Preparation of the drink sbiten. Honey sbiten

Mulled wine in Russian, vzvar, perevar - this is the name of this wonderful drink, the roots of which go back ten centuries into the past. Sbiten, namely under this name it is known now, was the most common drink in Rus'.

IN the composition of the mix included honey or sugar, a decoction of medicinal herbs with the addition of various spices. Therefore, it is not surprising that this drink warmed in the cold, gave the body strength and protected from diseases.

Name"Sbiten" probably comes from the word "churn", which indicates the method of preparation of the drink. Separately, a decoction was made from medicinal herbs with spices, and then mixed it with honey.

They drank sbiten both hot and cold. It is alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Read also:

How to make a sbiten?

After the October Revolution, the mass use of sbitnya came to naught, but now it is gaining popularity again. How to make this old, but still healthy and tasty drink at home?

Cooking sbitnya at home

Recipe 1

Compound:

Water - 500 ml
Honey - 100-140 grams
Pouring - 1 glass
Spices: cloves, pepper, ginger
Herbs: mint, St. John's wort, thyme, linden flowers

Heat water, put honey there, cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add the liqueur and boil for 5 minutes, then herbs and spices. Cook for 10 more minutes. Remove from heat, cover with a lid, leave for 20-30 minutes. Strain.

Recipe 2

To prepare a drink you will need:

Water - 750 ml
Honey - 250 grams
Medicinal herbs (St. John's wort, mint, sage, thyme) - 40 grams
Spices (cinnamon, ginger root, cloves) - 5 grams

Mix honey in boiling water until it dissolves. Leave at a temperature of 18-25 degrees for a day to brew. Pour into clay pot and simmer for about 2 hours. Add herbs and spices 15-20 minutes before the end of cooking.

Recipe 3

Ingredients:

Water - 2.5 l
Honey - 250 grams
Strawberry juice - 250 ml
Mint herb - 1 tablespoon
St. John's wort - 0.5 teaspoon
Sage herb - 1 teaspoon

Boil the water, pour in the strawberry juice and bring to a boil again. Add honey, mint, St. John's wort and sage. Boil 1 hour. Remove foam from time to time.

Recipe 4

Compound:

Water - 1l
Sugar - 100 grams
Honey - 200 grams
Cinnamon - 0.6 grams
Hops - 6 grams
Dried mint - 0.4 grams
Cloves - 0.4 grams

boil water, add honey and sugar, stir. Add herbs and spices and cook for 20-30 minutes. Strain, serve hot.

Recipe 5

Would need:

White molasses - 50 grams
Honey - 50 grams
Water - 250 ml
Beer - 250 ml
Dried mint - 0.5 teaspoon

Mix water and beer, bring to a boil. Add mint and molasses, boil for 10-15 minutes. Put honey, boil for a few more minutes. Let it brew for 1 hour. When cool, refrigerate for a week. Sbiten is ready.

Recipe 6

Ingredients:

Water - 1.5 l
Honey - 150 grams
Sugar - 100 grams
St. John's wort - 2 teaspoons
Ground cloves - 1.5 teaspoons
Black peppercorns - 5 pcs.
Ground ginger - 0.5 teaspoon
Ground cinnamon - 1 teaspoon
Dried mint - 1.5 teaspoons
Dried thyme - 0.5 teaspoon
Cardamom - 0.5 teaspoon
Lemon - 1 pc.

Take 2 cups of water, add honey, dissolve it and boil. Remove foam from time to time. Add sugar and cook until a homogeneous consistency comes out.

Bring the rest of the water to a boil in a saucepan, add herbs and spices, cover and cook for 20-30 minutes. Infuse for 10-15 minutes, strain, mix with honey mass. Serve hot with sliced lemon slices.

Recipe 7

Would need:

Honey - 75 grams
Dry red wine - 0.5 l
Carnation - 1-2 pcs.
Ground cinnamon - to taste
Nutmeg - to taste

Pour the wine into a saucepan, heat to 70-80 degrees. Add honey and spices, heat, but do not boil. Leave for 40 minutes, then strain. Serve hot.

