Glad Påsk

Glad Påsk everyone! Ok so I'm day late and I should be saying Happy Easter Monday from beautiful sunny Uppsala where we got almost an inch of snow. The picture here of fat rabbit was taken on Easter morning so he's good. We've enjoyed a nice long weekend, Ragen has been off since the university closed early on Thursday (people really like Easter here).







One of the Easter traditions here is this drink called Påskmust. It is... interesting. We provided an article about it from
www.economicexpert.com. It talks about Julmust instead of Påskmust. It is in fact the same thing, just Julmust is consumed around Christmas and Påskmust is for Easter. Funny, Jul is the word for Christmas and Påsk is the name for Easter, what a coincidence eh? Different labels, same drink.

Julmust is a soft drink that is drunk mainly in Sweden at Christmastime. For the rest of the year it is found under the name must. At Eastertime the name is Påskmust. (jul=Christmas, påsk=Easter). The content is the same regardless of the marketing name although the time it is stored before bottling differs; however, the beverage is more 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 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,

hops extract, malt extract, spices, colouring (E150), 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. 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 for Coca-Cola in Sweden, since Sweden is the only country where the consumption of Coca-Cola drops during Christmas. Many Swedes drink julmust instead. 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. Ironically enough, Coca-Cola later felt it was necessary to make their own julmust.

The thing to take away from this is that Påskmust = Beer cola. Mmmm, beer cola.

In other news:

The Cougs beat Notre Dame something good on Saturday to advance to the Sweet 16. Score that one: Easter Bunny 1 - Zombie Jesus 0.

Go Cougs!