I’m sure everyone wants to know: how am I holding up in the midst of one of Norway’s most difficult times, the Butter Crisis (Smør Krise) of 2011. I have to tell you, it hasn’t been easy. Just the other day I had to make cookies using margarine. Margerine, of all things! It's a crying shame. But with a little luck and a lot of kroner, you can find real butter in Norway. Just make sure the spread inside the package is real; you never know what kind of trickery goes on during a butter shortage.
Not a lot of things go wrong in Norway, but this is one of them. How does a rich, butter-loving country like Norway become butterless? They've let giant dairy brand Tine maintain a butter monopoly, which was going pretty well for them until recently. This winter Tine was unable to deliver on their promise of butter for everyone, all the time. They blame it on bad weather this past summer and the increased popularity of low carb diets in Norway. It will be interesting to see if the country reduces Tine's market share or changes its import policies in response to this year’s problems. I support a free butter market, but if I had to pick a company to monopolize the dairy industry, I’d stick with Tine; their products are delicious.
You know there’s a crisis going on in Norway
when you see “butter” instead of “smør”
I was at the grocery store in Jevnaker today and three blocks of butter stood on the shelf, along with an explanation. Translated, the note read: We got some imported butter from Belgium and Ireland. You should be able to use it in the same way that you use Tine butter. We are setting the limit at three blocks per customer so that everyone can have a little butter for Christmas. As you can tell, Norwegians are used to Norwegian butter, and may be mistrustful of things that come from other countries and claim to be butter.
News of the “crisis” is everywhere, but none of the Norwegians I know are going crazy, at least not due to the butter shortage. They say they would never pay an outrageous amount for a stick of butter or be so desperate as to smuggle it over the Swedish border. Then again, those I know have been able to pick up a pound or two at the store when small shipments have come in. They say the situation has been blown out of proportion by media and that Norway should step back and think about what a real crisis is. And I agree. Still, butter makes things taste good, and you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone… and you’re left with crappy margarine.
My relative Inger found real Tine butter in the next town over last week. I think we get to crack it open on Christmas:
Tine smør, the world's most sought-after butter.
Wonder how many kroner I could sell it for :D
No comments:
Post a Comment