So, sbiten is an ancient Russian drink, which was used not only as a sweet treat, but also in medicinal, preventive purposes. Due to its restorative qualities, it is useful to take sbiten when it is very cold or with a cold, as well as in winter to strengthen the immune system.

There are a lot of recipes for making sbitnya, so everyone will find one that suits him personally. In summer, the drink can be safely cooled and used as a wonderful remedy for thirst.

This is one of the old Russian drinks. When even in Rus' they had no idea about Chinese tea, sbiten was everyone's favorite drink.

Here is what an old cookbook writes about sbitna: “At present, sbiten is rarely used in homes and serves only for the common people, as a warming agent in winter. It is carried around the streets in samovars and drunk with rolls; but, subjected to precise analysis, this venal drink turns out to have nothing in common with the former old drink and consists of nothing more, nothing less, as of burning sugar, molasses, and water. The real one vintage sbiten prepared like this. Molasses, together with various spices, such as cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and bay leaf, is boiled down to a dark red color and to a decent density, transferred to jars and stored for consumption. When used, a certain amount of this viscous, thick, odorous mass is taken and dissolved in hot water; if desired, add sugar to taste.

The best sbiten is made with sugar or honey.

Sbiten (spicy)

Sugar -150 g, honey -150 g, Bay leaf-2 pcs., cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom - 5 g each, water -1l. Dissolve honey, sugar in boiling water, add bay leaf, spices and boil for 15-20 minutes. Remove heat and leave for 30 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth or fine sieve. Serve hot.

Sbiten (drunk)

Sugar -50 g, honey -100 g, cinnamon -0.3 g, cloves -0.2 g, mint -0.2 g, hops - 3 g. The method of preparing this drink is completely similar to that described above.

"Krupnik" Old Polish with vanilla

Vodka -0.5 l, honey -1 glass, water -1 glass, vanilla -11 g sticks, cinnamon -1 pinch, lemon peel -1 pc.

Boil honey with water, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon zest, remove from heat, add vodka and stir. Serve very hot in glasses.

Sbiten winter

Water -4 cups, sugar -0.5 cups, honey -5 tbsp. spoons, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf -1 pc., cardamom - 2-3 pcs.

Pour 4 cups of water into a saucepan, put on fire and bring to a boil. Add half a glass of sugar, 5 tablespoons of honey and various spices to boiling water (cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf - 1 pc., Cardamom - 2-3 pcs.).

Boil for 10-15 minutes. Strain. Serve hot in a pitcher.

Sbiten from molasses

1 kg of white molasses, 200 g of honey, 2 g of cinnamon, 5 cloves, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 10 black peppercorns, 5 tbsp. tablespoons of dry mint, 6-8 capsules of cardamom, 3 star anise, 5-6 liters of boiling water.

Dissolve molasses, honey or sugar in boiling water and boil for 15 minutes. Add spices and boil for another 10 minutes. Drink hot like tea.

Sbiten Suzdal

1 liter of water, 150 g of sugar, 150 g of honey, (spices, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger) - to taste.

Dissolve 150 g of sugar and honey in 1 liter of water, add spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger - to taste). Boil for 10-15 minutes, removing the foam. Let it brew for 30 minutes, strain, heat and drink hot.

A hot drink with honey and a variety of spices - sbiten, especially popular in winter time. He possesses not only pleasant taste, but also with anti-inflammatory actions, which is simply necessary for the body in cold, inclement weather.

Sbiten at home can easily be consumed in the morning instead of coffee or strong tea. Soaked in aromas of spices, this hot drink instantly cheer up and give strength before a hard day at work!

Ingredients:

liquid honey - 3-4 tbsp. spoons;
ground ginger - 1 teaspoon;
cinnamon sticks - 2-3 pieces;
star anise - 2-3 stars;
cardamom - 9-10 capsules;
carnation - 8-10 buds;
lemon juice - 1-2 tbsp. spoons;
mint - 3-4 sprigs;
drinking water - 1 l.

