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About the Absolut Icebar concept
The archived "About" page, which was where the site set out the franchise, the partnership and its list of cool facts.
The partnership
The page described Absolut Icebar as "a successful franchise concept developed by the world famous ICEHOTEL and Swedish premium vodka brand ABSOLUT," and said the two shared "the passion for creative unexpected ideas." Every bar in the chain was built attached to another venue — a hotel or a restaurant — and the page carried an open invitation to prospective franchise partners.
The cool facts, as published
- The first permanent Absolut Icebar opened in 2002 at the Nordic Sea Hotel in Stockholm.
- In 1999 an Absolut Icebar was erected in the Niger desert for a fashion show featuring Kenzo, Mickael Kra of Ivory Coast and Alphadi of Niger.
- Artwork, walls, furniture and drinking glasses were hand-carved from large blocks of ice.
- The interior was held at −5 °C (23 °F) under computer control.
- Ice was harvested each March from the deep-frozen Torne River.
- Freshwater ice is harder and clearer than salt-water ice.
- As water freezes, sediment and salt are pushed out of the ice at a molecular level, leaving it cleaner than the surrounding water. The page claimed the ice was clean enough to be categorised as drinking water by the Swedish Health Association.
- The jewellery designers David & Martin, who had worked with Karl Lagerfeld, designed a silver bracelet for Absolut Icebar.
- More than a million guests had been through the bars worldwide.
These are the site's own claims about itself, reproduced because they are the historical record. The archive has not independently verified the drinking-water classification or the guest count.
Icehotel Jukkasjärvi
The same page carried a short description of the hotel: located 200 km north of the Arctic Circle, built entirely of snow and ice each November as the temperature falls below zero, with ice artists invited from around the world to create individual suites. The naturally frozen ice from the adjacent Torne River supplied both the hotel and every Absolut Icebar.
The archived page ended with direct e-mail addresses for the Head of Communication and the Sales Director. Those are contact details from around 2010, long dead, and are not republished here.
Rebuilt from the Internet Archive's captures of this URL between 2008 and 2011, when absoluticebar.com was the official site of the Absolut Icebar bars. The wording is the archive's own summary of what the page said; quoted material is attributed.
Historical detail on this page describes the bars as they were then. For anything current — hours, prices, whether a bar still exists — go to the operator.