getting into glögg & pepparkakor season!

[cimorene]

It's not the beginning of the season when every café sells a special of glögg (traditional Scandinavian mulled wine, glögi in Finnish) with a pepparkaka (Scandinavian gingerbread cookie - pipari in Finnish), but I'm just getting into it. I love that about wintertime!



Last week I was talking with the director of our school assistants' course and she said the best thing about glögg season was all the different flavors of it! And, I mean, I knew there were such - I've noticed them occasionally, taking shelfspace beside the traditional red glögg - but the only time I had them was that time when morningfine and I went to the Old Apothecary Museum on St Lucia's Day (13 December) and drank their special recipe, which is several hundred years old and spice-intensive, most notably with rosemary, and a powerful medicinal scent. I wasn't crazy about the rosemary glögg, but I still felt inspired to try another flavor, so I bought a box of light vanilla glögg the other day! And that totally needs to be in sparkle text, because it was so delightful:

Comments

[bluesbell]

Thanks to this post, I now have such a glögg craving that I must run to the nearest shop to get some. And chocolate.

I want to do something on St Lucia's day. I haven't seen a Lucia in years!

[cimorene]

I would love to! I have only seen Lucia that once at the museum, as mentioned above, and there wasn't a parade. Also, we could only see the top of her head. By jumping. Because the room was so crowded.

[morningfine]

I want to do something on St Lucia's Day too! We should mark our calendars. (The glögg they serve at the Pharmacy Museum every year makes me happy but we should also probably go somewhere where we have a shot of actually seeing Lucia.)

[cimorene]

Yeah I would like to see her. You know. for the novelty!

[satu]

Today at work we mixed together this, a brandy glögg, and some regular, non-alcoholic Marli glögg. The taste was maybe a bit too sweet but it was still delicious if you drank it hot.

I'm planning on going to IKEA tomorrow to stock up on Scandinavian Christmas food and drinks. And since this is not Finland, you can also buy alcoholic glögg at IKEA. Mmmmmm pepparkakor...

[cimorene]

Is it wrong to just pour red wine or vodka into the boxed/bottled glögg? Usually I don't even bother to do that, but.

[satu]

I think that's how most people do it. :) Besides, I don't really see the difference between the vin chaud they drink here and Scandinavian glögg that's been made into wine. It's all about which spices you use, I suppose.

[cimorene]

I've never heard of that. Is it as popular as glögg is?

[satu]

Everyone seems to love the vin chaud, including me, and you can order it almost anywhere you go during winter. It's basically just wine that has been warmed up with spices. I do still prefer glögg, though, because it tastes great even without any alcohol.

[cimorene]

Yes, actually, glögg is delicious without alcohol! But I'd still like to try another similar drink. I've never encountered a warm mulled wine-type drink that I didn't like.