THIS HOMEBOUND holiday season, while many will embrace the concept of Hygiene—The Danish way of cozy comfort – Swedish Lagom it may be more of the moment. It can also be the key to building a better drink.
Although there is no precise translation of lagom (pronounced log-ohm), it is usually interpreted as “neither too little nor too much” – a state of mind in which all you have is the perfect quantity.
“It’s about being satisfied with what you have and not wanting it to be anything else,” said Selma Slabiak, owner of Selma’s Bar in Ridgewood, Queens, NY, and author of “Spirit of the North,” a cocktail book focused on around Scandinavian drink traditions. Although Mrs. Slabiak is a native of Denmark, not Sweden, she understands lagom well, especially when it comes to preparing drinks.
Photograph:
iStock
“Maybe you don’t have a big liquor cabinet, but it’s lagom the way it is. You have everything you need, ”she said. Likewise, a drink can be lagom. “When I was a younger bartender, I thought you needed to keep adding things to make your cocktail stand out and be special,” recalls Slabiak. “But a Negroni is a lagom. It has three ingredients. It’s perfect the way it is. ”
In her 2017 book “Live Lagom: Balanced Living, the Swedish Way”, the author and Swedish-American Anna Brones describes the folk etymology of the word. “It is a romanticized version of the lagom roots, a story of the Vikings passing around a mead horn,” writes Brones. “Laget om, or ‘around the team’, meant that the mead had to reach everyone’s lips, requiring each Viking to just take a proper sip so there was something for everyone.”
Lagom also covers environmental sustainability – taking what is needed from the land, not anymore – minimizing waste and embracing the season’s food. And it’s about being moderate and zealous in your daily life, writes Ms. Brones, taking what you need, but leaving enough for others to be happy.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What recipes helped you keep warm for this holiday season? Join the conversation below.
Is it possible to find this balance in the current greenhouse of pandemic life always on and working from home? Yes, Mrs. Slabiak insisted, if that is the mindset you choose. “You find yourself in a situation and say, ‘It can’t be better, it’s perfect as it is,'” she said.
If that sounds like a difficult task, Ms. Slabiak’s Svalbard Sling will certainly help. The personification of lagom, it is an easy to drink highball with just one gram of aquavit (gin or vodka also works), flavored with a cordial citrus without cooking and without waste that uses the whole fruit, peel and everything. Completed with festive bubbles, it is neither too strong nor too weak, in equal parts, sweet and sour. Just enough.
To explore and search all of our recipes, check out the new WSJ Recipes page.
Ingredients
- ½ cup of fresh lemon juice, plus fruit peels with juice (about 4 lemons)
- ½ cup of fresh orange juice, plus fruit peels in juice (about 2 medium oranges)
- ½ cup superfine sugar
instructions
- In a jar or bowl, mix the juices and sugar until the sugar completely dissolves. Add the shells. Lid container. Steep at night or up to 2 days.
- Strain before using. It will keep refrigerated for up to 1 week. To extend the shelf life by at least 1 week, fortify it with ½ ounce of transparent turpentine.
“I wanted to make a winter drink that was still refreshing and I thought about the arctic beauty of Svalbard”, near the North Pole, said Slabiak about the eponymous archipelago of this drink. Cordial uses citrus juice and peel at its seasonal peak. Resting the juice with the peels intensifies the flavor exponentially. If aquavit is not available, use gin. Or omit alcohol for a carbonated lemonade-like drink.
Ingredients
- 3 ounces of seltzer
- ¾ cordial citrus ounce
- 1 ounce Linie Aquavit
- 1 whole star anise, for garnish
instructions
- In a tall glass filled with ice, pour the cordial, seltzer and then aquavit.
- Garnish with star anise.
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8