We cut off the mint leaves from the stems, cut with a knife or tear with our hands into small pieces, put in a small saucepan. Next, we load aromatic additives: cinnamon sticks, cardamom capsules, star anise and cloves. You can use other spices to prepare sbitnya at your discretion. How more spices will be involved in cooking, the richer and tastier the finished drink will turn out.
Pour aromatic additives with a liter of boiling water. For tart and slightly burning "notes" add a portion of ginger. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the temperature and simmer the drink over low heat for 10 minutes.
After the specified time, remove the pan from the stove and immediately add honey to the hot liquid, dissolve. We allow the drink to brew under the lid for 10-15 minutes for maximum saturation with spicy aromas.
Before serving, pass the sbiten through a fine sieve, remove all additives. Pour lemon juice into the strained drink.
Pour sbiten into glasses. Top with lemon slices, cinnamon sticks and serve!
Enjoy a healthy warming drink! Sbiten at home is ready!

Sbiten. A hot drink, a decoction of several spices and herbs sweetened with honey, molasses or sugar. Known since the beginning of the 15th century. It was sold mainly only in Moscow in the markets and in crowded places. Was a Russian national winter drink, while kvass - summer.

Until the end of the XVII century. sbiten was common in both public and home catering, but then gradually began to give way to tea.
Sbiten, or rather, its rudiments, are still preserved, these are the so-called herbal teas from linden, mint, St. John's wort.

Recipe for a real Russian (Moscow) sbitnya.

Compound. 1 kg of white molasses, 200 g of honey, 2 g of cinnamon, 5 cloves, 2 teaspoons of ginger (ground), 10 black peppercorns, 5 tbsp. tablespoons of dry mint, 6-8 capsules of cardamom, 3 star anise, 5-6 liters of water (boiling water).
Cooking. Dissolve molasses, honey or sugar in boiling water and boil for 15 minutes. Add spices, boil for another 10 minutes. Drink hot like tea.
V.V. Pokhlebkin

Sbiten, zbiten - an old Russian hot drink made from water, honey and spices, which often included medicinal herbal preparations. First mentioned in the Slavic chronicles in 1128.
Hot sbiten had a warming and anti-inflammatory effect, so they drank it mainly in winter period. Another variety of this drink was cold “zbiten”, which was no less popular drink when quenching thirst in a bathhouse or on a hot day in summer.

The first mention of sbitna as a drink widely used by the Slavs refers to chronicle sources of the 12th century. Then it was called overvar, and later - vzvar or simply var.

There is an opinion that sbiten takes its name from the verb "to knock down" (i.e. to connect parts together). And therefore prepared in two separate vessels. In one, honey was infused, and in the other, herbs, and immediately before use, the contents of the vessels were mixed - “knocked down”, which is where the name “sbiten” came from.

Before the advent of tea in Russia, sbiten was perhaps the only hot drink of Russians, it was prepared in samovars. There were stationary “downed kurens”, which were located in crowded places in the city. The role of the counter was played by a large window punched in the wall of the house.

St. John's wort, sage, bay leaf, ginger and Bell pepper. The most ancient descriptions of the preparation of sbitnya are given in Domostroy (XVI century).

Sbiten is one of the old Russian drinks. When even in Rus' they had no idea about Chinese tea, sbiten was everyone's favorite drink.

Here is what an old cookbook writes about sbitna:
At present, sbiten is rarely used in homes and serves only for the common people, as a warming agent in winter. It is carried around the streets in samovars and drunk with rolls; but, when subjected to exact analysis, this venal liquor turns out to have nothing in common with the former ancient liquor, and consists of nothing more, nothing less, than ignited sugar, molasses, and water.

The real old sbiten is prepared like this. Molasses, along with various spices, such as cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and bay leaf, is boiled down to a dark red color and to a decent density, transferred to jars and stored for consumption. When used, a certain amount of this viscous, thick, odorous mass is taken and dissolved in hot water; if desired, add sugar to taste.

The best sbiten is made with sugar or honey.

