Buxtehuder Swinegel Köm Aquavit
Buxtehude, Niedersachsen, Germany
- ABV
- 41%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Buxtehuder Swinegel Köm was a clear German aquavit associated with Delikatessenhaus Rüdiger in Buxtehude, Lower Saxony. The bottle describes it as a fein würziger Aquavit and recommends serving it well chilled — Gut gekühlt servieren. The name, illustration and text on the bottle are built around one of Buxtehude’s best-known pieces of local folklore, the race between the hare and the hedgehog.
The reference comes from the Low German tale Dat Wettloopen twischen den Swinegel un den Haasen up de lütje Haide bi Buxtehude. Wilhelm Schröder first published this Buxtehude version anonymously in his Hannoversches Volksblatt in 1840, setting the race on the heath near Buxtehude; the Brothers Grimm incorporated it into their Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1843, after which it became widely known.
Alcohol already plays a part in Schröder’s original version. The hedgehog and the hare wager a gold Louis d’or and a bottle of Brannwien, or brandy, and after winning the race the hedgehog takes both home. The Swinegel Köm back label playfully adapts this detail by turning the prize into a Flasche Köm, directly connecting the aquavit with the Buxtehude story. Köm itself is a North German term for Kümmel spirit.
About the producer
Delikatessenhaus Rüdiger
Buxtehude, Niedersachsen, Germany
Delikatessenhaus Rüdiger was a long-established merchant and delicatessen business in Buxtehude, Lower Saxony. The Swinegel Köm bottle carries the date 1873, and records in the Lower Saxony State Archives independently document Hermann Rüdiger, Kaufmann in Buxtehude, in that same year. The archival material records several financial transactions involving Rüdiger, confirming that he was already active as a merchant in the town in 1873.
The business is documented more formally in 1911, when the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger recorded the firm Hermann Rüdiger in Buxtehude’s commercial register, with Hermann Rüdiger identified as its merchant proprietor. A surviving historical postcard also identifies a Hermann Rüdiger Geschäft on Buxtehude’s Ostfleth, providing a visual record of the business in the old town.
By the time of the Swinegel Köm bottling, the business was operating as Delikatessenhaus Rüdiger at Breite Straße 6 in Buxtehude. The available records identify Rüdiger as a merchant and delicatessen business rather than as a distillery, and no evidence has yet been found that the company operated its own spirits production.