What was once solely drunk over the holiest of Christmas days is now mass-marketed year round in Iceland.
As is often the case with greedy big corporations they think little of history or customs if there is any chance of selling more of their stuff. That is exactly the case regarding the strange blend of drinks locals in Iceland call the Christmas Ale.
Should life take you to Iceland in the two months leading up to Christmas time you will very likely soon come across very prominent billboards and ads about a strange brew called Christmas Ale or Jólaöl in the the local language. Indeed, it will likely be the first thing you see in the duty-free store upon arrival here.
Which borders on insanity to promote a non-alchoholic Christmas drink two months before the event. No brewery in Munich would consider rolling out their Oktoberfest-beer in August would they? And you do not see Walmart plugging the Thanksgiving Turkey in September. Alas, in Iceland you can buy the local Christmas drink in late October. Strike that, you can actually buy it all year round.
Nevertheless we implore you to try it. This is effectively a 50/50 blend of orange soda and malt extract. Drinks that by themselves have traditionally have been very popular. The idea to blend them together was simply, back in the day, the only thing poor locals could think of to make Christmas a tiny bit different from other days.
Note that this is not an Icelandic custom by any stretch. Such drinks were common in Europe centuries ago but now mostly belong in dusty shelves of collectors. Which perhaps says a thing or two about Icelanders.
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