Alko

Until the eighties the only places to get alcohol in Finland were illegal distillers and homebrewers, pharmacies (for rubbing alcohol), and the state owned and run liquor stores called "Alko". Then supermarkets were licensed for selling beer (kalja or olut), cider (sideri) and a popular Finnish drink that consists of gin and fizzy grape fruit juice, called a long drink (lonkero). All these drinks are sold in 2.7% and 4.7% alcohol by volume. These are given the strength categorisations of I and III, and you can see these Roman numerals on the can (tölkki) or bottle (pullo).

If you want stronger category A beer, at 5.2% ABV, or wine or spirits, you still need to go to an Alko. These stores have opening times similar to the post office, although I've been told that the austerity of them has diminished a lot since the eighties. A typical Alko will stock wine (viini), grain spirits (viina), and liquer (likööri) from various countries. You can get Australian red wine (Australialainen punaviini), white wine (valkoviini), champagne (samppanja), along with an intriguing collection of liquers and wines that are peculiar to Finland:

tyrniviini - sea buckthorn wine. About 18% alcohol, made from an orange berry that is popular for its high vitamin C content and not much else. The wine is drinkable, but only just.

lakkalikööri - cloudberry liquer. If you have to drink an orange alcoholic drink, this is the one to go for. The cloudberry is a rarity that looks like an orange blackberry, and grows in Nordic swamps.

koskenkorva - the most popular brand of Finnish clear white spirits, made from fermented distilled barley. It tastes a lot like vodka, and is often referred to as kossu.

salmari - the short name for salmiakki kossu. Ground up ammonium chloride sweets are disolved in koskenkorva to produce a drink that tastes like cough medicine, and is consumed in large quantities in Finnish bars.

terva snapsi - schnaps made with pine tar. Tastes as though someone spilt a bottle of kossu on the road during a hot summer's day and managed to scrape most of it back into the bottle.

After you've consumed your drinks, the empties are to be returned to the bottle return point (pullopalautus) in order to reclaim the deposit (pantti). This is quite a substantial amound: cans are worth 15 cents, and large soft drink bottles are worth 40 cents. Machines with bar code readers and an intriguing collection of conveyor belts scan the bottles and print out a receipt (kuitti) that can be traded in at an Alko or supermarket till for cash.

Or more beer.