Aussie bartenders in Sweden

As Aussie bartenders, we’re often asked one of two questions: “Can you charge my phone?” and “Why!?” Why are you here? Why did you move to Sweden? Indeed, why on earth would we leave the sun, the surf and the overall cheery vibe of Australia and settle in Sweden, one of Europe’s coldest darkest corners, on the opposite side of the world?

As two overly sociable Australians in the Swedish bar scene we’ve been asked to pick up the pen (so to speak) and offer our insights into the differences and overall experience of our time working here. So, who are we?

While normally a little awkward to do so in an article, here it seems appropriate for a little introduction: our names are AJ Gormley and Nathan Colby.

AJ began his bartending career pouring beers at a beachside Pub overlooking Morten Bay, on the North Eastern Coast of Australia. Flip-flops, shorts and sleeve-less T’s were the uniform and salty beach goers were the clientele. Over the ensuing ten years AJ travelled throughout North America, Asia and Europe plying his trade. Along his journey he learned many skills from various bartenders and awoke an underlying passion for flavours and creation which he has incorporated in to his craft.

Nath on the other hand is from a sleepy country town by the name of Kendall, situated on the Mid-North Coast of Australia, four and a half hours north of Sydney. Now in his 10th year of bartending, Nath has worked in the hospitality scene since he was young with vast experience on both sides of the bar. Nath’s done it all: from waiting tables, kitchen hand duties, catering parties and events, and as an esteemed cocktail barman in the guts of Sydney. So, when he moved to Sweden it went without question that he would continue on the same trajectory; but what surprised Nath most was that it took him further than he could possibly imagined; giving him a unique platform to experience Sweden and it’s beautiful people from an intimate perspective.

Sweden

Now we’re both based on the west coast of Sweden in the beautiful city of Gothenburg, working behind the bar at one of Sweden’s worst kept secrets: Stranger (formally known as Stranger X Stranger). The speakeasy-style bar is a popular local hang-out for ‘hospo’ workers, cocktail nerds, socialites and hipsters; a beautiful mix of people that rival our cocktails. Everyone is welcomed in with open arms and a shot of hard liquor, culminating in an atmosphere that’s warm, fun and a little stökigt.

Bartending here, compared to Australia – at least when we were last there – is a lot more experimental. The immersion of Swedish flavours and ingredients in to the Swedish bar scene is commonly celebrated unlike that back home, where Aussie bars commonly look overseas for inspiration. The practices and techniques also follow their own style here, yet still incorporate influences from all over Europe, which means that the imbibers also differ vastly, and in the years we have been here have changed even further. Here the Swedish drinkers seem to acquire a love of booze from a mix of popular culture and all-inclusive holidays to Spain, whereas the typical Aussie will drink anything that contains at least one standard drink’s worth of alcohol. This means that the standard Australian guest is willing to try almost anything on a cocktail menu, where as the Swede will search for something with familiarity.

Swedes

Swedes often receive a reputation of being cold, serious and reserved, but that hasn’t been our experience at all. Since we both first moved here, Swedes have been going out of their way to help us settle in, make us feel comfortable and enjoy their incredible country; from their fantastic sense of humour, to the never-ending invitations to join friends and families to eat, drink and more likely than not, sing! We have now been living in Sweden for a combined eight years, and over this time we’ve come to learn one key thing: that Swedes and Aussies are in fact very similar. Both peoples live for the summer, hate the darkness and can find any excuse to drink!

And while this is common throughout, as barmen, there is nowhere where this is better represented than in the hospitality industry, where literally any excuse to drink will do. While the Australian climate is markedly different, and our colder seasons are far more tolerable, we too know that summer must not be taken for granted. Back home we would usually go surfing on our days off (or even before work), so doing the same here and appreciating the limited time we have in the sun is as culturally important as learning the language.

Although, being an English Speaker in Sweden does come with certain perks, as Swedes are generally fluent in English and often eager to practice speaking it. The result being that we’re made to feel even more comfortable in our surroundings and don’t have to stress our terrible pronunciations of words like röra or misuse the vocabularies of tänker, tycker, tror.

All in all, it’s all those little differences that endear us to this remarkable country and Gothenburg. It’s the forward-thinking progressiveness of Swedish society, the metamorphosis of personalities from Summer to Winter, and the festivity of Swedish traditions. And in our professional lives, in what we get out of bed every day to do, it’s the outlet of creativity that’s afforded to us as career barmen, while sharing those new experiences and creations with our eager imbibers through our beloved bar, Stranger.

Cocktail

To conclude our little article, we thought there is no better way than to end with a drink. In Australia we drink a lot of LLBs, also known as a Lemon Lime Bitters, which is basically a soft drink with bitters that, if so desired, can also have booze added to it.

Back in the day, the standard way to make a LLB was to coat the inside of a Collins glass with Angostura Bitters, then eye-ball in about 20ml of Roses Lime Cordial, fill with ice and top with Lemonade from a sticky soda gun, then garnish with abnormally thin slices of each lemon and lime… Delish!

So, here’s our updated booze fuelled version;

Steve’s Highball

50 ml Hernö London Dry Gin

50 ml Homemade Lemon & Lime Cordial*

3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Top with soda

For the cocktail, add all ingredients, except the soda, in a Highball or Collins glass, add ice and top with soda and gently stir together. Garnish with a lime wheel.

*For the cordial; blend together 1 part of each fresh lemon and lime juice with 1.5 parts sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, it should be a little on the tart side and then add zest from both lemon and lime and let infuse for 20 minutes, after that strain it off and you’re done.

And there you have the perfect simple, refreshing Summer cocktail, Cheers!

Nathan Colby and AJ Gormley, bartenders, Stranger, Gothenburg, Sweden

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