Food & Drink

Four Brands With Scandinavian Roots At Your Local Grocery Store

Nowadays, getting a taste of home doesn’t mean scouring the Internet or making a special trip out to a fancy grocer – chances are, you can pick up some of your favorite Swedish goods right in your local grocery store. Here are a few of our favorite brands with Swedish roots that we can toss in our cart when we stock up each week.

Felix Lingonberries

A classic Swedish topping, lingonberries, or lingonberry sauce, are delightful on top of a perfectly crafted Swedish pancake. Felix began when Czechoslovakian founder Herbert Felix partnered with a vinegar company in Eslöv, Sweden. From there, the company began making products like pickled gherkins, meatballs, ketchup and its famous lingonberry jam. According to its website, Felix is the top seller of lingonberry jam in the States. You can start here to see if Felix sells its jam at your grocer.

Siggi’s Yogurt

Siggi’s is an American company that stays true to a traditional Icelandic yogurt recipe, which avoids the use of sweeteners, gelatin, preservatives, artificial coloring and high fructose corn syrup. Siggi’s was founded by Siggi Hilmarsson, who came up with the idea when he craved the yogurt he grew up with – not the super sweet yogurts on the shelves in the States. Hilmarsson used his mother’s recipe to make yogurt in his kitchen, which led him to quit his day job and focus on making a quality product for the masses. Use Siggi’s locator to find out which products are sold near you.

Gevalia Coffee

Blame it on fika and long, cold winters, but Swedes love their coffee according to this heat map of Joe drinkers by the Telegraph. So, it makes sense that one of the largest roasters, Gevalia, is based in Sweden. The company began in 1853 in Gävle. Today, Gevalia is sold internationally and has dozens of products like ground/whole bean coffee, K-Cups®, iced coffee and other coffee-related merchandise. You can shop online through its website, or check out your local coffee aisle.

Arla Cheese

Arla’s history dates to the 1880s when dairy farmers from Denmark and Sweden came together to start producing cheese. Fast forward to the late 1990s and Arla licensed its products through a Wisconsin dairy farm – and eventually purchased the facility to produce its Havarti, Gouda, Fontina and Edam cheeses in the States. You can find Arla, or one of its related brands, by using its product locator tool on its website.