In a country filled with seasonal food holiday traditions, I have discovered the tradition to rule them all. The celebration centers on a certain group of foods and drink, but the focus is much more on the Christmas feeling tied to the smells and tastes than the food itself. You will know it by its name and the sound it makes as it goes down your throat:
Glug, glug, glögg! Read more » >>
I know this might seem like a bizarre topic for a post, but I’ve realized that when I have friends visit me here, I tend to end up in a grocery store with them, where I take them by the elbow and steer them towards the cooler sections. “Try this!!” I demand, a half-crazed look in my eyes. “It will blow your miiiind!”
I don’t know what it is that makes these drinks so much better than their counterparts in the United States (that being my main frame of reference), but maybe it has to do with higher standards for food quality and a lower tolerance for artificial additives. Coca Cola, for example, is still flavored with sugar in Sweden, while the US version has been sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup since 1984.
In any case, these drinks might not stand out to you on a quick visit to Sweden unless someone recommended them to you, and it is well worth stopping by a supermarket or convenience store to try them.
In order of awesomeness, here are the non-alcoholic drinks you have to try when you’re in Sweden.
Juice is good and all, but Brämhult’s juices are so good that they practically transcend the category. Never before have I opened a container of juice to have it taste exactly like the fruit it advertises, but fresher, thicker, and more flavorful. These juices are incredible. The raspberry (“hallon”) fruit drink is one of the best juices I’ve ever had in my life, and I don’t understand how Brämhult’s achieves that kind of freshness in a plastic bottle.
My favorites from Brämhult's! Raspberry, Blueberry-Black currant, and Orange-Strawberry. Photo: Bramhults.se
The picture above shows three flavors I like, but there are many more to choose from, including orange, blood orange, clementine, carrot, apple, grapefruit-orange, orange-raspberry, orange-mango, apple-raspberry, lemonade, and strawberry-lime. They also have smoothies, but I haven’t tried any of those yet… keeping it old-school.
2. Pucko Chocolate Milk
I don’t know if this is true all over the world, but the ready-made chocolate milk that you buy in the United States is strange tasting. It’s got this weird, powdery-dry aftertaste, almost like it was made with chocolate powder but wasn’t mixed well enough or the proportions were off. It’s not that good.
What to look for. The bottles on the left are the originals; the cartons on the right are low-lactose. Photo: Pucko.se
Pucko, on the other hand… Well, Pucko is like drinking a liquefied chocolate bar, but diluted with milk. “Why… is it… so good??” I ask myself, gasping for air after chugging an entire bottle. (Just kidding. I am far too ladylike to chug. I take delicate, mincing sips of everything I deign to lift to my lips.)
To put it simply, Pucko gives me faith that a secret herd of magical chocolate dairy cows is hidden somewhere in Sweden. I can only imagine the sugar-haze my childhood would have been if we had had such a tasty drink at our disposal. As a testament to its long-standing high standards of deliciousness, Pucko been around in Sweden for almost 60 years now, surviving numerous owner changes and buyouts. All this despite the fact that the word “Pucko” actually means “idiot” or “dummy” in Swedish. I mean, really. Who wouldn’t want a nice big glass of idiot?
Pucko! It'll make your kids cuter AND improve your tennis game. Photo: Pucko.se
3. Saft of any kind, but especially elderflower
Sweden, besides being the land of one thousand hair dressers, is also the land of one thousand berries you have never heard of. These berries are then turned into drinks and jams and ridiculously good fruit tarts, and you have no idea what it is that’s going into your mouth, but you’re ok with it.
“Saft” is one of the drinks that often result from a day out in the woods picking berries or flowers. In English, you can call it a concentrate or a cordial, depending on how where you’re from, and it is so, so good. You can read about my adventure making elderflower saft here, and you can find a boatload of elderflower saft-based drinks here.
