ABSOCIETY

Theme · 2007–2020 · 27 editions

US cities & states

This collection gathers the Absolut bottles made for American cities and states, from the City Series to the America flag bottles. The City Series, launched in 2007 with New Orleans, gave each place a flavour of its own and a bottle drawn around its character, the first edition's profits going to Gulf Coast charities. A second strand carries the flag artworks of the America bottles onto state editions, so one design travels from state to state. Local wraps complete the picture, among them the Seattle bottles, the first of which was the earliest Absolut run to carry the words Collectors Edition.

27 editions

  1. America #3 2020 · 3 variants For the third America bottle, Geoff McFetridge drew a pair of blue hands clasped over the stars and stripes, starred in white. The gesture is deliberately unattributable: no gender, no heritage, no age.
  2. Georgia 2020 · 1 variant Georgia carries the artwork of America #3 — Geoff McFetridge's clasped blue hands over the stars and stripes — applied to a state bottle.
  3. New York 2020 · 1 variant New York wears the America #3 artwork — Geoff McFetridge's clasped blue hands over the stars and stripes.
  4. Ohio #2 2020 · 1 variant The second Ohio bottle, this one on the America #3 artwork: clasped blue hands over the stars and stripes.
  5. Texas #2 2020 · 2 variants The second Texas bottle, carrying the America #3 artwork: clasped blue hands over the stars and stripes.
  6. America #2 2019 · 3 variants The second America bottle, redrawn for Independence Day 2019 in red, white and blue around a modern reading of the flag.
  7. Colorado 2019 · 1 variant Red Rocks, the open-air amphitheatre in the hills west of Denver, photographed by the same hand behind the Seattle series. The image gives the whole seven-thousand-seat bowl.
  8. Florida 2019 · 1 variant Pink sun rays, white palms, blue surf and flamingos, with Absolut Florida set in white across it. 120,000 copies.
  9. Michigan 2019 · 1 variant Michigan carries the America #2 artwork — the modern flag in red, white and blue — on a state bottle. 24,000 copies.
  10. Ohio 2019 · 1 variant Ohio carries the America #2 design — the modern flag in red, white and blue. 24,000 copies.
  11. Oregon 2019 · 1 variant Oregon takes the America #2 artwork — the modern flag in red, white and blue. 24,000 copies.
  12. Virginia 2019 · 1 variant Virginia carries the America #2 artwork — the modern flag in red, white and blue. 24,000 copies.
  13. Windy City 2019 · 1 variant A plastic wrap on Chicago's nickname: white cloud driven across a dark blue skyline, edged in pale blue, with the four red stars of the city flag.
  14. America #1 – United 2018 · 3 variants The bottle that opened the America series, drawn from the flag itself — red and white stripes under a blue field — and released with the non-profit Keep America Beautiful. Its subject is unity.
  15. Seattle #4 2018 · 1 variant A plastic wrap with the Space Needle drawn in white against blue sky, the Cascades picked out in white behind it.
  16. Seattle #5 2018 · 2 variants A plastic wrap on the Space Needle again, this time against a skyline that runs from black at the top to white at the base.
  17. Seattle #1 2017 · 1 variant The first of three Seattle bottles, and the first Absolut run to carry the words Collectors Edition. A plastic wrap over a photograph of the Space Needle.
  18. Seattle #2 2017 · 1 variant The second Seattle bottle, wrapped over a photograph of the Cascade range.
  19. Seattle #3 2017 · 1 variant The third Seattle bottle, over a photograph of Mount Rainier — the one that closes the Collectors Edition set.
  20. Texas 2014 · 1 variant The eighth of the American limited editions and the first given to a state rather than a city. Cucumber and serrano chilli — rich and smooth with a warm spice, taken from Southwestern cooking, and happy alongside cranberry, coriander or grapefruit soda. Cruz Ortiz, the San Antonio artist whose work has shown at the Louvre and LACMA, drew a cowboy boot against a stylised Texas landscape and his own version of the Lone Star. L.O. Smith wears a cowboy hat on the medallion — only the second time the founder's seal had ever been altered, after Brooklyn. 180,000 copies.
  21. Chicago 2013 · 1 variant Olive and rosemary — a savoury flavour, drawn from the city's kitchens rather than its fruit. For the bottle Absolut went to Threadless, the Chicago design community that pioneered crowd-sourced work and picks its winners by member vote. The result is a stylised skyline that smuggles in a hot dog, a ferris wheel, a pigeon and a theatre sign among the architecture. 270,000 copies.
  22. Miami 2012 · 3 variants The sixth city bottle: sun, palms and surf on the glass, passion fruit and orange blossom inside. The nose is all citrus but the passion fruit is what carries, with the orange sitting behind it.
  23. San Francisco 2011 · 3 variants White grape, dragon fruit and papaya, in a bottle given over to free expression: a cityscape on the front label, and cartoon protest placards behind it, read through the glass — Speak Up!, Be Proud.
  24. Brooklyn 2010 · 1 variant Spike Lee's bottle, and the flavour that came with it — red apple and ginger. The artwork is the stoop he grew up on, number 165, on the argument that the stoop is where a neighbourhood actually happens: conversation, company, ideas. Brooklyn nicknames run up the steps, and a line from Lemon Andersen's love letter to the borough sits in the design. The Lars Olsson Smith seal, until then never touched on an Absolut bottle, was Spiked — Lars in a baseball cap and glasses. 225,000 copies.
  25. Boston 2009 · 1 variant The third of the city bottles, after New Orleans and Los Angeles. Boston came only as a litre and only as a flavour — black tea and elderflower, an unlikely pairing that works. 200,000 were made.
  26. Los Angeles 2008 · 1 variant The second city bottle, out in July 2008, on açaí, acerola, pomegranate and blueberry — a blend that later grew into Absolut Berri Açaí. $250,000 of the proceeds went to Green Way LA, which works on restoring the city's natural systems alongside the health of the communities in them.
  27. New Orleans 2007 · 1 variant The bottle that started the City Series, launched in August 2007 at Tales of the Cocktail — mango with a kick of black pepper, on natural flavours with nothing added to sweeten it. Every cent of profit went to Gulf Coast charities while the region was still rebuilding after Katrina. A brass harmonica stamped “L.O. Smith Trio” hangs on the bottle in tribute to the founder, and the glass is clear throughout: until then Absolut's flavours had always come part-frosted. 420,000 copies.

Filter these editions in the catalog →

Are you sure?