design community, Threadless, to crowd-source the bottle art for Absolut Chicago. The olive and rosemary-flavored Absolut Chicago is the latest city series limited edition, with a design that captures the heritage, style and good taste unique to the great city of Chicago.

“Chicago has always been a great city, but in the past few years it’s really been on the rise. The energy is fantastic. The amount and variety of fine-dining is staggering. And the nightlife is legendary,
with world-class jazz dives, exclusive bars and cutting-edge footwork parties,” says Franz Drack, Global Marketing Director at Absolut. “It’s long been a great cocktail culture, and we think
Absolut Chicago adds something unique to that.”´

Absolut Chicago is an olive- and rosemary-flavored vodka. It’s rich and aromatic with intriguing herbal notes of rosemary and thyme in a harmonious blend with fresh green olives. It’s smooth and mellow with a well-balanced spiciness – making it perfect for classics like the Dirty Martini. “Absolut Chicago is a terrific new flavor with a sophisticated savory element that both gives a twist to classic recipes
and lends itself to the discovery of new classics,” says Franz Drack.

For the design of Absolut Chicago, Absolut teamed up with the online design community Threadless, a pioneer in community-driven design, best known for their acclaimed T-shirt designs. Threadless’s membership model routinely invites work from members, which is then voted on, with the winning designs produced. “Threadless has 2.5 million members and is a highly acclaimed and innovative design community,” says Franz Drack. “A little like Absolut, they have a progressive spirit that brings people together and creates excitement both globally and locally. Their “do first” work ethic really inspired us, and the fact that Chicago is their hometown made them an obvious choice for collaborator.”

“We were thrilled to collaborate with Absolut,” says Jake Nickell, Threadless’s CEO “They asked us to work from our usual model, so we created a contest for the best bottle design, and we got some extraordinary things. Our collaboration with Absolut caused a buzz in our community and was the catalyst of a lot of creativity.”

The winning design was made by longtime Threadless contributor, Ross Bruggink. “Ross’s design is appealing from the first glance. There’s humor there. It’s creative, edgy, well-thought through, and shows a real love of local detail,” says Nickell. “And the wraparound design means that customers can pick up a bottle, turn it around and discover something new and quirky with every turn. We loved it, and so did Absolut.”Absolut Chicago will be launched in Illinois and surrounding states in October 2013.

Bottle and drinks are available at press.absolut.com. For cocktail recipes and information on the latest cocktail trends, visit www.absolutdrinks.com or download the Drinkspiration app for iPhone, iPad and Android on www.drinkspiration.com.

Serving suggestions:
Absolut Chicago Dirty Martini
2 1/2 parts Absolut® Chicago
¼ part Dry Vermouth
¼ part Olive Brine
Rosemary Sprig
Add ingredients to a mixing glass, and stir or shake with ice, as preferred.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with olives and a rosemary sprig.

Absolut Chicago Mimosa
1 part Absolut ® Chicago
3 parts Orange Juice
Fill with Champagne in a flute with rosemary sprig garnish.

For further information, please contact:
Elsa Rafen, Global Communications Manager, Absolut
elsa.rafen@pernod-ricard.com
+46 70 943 22 20