In 2009 hubby and I were lucky enough to go to Sweden twice - once for our friends Pete and Marina's wedding, and again right before Christmas.
The second time we went I got to taste pepparkakor - which is traditional Swedish gingerbread - and Glogg, mulled wine. Like us, in Sweden it's traditional to have gingerbread at Christmas. There's a Wiki article here about the history of gingerbread - I had no idea it had been around so long. Swedish gingerbread tastes more spicy than ours in my opinion, and the biscuits are so thin and crispy they have a very satisfying crunch. I don't like soggy gingerbread. When Pete and Marina came to stay with us in 2010 they brought me a big box of pepparkakor, and I was stoked. Since then I've been drooling at the thought of getting my hands on some more, and last week I decided to see if there were any UK stockists.
Hallelujah! I found the Scandinavian Kitchen, who sell Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish products.
I scored some pepparkakor, some Glogg mix and a couple of unusual tubes of cream cheese - one with blue cheese and one with bacon. What can I say?! I was starving when I ordered.
Everything came beautiful packed and well protected. The cream cheese had some kind of gel pack on it which kept it as cold as if it'd been in a fridge. Those and the Glogg also had cardboard tubes around them, and there was MASSES of packing paper in the box. The delivery is expensive at £6.50, but now I can see how much care goes into each package I think it's totally worth it.
The pepparkakor are just as delicious as the ones I had before, although I did prefer the other ones purely because they were heart shaped. ;) The Glogg mix can be added to wine, spirits or soft drinks and will make a litre of delicious wintry goodness.
I'm so pleased to have a little taste of a Swedish Christmas.
Do you have any Christmas traditions from other countries or a lust for food/drink at Christmas from elsewhere?
Thanks for reading.
