Beer and nubbe are given products for the Swedish Christmas table and come in all sorts, brands, shapes and sizes, but when it comes to what soda to drink, the Swedes are incredibly adamant. It must (pun intended) be Julmust! No other soft drink can compete. Ask a Swede and they would probably describe it this way:

“It tastes like….Christmas!”

Other than that it is best described as something of a mix between Root Beer and Coca-Cola. It is said that Swedes consume somewhere between 40-60 million litres of Julmust every year and most of this is in December alone.
Julmust is also by far the most-sold product in the Swedishness shop and it beats the second most-sold product Bregott Extrasaltat by almost twice as much. This is even more impressive considering Julmust is only sold for about two months of the year.

In 2015, a rumour spread that a proposed ban on caramel colourings in the EU would mean that Sweden would have to stop making Julmust. Swedes were more than a little distraught by the prospect of losing this holiest of drink traditions, but thankfully, the legislation did not include the Christmas soda and peace was restored again. 

The Julmust recipe remains exactly the same since the start but it's a secret recipe and is so valuable that its stored in a safe in a secret location. The very specific spices used in Julmust are only known to a few people in the entire world.

A secret recipe in a secret safe sounds a bit like another soda we know…..That’s right, Coca-Cola. Speaking of Cola-Cola, they are not at all happy with Julmust’s success because Julmust holds over 50% of the soda market during Christmas days in Sweden and outsells Coca-Cola every year. When even a company like Coca-Cola feels the competition you know the drink must be really good! For years they have been trying to win the battle with Julmust but without much success. They even released their own “julmust”. But the Swedes are not fooled and we don’t let anyone mess with our Julmust! On a few occasions, Cola-Cola became so desperate that they even tried to buy the secret recipe for an unknown amount of money but they were given a profound:

"Tack men nej tack.”

(Thank you but no thank you). We are very happy about that and we are once again ready to kick off the Julmust season! Skål!