''Julmust'' ( "Christmas" and ' English: '

must Must is freshly crushed Juice, fruit juice (usually grape juice) that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit. The solid portion of the must is called pomace and typically makes up 7–23% of the total weight of the must. Making must ...

' "not-yet-fermented fruit juice") is a

soft drink A soft drink (see #Terminology, § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) Carbonated water, carbonated, and typically including added Sweetness, sweetener. Flavors used to be Natural flav ...

that is mainly consumed in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

around

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

. During

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

, the name is ' (from ', "Easter"). During the rest of the year, it is sometimes sold under the name ''must''. The content is the same regardless of the marketing name, and the drink is most closely associated with Christmas. 45 million litres of ''julmust'' are consumed during December, 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 Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

Ingredients

The syrup is still made exclusively by Roberts in

Örebro Örebro ( ; ) is the seventh-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers inland along the small river Svartån, and ...

. The syrup is sold to different soft drink manufacturers who then make the final product in their own way. This means that the must from different companies does not taste the same, although they are made of the same syrup. Must is made of

carbonated water Carbonated water is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, either artificially injected under pressure, or occurring due to natural geological processes. Carbonation causes small bubbles to form, giving the water an effervescent quali ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

, hop extract, malt extract, spices, caramel colouring,

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a Transparency and translucency, colorless Weak acid, weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in Citrus, citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, ...

, and

preservative A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or ...

s. The hops and malt extracts give the must a somewhat root beer-like taste without the sassafras – or British/Caribbean malt drinks such as Supermalt. It can be aged provided it is stored in a glass bottle. Some people buy ''julmust'' in December only to store it a year before drinking it. In 2013, a rumour occurred that the EU would ban julmust due to a directive banning the selling of malt beverages containing caramel colouring.Expressen: Hot mot julmusten efter EU-direktiv
The rumour however turned out to be false since julmust is not a

fermented beverage This is a list of fermented foods, which are foods produced or preserved by the action of microorganisms. In this context, Fermentation in food processing, fermentation typically refers to the fermentation of sugar to ethanol, alcohol using yeas ...

and hence not affected by the directive.

''Julmust'' and Coca-Cola

In Sweden, ''julmust'' outsells

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

during the Christmas season; in fact, the consumption of Coca-Cola drops by as much as 50% over the holiday. This was quoted as one of the main reasons that The Coca-Cola Company broke away from their contract with the local brewer

Pripps Pripps is a former major brewery in Sweden and is now a part of Carlsberg, in which Pripps remains as a trademark. The company was based in Stockholm; their main product was Pripps Blå (Pripps blue). They also owned Ramlösa. Pripps was founde ...

and started Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB instead.Aftonbladet: Julmust eller Coca-Cola?
Coca-Cola Drycker Sverige AB produced its own ''julmust'', with The Coca-Cola Company's name occupying only a small space 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. By 2007, the "Bjäre julmust" was only sold at

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

restaurants and it had completely disappeared from Coca-Colas range of products by Christmas 2008, Swedish Wikipedia: Julmust only to return for Christmas 2011.

References

{{Reflist Christmas food Soft drinks Swedish drinks Soft beers and malt drinks Non-alcoholic drinks Swedish words and phrases

Ingredients

''Julmust'' and Coca-Cola

See also

References