Cravings for Julmust

We are getting closer to Christmas and I have the strongest craving for the popular Swedish Christmas drink Julmust right now...

Julmust
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julmust (Swedish jul "Christmas" and must "must") or Julebrus (Norwegian jul "Christmas and brus "soda") is a soft drink that is consumed mainly in Sweden and Norway around Christmas. 45 million litres of julmust are consumed during December (to be compared with roughly 9 million Swedes), which is around 50% of the total soft drink volume in December and 75% of the total yearly must sales.

Must is made of carbonated water, sugar, hop extract, malt extract, spices, caramel colouring, citric acid, and preservatives. The hops and malt extracts give the must a somewhat beer-like taste, but much sweeter and, since it is not fermented, it contains no alcohol.

In Sweden, julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season;in fact, the consumption of Coca-Cola drops by as much as 50% over Christmas.This was quoted as one of the main reasons that The Coca-Cola Company broke away from their contract with Pripps and started Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB instead. Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB produced its own julmust, albeit very anonymous with The Coca-Cola Company's name very subtle on the label. Their julmust was never advertised until 2004, when Coca-Cola started marketing their julmust under the brand "Bjäre julmust", but they bought the syrup from Roberts AB. Under 2007 the "Bjäre julmust" was only sold at McDonald's restaurants and it had completely disappeared from Coca-Colas range of products to Christmas 2008.

Those outside Sweden who are curious to try julmust might be able to purchase and sample a bottle from a nearby IKEA store.However, availability is not guaranteed; one is most likely to find it in stock in early December. Kristall Beverage Inc. in Massachusetts, USA bottles julmust for sale in the USA.In November 2004 PepsiCo marketed a product somewhat similar in taste to julmust in the United States called Pepsi Holiday Spice. It was on sale during the 2004 and 2006 Christmas seasons. Recently Julmust has also become available at some Cost Plus World Market stores.