Mass consumption of sbitn died out after the October Revolution. Since the 1990s, attempts have been made to establish in Russia industrial production sbitnya, packaged in bottles. But this is approximately the same as industrially brewing tea - after all, sbiten, like tea, is good freshly prepared.
Sbiten (spicy)
Sugar - 150 g, honey - 150 g, bay leaf - 2 pieces, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom - 5 g each, water - 1 l.
Dissolve honey, sugar in boiling water, add bay leaf, spices and boil for 15-20 minutes. Remove heat and leave for 30 minutes.
Strain through cheesecloth or fine sieve.
Serve hot.
Sbiten (drunk)
Sugar - 50 g, honey - 100 g, cinnamon - 0.3 g, cloves - 0.2 g, mint - 0.2 g, hops - 3 g.
The method of preparation of this drink is completely similar to that described above.

“Krupnik” old Polish with vanilla
Vodka - 0.5 l, honey - 1 glass, water - 1 glass, vanilla - 1/2 stick, cinnamon - 1 pinch, lemon zest - from 1 lemon.
Boil honey with water, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon zest, remove from heat, add vodka and stir.
Serve very hot in glasses.

Sbiten winter
Water - 4 cups, sugar - 0.5 cups, honey - 5 tbsp. spoons, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf - 1 pc., cardamom - 2-3 pcs.
Pour 4 cups of water into a saucepan, put on fire and bring to a boil. Add half a glass of sugar, 5 tablespoons of honey and various spices (cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf - 1 pc., Cardamom - 2-3 pcs.) To boiling water.
Boil for 10-15 minutes. Strain.
Serve hot in a pitcher.

Sbiten from molasses

Dissolve molasses, honey or sugar in boiling water and boil for 15 minutes. Add spices and boil for another 10 minutes.
Drink hot like tea.

city sbiten
Ingredients:
- 500 g of honey,
- 700 g of white molasses (or thick sugar, fructose syrup),
- 500 g of spices (cinnamon, cloves, hops, mint, etc.),
- 6 liters of water.
Cooking
Boil water and, adding all the ingredients, boil for 30 minutes. Drink hot like tea.

Kumushkin sbiten
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of honey,
- 20 g of hops,
- spices to taste,
- 4 liters of water.
Cooking
Dissolve honey in boiling water, add hops and spices and boil for 2-3 hours, filter the boiled sbiten and cool.
This sbiten is consumed cold.

Sbiten Suzdal - 1
Ingredients:
- 150 g of honey,
- 150 g of sugar,
- 1.5 g of cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, bay leaf,
- 1 liter of water.
Cooking
Then, strain the drink through cheesecloth and tint with burnt sugar.

Moscow Sbiten
Ingredients:
- 200 g of honey,
- 150 g of molasses (or thick sugar, fructose syrup),
- 1 g cinnamon
- 2 g of cloves, hops, nutmeg, allspice,
- 1 liter of water.
Cooking
Boil honey and molasses together with water, add spices and boil for 5 minutes. Then, let it brew for 30 minutes, strain.

Shrovetide Sbiten
Ingredients:
- 150 g honey
- 1.5 - 2 liters of water
- 100 g sugar
- 2 - 3 teaspoons of dry St. John's wort
- 2 cloves
- 5 - 6 grains of black pepper
- 0.25 teaspoon of ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tsp mint

Cooking
Boil honey in a saucepan, dilute with 1 glass of water, remove the foam. Separately, boil sugar, diluting with 1 glass of water.
Connect both parts, boil together in homogeneous mass so that more water evaporates (but on low fire without appreciable boiling).
In the rest of the water, boil the spices for 15-20 minutes in a closed vessel, let it brew for another 10 minutes, then strain, add the honey-sugar mixture and heat without boiling.
Drink only hot.

