フィンランドの醸造所、ＮＡＴＯ加盟申請記念ビール発売

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】フィンランドの小規模醸造所「オラフブルーイング」はこのほど、同国の北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）加盟申請を記念するビールを発売した。（写真は記念ビール「ＯＴＡＮ」の製造風景）
　「ＯＴＡＮ」という名前は、フランス語のＮＡＴＯの頭文字。言葉遊びにもなっていて、フィンランド語で「ＯＴＡＮ ｂｅｅｒ」は「ビールを飲む」を意味する。
　オラフは、ロシアとの国境から５０キロの場所に位置する東部サボンリンナにある。
　オーナーのペッテリ・バンティネンさん（４２）は、辺りを指さしながら、第２次世界大戦中に爆撃があったと話す。今回製造したラガービールのＯＴＡＮは「自由の香りがする安全保障」の味がすると説明した。
　フィンランドがまだロシア帝国の一部だった１９０９年に建てられた赤レンガの建物には、ひっきりなしに客が訪れていた。
　ソーシャルメディアで話題となり、米国や日本、ドイツなど世界中から問い合わせが殺到しているという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/05/20-16:49）

When Finland decided to seek NATO membership on Sunday, the owner of a small brewery in Savonlinna, Petteri Vanttinen, 42, decided to celebrate by launching a new beer in honour of the military alliance.
Savonlinna, which lies only 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the Russian border, has always been a battleground between East and West.
Vanttinen holds his beer and points out the surrounding areas which were bombed during World War II, when Finland fought two bloody wars with its powerful eastern neighbour.
The lager has a blue and white picture of a knight with a NATO star on his chest, and tastes of security, with a hint of freedom, Vanttinen says.
A steady stream of customers enter his shop, located in a red brick building built when Finland was still part of the Russian Empire in 1909.
We came to buy the famous NATO beer. We wanted to see how it tastes, Susanna Hakkinen, 24, and Emilia Mykkala, 28, both tell AFP.
When Vanttinen went to bed on Sunday evening, he still wondered whether the beer was a stupid idea.
But the next day, while Finnish parliament debated the bid to join the alliance, the OTAN beer, the French acronym for NATO, went viral on social media, with even some MPs sharing his Tweet.
The acronym is also a play on words in Finnish, meaning I'll have a beer.
It's just exploded. I have been getting calls from all over the world, the US, Japan, Germany, too many to remember, Vanttinen says.
Vanttinen's phone has been ringing around the clock for four days, with no end in sight.
Normally we sell around a hundred cans of beer a day. Now the number is over two thousand, Vanttinen says.
His small brewery, which employs eight people, is now struggling to meet the demand, and the beer gets sold as soon as it leaves the conveyor belt.
We're a small brewery, we do our best, but right now can't meet the demand, it's too much, Vanttinen says.
Less than three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland submitted its application to join NATO on Wednesday, a stunning reversal of the Nordic country's policy of military non-alignment, dating back more than 75 years.