Sbiten is a hot drink made from spices and herbs with honey or sugar. The drink they say goes back to about 1100 AD. Sbiten is considered a Russian national winter beverage. In Russia, sbiten is often poured from a large shining copper urn called a samovar. The same device used to serve hot tea. You can find it in Moscow at the busy areas such as metro stations and bus stops. But when traveling through the smaller villages of Russia, it can also be found on the roadside being sold by a babushka with her samovar…
Read about the Samovar – (Russia: Tea or Chai as Russians Call It!)
Ingredients:
5 liters of filtered water
800 g berry jam
200 g honey
2 g ginger
2 g cloves
1 g cinnamon
Method:
Bring the water to a boil.
Then turn heat to low and add honey and jam.
Then 5 minutes later, add the spices to the water and let steep for 5 more minutes…
Then Serve in mugs, steaming hot… (Enjoy)
Note: This is a great New Years drink and can be made alcoholic by using red wine in place of the water…
PS: Wine Sbiten
To make Wine Sbiten you need:
1L red dry wine
150g honey
0.1g each – cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
Add honey to wine and bring to boil. Take off the heat. Add cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and leave for 30-40 min. Strain and serve hot.
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!
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