Julmust

"Julmust" (Swedish "jul" "Christmas" or "Yule" and "must" "must") is a soft drink that is consumed mainly in Sweden around Christmas. During the rest of the year it is usually hard to find in stores, but sometimes it is sold at other times of the year under the name "must" . At Easter the name is "påskmust" ("påsk" "Easter"). Only recently has Sommarmust ("sommar", "summer") been available in stores. The content is the same regardless of the marketing name although the length of time it is stored before bottling differs; however, the beverage is more closely associated with Christmas, somewhat less with Easter and traditionally not at all with the summer. 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 was created by Harry Roberts and his father Robert Roberts in 1910 as a non-alcoholic alternative to beer. The syrup is still made exclusively by Roberts AB in Örebro. The original recipe is said to be locked up in a safe with only one person knowing the full recipe.

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

In Sweden, julmust outsells Coca-Cola during the Christmas season; [ [http://www.spottedeagle.com/12-15-01.htm A Swedish Christmas!] ] in fact, the consumption of Coca-Cola drops by as much as 50% over Christmas. [http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/9912/20/colamust.html Aftonbladet: Julmust eller Coca-Cola? sv icon] ] This was quoted as one of the main reasons Coca-Cola broke away from their contract with Pripps and started Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB instead. Coca-Cola now produces its own julmust, albeit very anonymouswhat and never advertised until 2004, when Coca-Cola started marketing their julmust under the brand "Bjäre julmust", but they buy the syrup from Roberts AB. [ [http://www.metro.se/se/article/2006/12/15/14/4458-23/index.xml Metro: Med julmust i blodet sv icon] ]

Those outside Sweden who are curious to try julmust might be able to purchase and sample a bottle from a nearby IKEA store. [ [http://www.realtid.se/ArticlePages/200612/18/20061218142230_Realtid785/20061218142230_Realtid785.dbp.asp Realtid: Ingen jul utan must från Roberts i Örebro sv icon] ] 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. [ [http://kristallbeverage.com/home/jul.html Kristall website] ] 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.

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