Fragrant custard

1 kg of honey
3 liters of water
1 st. a spoonful of yeast
40 g hops
1 teaspoon of cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-2 cardamom seeds
2-3 shoots of fresh mint.
Cooking
Dissolve honey in small amounts warm water, mix thoroughly, then, with continuous stirring, boil it over low heat for two hours, removing the foam.
15 minutes before the end of boiling, add hops and spices to honey. Pour the mixture into a clean barrel, and when it cools down, add the yeast diluted in a small amount of water to it.
Seal the barrel and refrigerate for 14 days.
After aging, decant the sbiten and pour into bottles, which should also be stored in the refrigerator.

Raspberry custard
For cooking you will need:
1 kg of honey
1 kg raspberries,
3 l of water,
1 st. a spoonful of yeast
Cooking
Squeeze juice from raspberries. Pour the pulp with water, bring to a boil, cool, strain. Add honey, heat again to a boil, add squeezed raspberry juice and cool to 35-40°C.
Add the yeast previously diluted in a glass of water to the cooled broth and leave in a warm place to ferment for 8-12 hours.
Then pour into bottles, carefully corking them and refrigerate. In 15-20 days the sbiten will be ready.

Simple sbiten
For cooking you will need:
500 g honey
700 g of molasses (or thick sugar, fructose syrup),
6 liters of water
2 tsp cloves
3 tsp ground cinnamon
2-4 cardamom seeds
3-6 shoots of fresh mint.
Cooking
Dissolve honey in boiling water, add molasses, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, mint and leave overnight. Serve warm.

Folk sbiten
For cooking you will need:
1 kg of honey
4 liters of water
20 g hops
1 teaspoon of cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1-2 cardamom seeds
2-3 shoots of fresh mint.
Cooking
Dissolve honey in boiling water, add hops and spices and boil for 2-3 hours.
Strain boiled sbiten and cool.
This sbiten is consumed cold, like kvass.

Sbiten Suzdal - 2
For cooking you will need:
150 g honey
6 art. spoons of sugar
1 liter of water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1-2 cardamom seeds
2 bay leaves.
sbiten-recipe
Cooking

Mix honey with water and boil for 20 minutes, add spices and boil for another 5 minutes.

Sbiten Vladimirsky
For cooking you will need:
200 g honey
1 liter of water
4 tbsp. spoons of sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 bay leaf.
Cooking
Sugar is calcined until a brown color is formed, cooled and dissolved in a small amount of hot water.
Mix honey with water and boil for 20 minutes, add spices and boil for another 5 minutes.
Then strain the drink through gauze and tint with diluted burnt sugar.

Moscow Sbiten
For cooking you will need:
200 g honey
150 g of molasses (or thick sugar, fructose syrup),
1 liter of water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon hops
ground nutmeg on the tip of a knife,
1/2 teaspoon allspice.
Cooking
Boil honey and molasses together with water, add spices, hops and boil for 5 minutes. Then let it brew for 30 minutes, strain.

Sbiten with wine
For cooking you will need:
150 g honey
1 liter dry red wine
ground cinnamon on the tip of a knife
2-3 pcs. carnations,
ground nutmeg on the tip of a knife.
Cooking
Bring the wine to a boil, but do not boil, mix together with honey, add spices and let it brew for 30 minutes.
Then strain the drink and serve hot.

Petrovsky drink
Cooking
This drink was loved even under Peter the Great.
Prepare it like this: in bread kvass (prepared on your own, including from concentrate, but not purchased ready-made in the store), put honey, grated horseradish, mix well and put in a cold place for a day.
Then strain through cheesecloth and drink with ice.
For 1 liter bread kvass: two teaspoons of honey and two to three tablespoons of grated horseradish.

Often we use the name of the ancient Russian drink "sbiten", having little idea of how it differs from other traditional Russian drinks. Let's try to figure out what it is and how to cook a real old Russian sbiten.

Archaeological excavations show that there is no people in the world who would not use honey in the preparation of their traditional drinks. The ancients were no exception Slavic peoples. They shared honey with their gods. And drinks with honey and based on honey are an indispensable attribute of all feasts, religious offerings, rituals and everyday life.