My favorite is elderflower, which is, in my opinion, the most refreshing drink in the whole world to have on a warm summer afternoon. There are a lot of other flavors, though—black currant, red currant, pear, peach, cherry, rhubarb, raspberry, and strawberry, to name a few. Black currant is my second-favorite after elderflower.
WARNING: Do not try to drink saft out of the bottle! I repeat, do not drink saft out of the bottle. It has to be mixed with water—sparkling or still—or with the adult beverage of your choice.
When I left the US almost two years ago, flavored waters had just started to become popular, but they always tasted a little chemical-y to me. It wasn’t lemon, it was lemon-oxide-bitterness. It wasn’t lime, it was limmonium-sour. Maybe they’ve improved over the past couple of years, but if not, the people responsible for mixing the flavors should hop on the next plane to Sweden.
A blonde Swede in a white coat will invite the hapless Americans into his laboratory and chuckle at their cluelessness. “Watch and observe, my little grasshopper,” he’ll say with only the slightest hint of an accent as he takes out his wand and starts chanting in a language that sounds nothing like the YouTube videos of the Swedish Chef that the Americans watched to prepare for the meeting…
Ok, ok, just kidding about that bit, but these flavored waters are seriously good, and they come in the best flavors ever. There are two top brands competing for the flavored water market, Ramlösa and Loka, and maybe it’s this rivalry that is responsible for the awesome taste combinations. My new favorite is Watermelon from Ramlosa, but rhubarb is really good too, and the Pineapple Smash and Coconut flavors remain to be tasted…
ProViva is most like a fruit juice, although the consistency is somewhere between that of juice and a smoothie, and it’s called “Your Stomach’s Best Friend” (at least by ProViva marketing executives). Moreover, it was invented in Lund by Lund University Hospital researchers, which makes the people around here especially loyal to it.
Apparently ProViva not only tastes good, but it also has some crazy mixture of special bacteria that promotes healthy digestion and calm unhappy stomachs. Like fruit juice, but even better for you! I don’t think this is being exported yet, but if and when they start, it will become a super health craze and earn a million gazillion Swedish crowns. You heard about it here first.
In my natural environment (the US), I am a die-hard Diet Coke fan. Oooh, the acrid aftertaste! Aaah, the bitter sweetness! Mmmm, the certainty that its artificial sweeteners will give me cancer!! Plus, regular Coke is sickly-sweet. Ick.
In Sweden, I am all for the real Coca-Cola, calories be damned. As I mentioned earlier, it’s made with real sugar, and it’s not too sweet. Diet Coke doesn’t exist here, and Coca-Cola Light is just disgusting. Seriously, people, what did you do to it?
Word to the wise about the Coke situation in Sweden—if you order it in a restaurant, you will get one bottle in a glass or one trip to the soda fountain and that is it. Free soda refills do not exist here.
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That’s it! If you have more Swedish drink suggestions, leave them in the comments!
There’s no use trying to be delicate about this. A crucial part of the Midsummer festivities is the drinking. I’m trying very hard to sound very adult-like and responsible in this blog, but even the totally responsible adults I know seem to be prone to, ahem, a little excess during Midsummer.
Snaps! Aquavit! Brännvin! Bål! Where to start?
Delicious glasses of bål chilling out with the Midsummer Head Wreaths. Photo: Kate Wiseman.
Here’s the basics.
Bål (pronounced like “bowl”) is an alcohol-based fruit punch, usually made with soda for a light and bubbly taste.
Aquavit is the traditional pairing to pickled herring and is made from a vodka base (either potato or grain). Like parmesan and champagne, aquavit is an EU-protected label that must be made with either dill or caraway or both, a baseline flavor that can then be paired with other herbs and spices to make distinctive varieties.
Brännvin is any kind of flavored, distilled alcohol, including but not limited to aquavit. The name “brännvin” refers to the “burning” or distillation of an alcohol, and different kinds of brännvin have been made throughout Scandinavia for centuries.
