How accurate is this guide? In my experience tourist guides tend to over exaggerate.. Am I going to get “critical looks” for having a beer/wine with my meal in a restaurant on a Wednesday?

25 comments

  3. No you’ll be fine. No one will look strangly at you if you drink to your dinner at a restaurant. Many people do.

  4. Grabbing a beer with your breakfast would garner alot of weird glances, lunch maybe a few, dinner nobody would bat an eye.

  6. If you drink alcohol in your staff centeen, you might get some looks…

    In a normal restaurant, at lunch, no problem. Unless, perhaps, you get noisy and drunk.

  12. Downing a beer at lunch garnered a few looks and comments from my colleagues at first. But my 3 year incident free record at Nobina speaks for itself.

  13. This guide is about 30-40 years out of date. It is perfectly acceptable to have a (or a few) glass of wine with dinner any day of the week, and to go out on the piss with mates, as long as you don’t drink enough to get hung over.

    However, anything stronger than a low-alcohol beer during a workday lunch is seen as unprofessional. If you’re on holiday no one cares – I mean, bars in Sweden aren’t exactly closed monday-thursday.

    That said, it’s not like in England. I remember wondering why I was getting a beergut when I lived there, as I was so busy with work I hardly ever went on the piss. Then I counted how many beers I’d have during a normal working day: two with lunch, one with tea, four after work with mates over about 2 hours, then a can with dinner, then a rush to the pub for two quick ones just before closing. That’s ten beers in a day, without ever even being slightly drunk. Just a normal workday. That is NOT normal in Sweden.

  14. Exaggerated as hell. Sure, if you down strong beer for breakfast or half a bottle of vodka with your meal, that would probably garner som looks.
    Also a glass of wine with your lunchbox at work too.
    But a beer or wine at a restaurant even during weekdays or even a can of low alcohol beer like 3.5% or even a non alcoholic beer with your lunch or dinner… no one would bat an eye.

  15. It still says that one third of the population (around 3.5 million +-children) still drinks during weekdays, so you’re fine.
    It’s also normal not to have Mon-Fri workdays aswell, especially in the cities. So since their weekends are not necessarily the same as the rest they tend to drink during the weeks too.

  16. You’re focusing of the wrong thing here

    You need to prepare yourself to drink way more than you’re used to during the weekend 🍻

  17. I think this is a pretty old statistic. Now days its very common to grab a drink or three after work on weekdays as well. But I do think a lot of swedes are a bit skeptical against non social drinking. As in grabbing a beer or a drink infront of the TV.

  19. Having a drink with your lunch would only be considered strange if you’re working. If you’re a tourist, or on vacation, no one would bat an eye. At least not in my experience.

  20. I guess it really depends on the context. For normal everyday life, I’d say that it’s somewhat true. If you regularly drink alcohol on weekdays, people might look at you strangely, talk behind your back and make assumptions.

    If you’re at a restaurant with some friends every now and again and then grab a beer, then that’s perfectly fine.

    People walking by if you’re sitting at a bar or restaurant won’t care whatsoever

  22. No one is going to bat an eye if you get a beer or a glass of wine with your meal at a restaurant whenever (well, unless it’s breakfast). Drinking at home or going to a pub to drink is another story, that’s usually a weekend thing. And consuming enough to get drunk is *definitely* a weekend thing.

    I don’t know if it’s true that two thirds of the population are completely abstinent monday-thursday, but it wouldn’t suprise me honestly. Though… Idk, a lot of people drink light beer daily. Very little alcohol, but still.

  23. It used to be true, it was practically unheard of to drink during the week when my grandmother’s generation were our age. But it hasn’t been true since the 1990s or so. Since then, Swedes have become much more “continental” in the way we drink.

    To understand this, it’s important to realise the context and heritage. Swedes used to have a gigantic problem with alcoholism, especially during the 19th century. Everyone distilled their own akvavit, and reading old classics like Strindberg’s *Hemsöborna* they take a shot at the drop of a hat, at any time of day. As early as 1775, the King made it illegal to distill your own booze in an attempt to gain taxes from selling it — it didn’t work at all, no one bought the stuff, everyone made their own. In the 20th century a counter-movement was born out of some realisation that we were drinking too much, and a lot of shame were coupled with alcohol. In 1919 the *motbok* was introduced, a rationing book you had to show in the shop and ask to be allowed to buy some liquor, and they kept a careful tally so you didn’t buy too much. Everyone didn’t even get a book, you only got one if you were an “upstanding citizen” with a steady income, and very few women ever got a book. Obviously people started selling alcohol to those who didn’t have a book, but it was all shameful and hush-hush. This system remained until 1955. In 1922, by the way, there was a referendum held on whether we should have 100% prohibition like in the US, and the “no” side won only very narrowly with 51%.

    We don’t have that view of alcohol anymore, I think any young Swede today has a quite “European” view. We see alcohol the same way as in the rest of Western countries.

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