Our distant ancestors loved honey drinks and drank them in considerable quantities. This is indirectly confirmed old recipes, in which the ingredients used for their preparation were measured in tens of liters of water and tens of kilograms of honey (for example, take “1.5 pounds of honey”, “dilute with 12 buckets of water”). One of these honey drinks known to us under the name "sbiten".

The first mention of this ancient Russian drink is found in the annals of the 12th century. In those days, sbiten was called “overcooking”, later “boiling”, “var” (a drink that was obtained by boiling water with the addition of herbs, berries, fruits and honey).

It is assumed that its name comes from the verb "shoot down". Whether this is actually the case is hard to say. But it is known that two different vessels were usually used in its preparation. In one they cooked herbal infusion, in another insisted honey. And before use, the contents of both were mixed - “knocked down”.

According to the definition given in ancient books and annals of the ancient Slavs, sbiten is a sweet honey drink, the main component of which is honey. In addition, water, various spices, various herbs, including medicinal ones, were used for its preparation.

Read also: Suzdal sbiten: beneficial features and recipes

How did they drink sbiten in Rus'?

Drinking fragrant and tasty Russian sbiten is a pleasure. AND for a long time(before the advent and mass distribution of tea) it was perhaps the only hot drink. It was drunk at home, cooked in samovars in downed kurens, usually located in the most crowded places in the city. And at fairs and bazaars, sbitenschiki carried it in samovars and offered it to the frozen people.

They drank it from samovars, usually from earthenware mugs or special convex cups, as a snack with rolls, buns and gingerbread.

There is a version that it was for this drink that the samovar was invented in Rus'. Perhaps it is. After all, tea appeared on the table of our ancestors much later.

Honey sbiten with an infusion of medicinal herbs (chamomile and mint, St. John's wort and sage) they drank not only for mood, but also for restoring health. In Rus', this popular drink was drunk cold on hot days and in the bath, as a means of perfectly quenching thirst. In winter, in frost, it was the best warming and tonic drink.

How to cook old Russian sbiten?

Most old recipe cooking sbitnya was found in a collection of instructions and advice on all life issues - in the famous book "Domostroy" of the 16th century edition, attributed to Archpriest Sylvester. Although it is known for certain that the ancient Russian sbiten appeared much earlier, back in the 11th-13th centuries.

The main components for the classic traditional sbitnya are honey, water and seasonings (sage, St. John's wort, ginger, bay leaf, capsicum, cardamom, cinnamon, mint, cloves).

Sbiten, unlike other traditional honey drinks, is prepared simply and quickly. You can drink it after 3-4 hours. The technology of its preparation does not use a long fermentation process, as, for example, it is done when preparing mead or surya (a little-known ancient Russian drink).

Read also: Stolbushin sbiten - an old Russian recipe

According to the method of preparation, sbiten can be non-alcoholic (strength up to 1%) and alcoholic - 4-7%, plain or custard.

Unlike many honey-based drinks, sbiten was most often prepared non-alcoholic. Hops were not added to it and honey was not fermented.

There are a lot of known recipes for its preparation. The most commonly mentioned sbiten are "Stobushinsky", "Suzdal", "Juniper", "Vladimir", "Fir" and "Moscow". They differ slightly from each other: either in the set of seasonings and spices used, or in different cooking technologies.

Classic recipe Old Russian sbitnya This is cooking in two vessels. In one, honey was dissolved in water and brought to a boil, in the other, a decoction of spices was prepared. Then everything was mixed together. And the simplest recipe is to mix all the ingredients at once in one go, boil for 20-30 minutes, insist and strain.

Russian sbitnya recipe

To prepare a real Russian sbitnya according to the recipe from the book by V.V. Pokhlebkin will need:

Honey - 200 g
White molasses - 1 kg
Water - 5-6 l
Spices: cinnamon - 2 g, cloves - 5 pieces, star anise - 3 pieces, ginger - 2 tsp, black pepper (peas) - 10 pieces, dry mint - 5 tbsp. l., cardamom - 6-8 pcs.

Cooking method: dissolve honey and molasses in hot water and boil for another quarter of an hour. Add spices and boil everything together for another 10 minutes.