Were the wicked queen from Snow White to turn to her magic mirror and ask, "Who is the happiest of them all?" it's not a stretch to imagine that the mirror would flash on a Nordic person eating cloudberries in a sauna. Scandinavia, though surely not without its problems, just seems to get so much right. Every year one of these Northern European countries tops the World Happiness Report (this year Finland cruised in at #1), driving our outsider's fascination with lifestyle trends like hygge and lagom, along with the Nordic diet in general — and now, kalsarikännit, aka päntsdrunk.

The name says it all, or most of it, anyway; päntsdrunk means to drink an alcoholic beverage in your pants — specifically your underpants, and it's picking up interest in the U.S. There's even a new book out called "Päntsdrunk: Kalsarikanni: The Finnish Path to Relaxation" by Miska Rantanen, indicating that this seemingly self-explanatory term is packed with heritage and nuances, and is rooted in a distinctly Finnish way of interacting with the world and one’s self.

“The original term for [päntsdrunk] is ‘kalsarikännit’, a tongue-in-cheek expression of a Finnish feeling, basically meaning ‘that feeling when you are going to get drunk at home, alone, in your underwear — with no intention of going out,’” says Heikki Väänänen, CEO and founder of the Finnish startup HappyOrNot. “However, nowadays many Finns throw the term around between close friends to hang out casually at home, and enjoy each other’s company in a quiet setting, with a few drinks, and, of course, sauna.”

The art of being alone — and loving it

To Americans, drinking alone can sound, well, lonely (and, as we’ll get to shortly, problematic), but Finns typically don’t tend to see it that way, in part because they’re quite comfortable with solitude.

"Finns, like most Scandinavian cultures, are very good at being by themselves," says Briana Volk, the half-Finnish co-owner of the Portland Hunt + Alpine Club, a Scandinavian-influenced cocktail bar in Maine, and the co-author of the forthcoming book, "Northern Hospitality with The Portland Hunt + Alpine Club: A Celebration of Cocktails, Cooking, and Coming Together." Volk, fluent in Finnish, was raised in Astoria, Oregon where she was part of strong Finnish community.

"Finns are fairly introverted and private,” she tells NBC News BETTER. “We generally don't say hello to one another on the street or on the bus and we're used to enduring long, tough winters — sometimes in total darkness. For these reasons, enjoying a drink or two by yourself is a natural thing."