First Icelandic Cream liqueur – Jökla

Pétur Pétursson, dairy technician, is a fan of the Icelandic cow breed and their products. He decided 14 years ago to make the first and only Icelandic cream liqueur. There is a plenty of milk in Iceland and farmers are diligent in producing premium milk with the most beautiful cow breed in the world. At a certain point, Pétur perceived that some new innovation was needed in Iceland for this premium milk Icelandic farmers were producing every day. The idea was implemented in the kitchen at home in Mosfellsbær, near to Reykjavík, and the kitchen pots were used extensively.

It was after a family skiing trip to Italy and his visit to an Italian dairy farmer that he returned home to Iceland and didn´t got the idea out of his head. The Italian farmer ran a restaurant besides his farming and when Pétur and family were eating a lovely meal at the restaurant the farmer drew from the freezer an icecold milk mug with a milk liqueur in it with a taste of citron, which the farmer cultivated himself out in the field. Traveling back home to Iceland, Pétur, was so fascinated after the visit to the farmer, that he thought about starting some experiments back home in his own kitchen. He went directly to the grocery store, bought some milk and cream, drew some pots from the kitchen cabinet and started to experiment with different flavors. He wanted to make a liqueur as natural as possible and was determined not to use thickener which he saw was used in other comparable liqueurs.

From the start, Pétur wanted to use only clean milk products for his liqueur. In the beginning he was only experimenting at home allowing friends and family to taste which encouraged him to do something more out of it, so that more people could enjoy the taste of this pure and delicious liqueur. Pétur, which is an employee of one of the biggest agriculture-companies in Iceland, specializing in feeding, started to take a better look at the dairy farms running in Iceland and saw a possibility to take his idea one step further. He contacted the biggest dairy company in Iceland, Mjólkursamsalan, got a positive response and could take it further to the laboratory at the company, which gave good results. In 2013 he started to experiment in various places so he could get a license and start a production for the market. After excellent sample results from Matís, which works on variety of projects in the food industry, Pétur was eager to bring the product to the market. After KS, a cooperative, in the north of Iceland provided machinery for the production, Pétur was all set to start the production.

The name Jökla came as soon as the white rushing cream went back and forth in the test tube. Jökla is the name of a powerful and beautiful glacial river in Iceland. Pure milk products are used instead of external thickeners. This combination was successful over the years and the first production and sale was in May 2021. The company Jöklavin was founded, which is owned by Pétur and his wife Sigríður Sigurðardóttir, a business graduate. Jökla has been well received by consumers both in Iceland and abroad and specially the good taste and aftertaste. Jökla is available in all liqueur stores in Iceland, many restaurants and at the Duty Free store at Keflavík Airport. The aim is to bring Jökla to the market in the Nordic countries soon, and the future prospects are bright. Pétur is confident that the good reception Jökla has had since last summer is because of the uniqueness of Icelandic dairy farmers and Icelandic milk. The fresh air and pure water in Iceland plus the roughage, which the farmers produce themselves at the farms make a significance difference in the good results he got with Jökla and the overwhelming reaction to the liqueur.

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https://www.joklavin.is/