After living all over the world, Absolut Elyx CEO Jonas Tahlin, has settled in New York to bring the superior spirit to the most sophisticated vodka connoisseurs around. His new residence doubles as the Absolut Elyx House, a place that’s transforming the brand’s ‘raw luxe’ vibe into reality. We spoke with the charismatic executive to discover how this exciting new entry in the luxury vodka category was created; in the process we tour the Absolut Elyx House, now one of the city’s most exclusive destinations.

HOMBRE: How would you describe the Absolut Elyx House?
Jonas Tahlin: The aesthetic that we are associating Elyx with is raw luxe, and is not very complicated. It’s the notion of creating a juxtaposition of materials and fabrics that have seen a lot of love and then we put that against wonderful lush materials like fur, velvet or leather. It creates this warm and inviting sense of luxury which is in stark contrast to the minimalist, all white kind of luxury which was prevalent up until a few years ago. We want to maintain the feel of luxury but do it in a way that’s warm and inviting.

H: The walls carry the theme well.
JT: Everything you see was plain white walls and we actually brought in an architect from England to work on them and create this distressed look. This is what took the longest time to achieve.

H: Is there a significance to the copper pineapples throughout the space?
JT: The pineapple is a symbol that we use a lot for Elyx. It goes back several hundred years back. In Europe if you were wealthy enough to have a fresh pineapple in your home, and you served that pineapple to guests, that was the ultimate symbol of luxury and hospitality. Ever since then the pineapple is that symbol, and hospitality and luxury is what we are all about. You’ll see a lot of copper and lot of pineapples in this house. And you’ll see a lot of pictures. You can literally spend hours in this apartment looking at the photographs because they’re never random. There’s always a story to them.

H: What about the decor around the kitchen?
JT: We picked it all in Swedish flea markets near our distillery in southern Sweden. It’s about providing those details, and that warmth, and a lot of textures.

H: Tell us about the different spaces in the house.

JT: The kitchen has a nice cozy environment. I love to cook here myself. Wherever we can, we keep the copper detailing throughout the appliances, and all else.

The library area has an Elyx bar cart. Perfect place to mix a martini while we’re having conversations. And again, all these pictures tell a story. ‘Skal’ is Swedish for ‘cheers!’ and this is more like a hang out area to have a coffee or a drink, depending on the time of day.

You wont find a logo anywhere is this house. First you’re in my house, second you’re in the house of Elyx, you know where you are. But we couldn’t resist putting a couple of bottles because we think they’re quite beautiful. Not trying to scream the brand, more like decoration.

And I hope you get the sense of warmth. It’s all new furniture but it has a distressed look so you can just sit and hang out forever. You don’t have to worry that you’re going to leave a stain or anything like that.

The copper disco ball was not easy to find.

This is a typical way of enjoying a Swedish dinner which is a rustic long wooden table, with the flower decorations in the middle. And again, we have a contrast with the Gustavian chairs which we brought from Sweden and Gustavian chandeliers. You can image the atmosphere we can create depending on the lighting. And you have a great view. It creates a hospitable environment and conversation tends to flow.

Needless to say, it wouldn’t be my apartment if it didn’t have a bar so we could treat our guests to the best vodka. It’s a distressed used bar, but it has all the amenities you could wish for.

You see the Elyx bottle, but you also recognize that to make cocktails you need more than vodka. Rather than disturb the aesthetic by having the actual brand bottles, we poured them into these medicinal bottles and just hang copper tags to remind ourselves of what’s inside.

There is a secret trapped door that leads into the rest of the house. Just pull a book and it magically swings open. It will allow me or anyone else privacy when needed.

H: How long have you been here?
JT: I’ve been here since October 15, 2014 and renovations began December 1, 2014. Now it’s up and running and as you can imagine I’m absolutely delighted to be here. I think the team and the interior designer Shaun Clarkson did a fantastic job in bringing a sense of warmth, hospitality, and luxury to life.

H: How did you decide on the decor style for the House?
JT: If we think of it from a marketing perspective what we have to do when we’re launching this luxury vodka is to be a little contrarian to what’s out there today. Our main competitors tend to be tall and frosted. There’s a lot of imagery of yachts, and caviar, and bling, and excess. What we want to do is be a little more contemporary, a little more caring and a little more warm. And that is the aesthetic sense we’re trying to bring across here, so people are not just enjoying our vodka but also get a sense of a culture that has a little more integrity and substance to it. This space manifests that beautifully.

H: Why was it important to create this space in the middle of one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods?
JT: It’s great to be able to have dinners here. We can invite influential people, bartenders, industry, and I can invite my team to be here. It just creates a more cozy space than just sitting in an office.

H: Where did you live before making your way to New York?
JT: I was the Chief Marketing Officer for the Absolut company based in Stockholm and I was there for three years. But I have lived all over the world. Started out in England, then Switzerland, then Brazil, then Venezuela, then Switzerland again. This is my third time living in America.

H: How was Absolut Elyx created?
JT: Krister Asplund who is the master distiller for Elyx has been with Absolut since its inception. He has created and made more vodka than any living human being. I went to him and asked him, if you had no restrictions at all and I just asked you to create the best vodka, what would you do? And that’s how he created Elyx.

H: What sets Absolut Elyx apart from other vodkas?
JT: What sets it apart is the taste. We take great care on how we make it and copper is an important piece of the production method. You see this all over the place, a sacrificial copper package, and unlike every other vodka we put this into the distillation process of Elyx. What happens with copper and vodka is a process which is called copper catalyzation and it essentially means that the copper removes all the unwanted trace compounds from the vodka but it leaves in the good stuff. That means we don’t have to filter Elyx, it actually has a taste.

This is a vodka you can enjoy on the rocks. Most, if not all other vodkas have basically no taste, just alcohol. This is a vodka which you can swirl and enjoy like a brown spirit and that’s truly what sets it apart.
So would I recommend someone to splash energy drinks or cranberry in it? No. You can do that, but then you’re sort of missing the point. That’s the differentiating piece, we call it liquid silk because that’s truly what it is.

The main difference is the ability of this vodka to stand on its own on a block of ice or in a martini and you actually enjoy that experience. Unfortunately in America consumers have been educated in the past ten or fifteen years that a vodka should be tasteless, odorless, and colorless. But the easiest thing in the world is to create a vodka that doesn’t have any taste; you just filter it until it dies which a lot people do. That’s a shame because there’s real craftsmanship in creating something that has taste; a little butterscotch, vanilla, and is something that is enjoyable to have. That’s what we want to encourage people to do again. And Elyx is the best product in the world to do that with.

Absolut Elyx CEO Jonas Tahlin with HOMBRE Magazine’s Francisco Romeo