Must: the Easter and Christmas drink of choice in Sweden.
Yesterday we celebrated a fantastic Easter with an international group of friends for dinner. The meal itself was also an international array as we had skagen röra – a Swedish concoction of shrimp mixed with a mayonnaise kind of sauce – on toast, a salad with Italian cheese and croutons, a sparkling Shiraz-cabernet that we brought back with us from Australia and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream from the US. My Aussie husband made his first-ever turkey and we ate it with cranberry sauce and stuffing, a la an American Thanksgiving.
In some ways, our meal might sound like it was a hodgepodge of flavors, but in actuality it was a magnificent combination and I think we all had a great time.
One Swedish tradition that we neglected to serve up was Påskmust. Must is a soft drink that is typically served up at Christmas (called Julmust or Christmas must then) but also at Easter (Påsk). It is extremely popular – apparently the 9 million Swedes consume 45 million liters of julmust during December. The drink is made of carbonated water, sugar, hop extract, spices, etc. The malt and spices give it a beer-like taste, but without the alcohol. Just to be a bit patriotic, I had a drink later on in the evening. When in Rome…
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