Christmas is making its way to Sweden. The decorations went up at the end of the week and very nice they are going as well. A simple string of white bulbs across the street with two stars made of green fern tinsel and more plain white bulbs. Maybe not as colour as the decorations back in my old home town but I think they look much more stylish. With Christmas also come the special drinks of the time. Jul musk is everywhere at the moment. Sweden’s liquid marmite. I think Maria has been getting her own back on me for finishing off the glasses of Pepsi she has left for a while. They have now been replaced by the odd glass of this ghastly drink The equivalent of the cheese in a trap to a mouse, the only difference being I get to repeat the same mistake over and over again.

Wikipeda the free encyclopedia has this to say about the drink...

Julmust is a soft drink that is drunk mainly in Sweden at Christmastime. During the rest of the year it is sold under the name must. At Eastertime the name is Påskmust. (jul=christmas, påsk=easter). The content is the same no matter the marketing name, however must is closely associated with Christmas and somewhat less with easter. It is often hard to find the drink in off-season.

Must was created by Harry Roberts in the early 1900s. Must is made of carbonated water, sugar, hops extract, malt extract, spices, colouring (E150), citric acid, and preservatives. The hops and malt extracts give the must a somewhat beerlike taste, but must is not fermented and contains no alcohol. Must can be aged provided it is stored in a glass bottle. Some people buy must in December only to store it a year before drinking it.

Julmust might be the source of some annoyance at Coca-cola in Sweden, since Sweden is the only country where the consumption of Coca-Cola drops during Christmas. Many Swedes drink julmust instead.

So what can we say about this drink. It is clearly so bad that Swedes themselves decide that its best to be left at the back of a cupboard and left alone for a year. I think it can only be sentimental attachment with keeping everything the way it used to be with Christmas. The same Christmas cartoon compilation has been running for over 40 years, and you thought English television was full of repeats. They tried to remove one of the older cartoons from this show one year and there was uproar.

If you want a drink that tastes like beer, stick to beer. It may just be me but I think there might just be a reason why it is hard to find this drink outside of the Christmas celebrations.