ALANDIA is at Facebook. 17,000+ Absintheurs share their Absinthe experiences and devotion to the Green Fairy at the ALANDIA Facebook site. Recently we updated our profile to the new Facebook Timeline design. Besides new Absinthe graphics, we also added the ALANDIA founding story to our Facebook profile. ALANDIA was founded in 2001, more than 10 years ago. So we thought it would be just the right time to let you know how it all began. Here is the ALANDIA founding story….
How it all started: Once upon a time…
In this style lots of stories begin and actually it is the same with the ALANDIA story. We don’t want to give any morals how to be a good kid, we just want to tell you how it all started. How we began to dance with the Green Fairy…
In the year 2000 my best pale and I were planning our summer vacations. In Germany we have no beaches, or at least the water isn’t that warm, so we decided to head to Spain. Our aim was the beautiful island Mallorca in the Mediterranean sea. It is famous for their wild night-life and considered as THE holiday island of the Germans. One month later we sat in the plane, shorts packed and ready for some adventures…
After some nice days on the island we decided to rent a car and cruise over the island. Mallorca has a lot to offer. The capital, Palma de Mallorca has a very nice cathedral “Sa Seu”, which once made Frederic Chopin say, that is the most beautiful he had ever seen. On our cruise over the island we also passed a bar which had an advertisement on the outside, Absenta 1000 Pesetas. Absenta, Absinthe, I thought loudly. That’s the drink of the 19th century. Typical associations of van Gogh came into my mind. I already had read some articles in the German press, as Absinthe was just legalized in Germany, so I said to my pale, let’s stop and get a bottle! After a nice chat with the liquor store owner, we were the proud owner of our first bottle of Absinthe! We wanted to open the bottle right away but decided to wait for the night to come, to experience the Green Fairy the right way. We served our first Absinthe with water and sugar. The experience was intense, although the Absinthe retrospectively wasn’t the best. But that didn’t matter, we just tried the Green Fairy, that was all that counted. For the rest of our vacations, the Green Fairy was our close friend. And yes, on our flight home our bags were packed with some bottles of the Green Fairy…
The name ALANDIA was born
In Germany, we realized that already some Absinthe brands were available through the Internet. On ebay some pioneers sold some crappy Absinthe (Pere Kermann) and in my local C&C store they had Tabu Absinthe on the shelves. I have to admit at the beginning you drank everything, the hype of the new drink was just that strong. One of the next Absinthes which were available was Mata Hari, and as I was always interested in making use of the World Wide Web I decided to start an Absinthe site dedicated to our beloved drink. After some days of creative Absinthe sipping, a name was found: ALANDIA. Seven letters like the word Absinthe (well almost ;-)) and easy to remember due to the fact of the alliteration. Also, the word “LAND” was in the name, which fitted to our brand Mantra “World of Absinthe”. A very easy shop was uploaded and we started to offer Absinthe to share the experience of the Green Fairy. We now write the year 2001…
As my friend and I still had our studies to finish, everything was at the beginning fun, combined with the possibility to get our beloved Green Fairy by our own. The “warehouse” and “logistic center” was the cellar of our shared student apartment, and the rooms were filled with Absinthe bottles and accessories. I even had my own bar in my sleeping room, everything was dedicated to the Green Fairy. We started to organize Absinthe parties, and convinced our friends to fall in love with our new passion.
That was the start of ALANDIA, we write the year 2001, the rest is history…
