Suzdal Sbiten
Description
The recipe won't take much time. The first mention of Suzdal sbiten in chronicles dates back to 1128, stating that this beverage was made from honey with the addition of various spices. Of course, the production technology back then was slightly different, and often a samovar or other special equipment was used. But I want to reassure everyone who plans to prepare Suzdal sbiten at home—now it can be done very easily on a regular stove using just a saucepan. The taste of the drink won't suffer at all; the sbiten turns out wonderfully aromatic and spicy, warming you up on cold winter evenings, while served chilled, it helps quench thirst during hot summer days. 1) Pour water into a saucepan and place it over heat. As soon as the water warms up, add the honey and stir well. 2) Simmer this mixture over low heat for 20 minutes after boiling. 3) In a separate bowl, mix all the spices—you can use them either ground or just dried. After 20 minutes, add the spices to the saucepan and continue cooking the sbiten for another 5 minutes. 4) Then remove the saucepan from the heat and strain the drink through several layers of gauze. If you'd like the sbiten to have a rich dark color, you can add burnt sugar to tint it. In winter, sbiten is traditionally served hot, while in summer, as I've already mentioned, it is served cold.