Sbiten

Sbiten, also spelled zbiten, is a traditional hot winter drink of Eastern Slavic cuisine, made from honey, water and spices. It was a staple of Russian life and is also made in Belarus and Ukraine.

History

It is first mentioned in Slavic chronicles of 1128, and for centuries it was popular with every social class in Russia. Its name is linked to the verb sbivat, meaning to combine dissimilar parts. It was also once known as vzvar.

In the eighteenth century it rivalled tea, which was more expensive, and it was seen as the thrifty choice. According to accounts, Peter the Great had it handed out to the workers building St Petersburg as protection against the cold. Russian sailors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries drank it against scurvy, especially mixed with citrus or ginger juice. After the Soviet Union broke up it returned as a sweet, spiced syrup sold in monastery shops.

The sixteenth-century Domostroy describes one of its recipes. Honey and the mixture of juices and spices are boiled separately, then combined and boiled again. It can also be made with red wine instead of water.

Culture

Street vendors known as sbitenshchiks drew customers with loud calls and chastushkas, carrying a metal pot and a string of glasses. They are thought to have helped develop the samovar, and in the eighteenth century a kettle called the sbitennik was devised to keep the drink hot. The comic opera Sbitenshchik, by Yakov Knyazhnin with music by Antoine Bullant (1783), was popular around the turn of the nineteenth century. Today it is served hot in winter, cold in summer, or stirred into tea or coffee.

Trivia