Buttermilk koldskål is a sweet cold beverage or soup

Soup

Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...

, made with buttermilk

Buttermilk

Buttermilk refers to a number of dairy drinks. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cream. It also refers to a range of fermented milk drinks, common in warm climates where unrefrigerated fresh milk otherwise sours quickly...

 and other ingredients: eggs, sugar, cream and/or other dairy product

Dairy product

Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing comes mainly from cows, and, to a lesser extent,...

s, vanilla, and lemon. The dish arose when buttermilk became common in Denmark in the early 1900s, and was eaten chilled most days during the summer as a dessert

Dessert

In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...

 or snack

Snack

A snack is a small portion of food eaten between meals. The food might be snack food—items like potato chips or baby carrots—but could also simply be a smaller amount of any food item.-Snacks and health:...

. Since 1979 there have been ready-made varieties on the Danish market, originally from Esbjerg Dairy, today mainly from Arla

Arla Foods

Arla Foods is a Swedish-Danish cooperative based in Århus, Denmark, and the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia. Arla Foods was formed as the result of a merger between the Swedish dairy cooperative Arla and the Danish dairy company MD Foods on 17 April 2000.Arla Foods is the seventh...

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Originally the name koldskål was used to describe a sweet gruel, but this dish is not commonly eaten any more.

Traditionally, buttermilk koldskål is served with dry, crispy biscuits such as tvebakker or kammerjunkers

Kammerjunker (biscuit)

A kammerjunker is a type of Danish biscuit, which is typically eaten with koldskål, a buttermilk-based product. Like koldskål, kammerjunkers are eaten mostly in the summer....

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Like most activities in Denmark, the consumption of koldskål is highly dependent on the weather, and a couple of weeks of warm weather can double the demand for ready-made koldskål. According to figures from the Danish Dairy Board, Danish dairies produced in week 24 of 2007 1.2 million liters of koldskål (a little over 2 deciliters per Dane) and then fell again to under half of that in just 3 weeks.