Snaps is not a type of alcohol; it’s the way a shot of alcohol is drunk. Snaps can be any liquor or combination of liquors and other ingredients, but snaps must be taken in combination with food. At Midsummer, snaps of aquavit or other types of brännvin are usually taken after “snapsvisor” (traditional Swedish drinking songs) are sung.
People tend to be on their most Swedish behavior around me as though they owe it to me to show me what a real Swede would do. This system works out really well for me, and whenever I get an idea in my head of something we should do because it’s Swedish, chances are really good that people will play along. Not only that, but since all the old traditions are new to me, I am having a lot of fun taking part in all the things people usually stop doing when they’re children. The “be a good cultural ambassador to the foreigner” complex is awesome. I quite like it.
Which brings us to the snaps situation.
I love Johanna Kindvall’s Kok Blog, and ever since I consulted with her on my Holy Herring! blog post, I’ve been curious to try her recipe for aquavit—she said herring is at its best when paired with the strong and spicy liquor, and I knew that herring was definitely on the menu for Friday. Fortunately, Anna said she was up for the challenge, so we went for it.
Measuring, grinding, steeping, smelling... and voila! Our very own homemade snaps. Photos: Kate Wiseman.
Final result: delicious. I can’t even tell you how many people were like, “Well, I’m not much of a snaps person, but I’ll try it anyway since you made it,” then took half a shot, then reacted with a great deal of surprise: “Wow! That’s not bad!” Two minutes later, another drinking song has started and they’re making a grab for your bottle instead of the store-bought bottle sitting on the table…
You can find the recipes for both the black currant and aquavit varieties on the Kok Blog. The black currant might be a little hard to make if you don’t grow the bushes yourself, but perhaps some readers can suggest where to find them. I highly recommend both varieties. I liked the aquavit better, but the black currant is lighter and perhaps a little easier to drink if you’re not into spice. Just be sure not to let the black currant leaves steep for too long, otherwise it will start to taste a little grassy.
For those of you who are not into shots, the bål (fruit punch) that we had at our party was amazing. And therefore dangerous. It was somewhere in the middle of my fourth glass that I thought to myself, “Hmm… I hope this isn’t too strong because I am drinking it really quickly.”
There are almost endless variations of bål and while most are fruity, they can also be made with bitter ingredients, like angostura. You can see an abbreviated selection of the flavor combinations suggested by Systembolaget, the national alcohol monopoly.
A small selection of the wide range of bål variations. Photos: Systembolaget.se.
For those of you who might want a taste of Sweden at your next summer party, here’s the punch that I can vouch for as totally tasty, with thanks to my friend Matilda for sharing the recipe!
Matilda’s Midsummer Bål
Will make two punch bowls full
4 bottles of white wine (or one box)
2 bottles of Sprite
¼ bottle of elderberry cordial/concentrate (find recipe here; can also be bought at Ikea stores worldwide)
¼ bottle of rhubarb and strawberry concentrate
A generous splash of Bacardi lemon
Frozen chopped mango pieces
Fresh lime, sliced thinly into triangles
Frozen strawberries
A few fresh strawberries
For those of you who are wondering how I felt the next morning, well… I wasn’t exactly jumping out of bed, itching to run a marathon, but overall I was fine. Water! Water is good for you. Thank goodness I drank a lot of it at the end of the night.
After visiting Sweden as a tourist for many years, Kristin Lund moved from California to Sweden for a job in November 2011. She finds Sweden intriguingly different now that she’s living like an honest-to-goodness Swede. She and her expat dog, “Rabbit,” enjoy exploring Stockholm streets, checking out local nature, and comparing expat adventures with other newly minted Swedes, both canine and human.
… is an American, a serial expat, and a travel addict who has been lured to the university city of Lund by love. More than a year and a half into her Swedish experience, Kate shares her experiences of life as an expat in Sweden as she tackles a new language, new traditions, and a new marriage.