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Delicious and warming sea-bucthorn punch is a cozy drink

Sea Buckthorn Punch

sea-buckthorn-punchSea buckthorn punch balances between tangy sourness and sweetness. It is a great drink for when it’s chilly outside.

Frozen sea buckthorns can be bought in Russian shops. They can used to make a quick jam — simly blitz the berries, sieve to filter the seeds out, and mix with sugar. The berries can be used to makea delicious drink and we will share with you 2 recipes.

 

Sea buckthorn punch- recipe 1

Products

Sea buckthorns — 300 g/10.5 oz

Lemon — 150 g/5.3 oz

Orange —100 gr/3.5 oz

Ginger, fresh root — 20 gr/0.7oz

Ground cardamon — 5 g/0.18 oz

Fresh mint — 10g/0.4 oz

Sugar — 350 g/0.8 oz

Water — 1,7 l/0.4 gallon

Ice (optional)

Method: 

  • Remove the branches and litter from the berries, rinse with boiling water. Crush the sea buckthorn with a mortar.
  • Wipe through a sieve, then transfer the sea buckthorn cake to a separate pan.\
  • Squeeze orange juice and lemon juice into sea buckthorn juice – through a sieve so that the seeds do not fall. Cover a glass container with a mixture of juices with foil and put it in the refrigerator.\
  • Put the remaining pieces of citrus fruits in a saucepan to the sea buckthorn cake. Fill with clean water, put a sprig of mint and send it to the stove to boil.
  • As soon as bubbles form in the pan, add granulated sugar, ground cardamom. We mix everything.
  • Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a wide container.
  • Put a peeled piece of ginger in the strained broth for a couple of minutes. Then we take out the ginger, it is no longer required.
  • Pour into the hot broth the oblepthorn-citrus juice from the refrigerator.
  • Stir and pour hot punch (non-alcoholic) into a decanter.
  • Serve the hot non-alcoholic punch immediately without cooling. If the drink is too hot for you, add a few ice cubes to the glass.

Sea Buckthorn Punch – recipe 2

Products:

Sea buckthorns – 300 g/10.5 oz

Lemon – 1,5 psc

Orange -1.5 psc

Water – 1,5 l/0.3 gallon

Sugar – 250 g/8./8.8 oz

Ginger (root) – 20 g/0.7 oz

Cinnamon (stick) – 1 psc

Anise (star) – 1 psc

Cardamon (ground) – ½ tsp

Method:

  • Prepare the ingredients for the sea buckthorns punch: the amount of sugar can be change according to your taste, the same goes for the amount of spices.
  • Firstly we need to prepare the juice. For that we wipe sea buckthorns through a sieve place over a deep pot. We keep the remaining cake.
  • Add the juice of whole lemon and orange to the sea buckthorn juice. Cut the citrus halves into thin slices – they will be needed to serve the drink.
  • Remove the pot with juice in the refrigerator for the time being.
  • Put sugar into a saucepan of a suitable volume, add sea buckthorn cake, leftovers of the orange and lemon, spices and ginger, cut into small pieces.
  • Fill everything with water and put the pan on medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar completely. Then turn off the fire, tightly cover the pan with a lid and leave to infuse at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
  • Filter the contents of the pan through the seive. Now citrus skins, cake and spices can be thrown away, and the fragrant broth can be combined with sea buckthorn and citrus juice. Mix everything and serve the sea buckthorn punch warm.
  • When serving, add a little sea buckthorn berries and slices of orange and lemon to the glasses. By the way, when trying punch for sweetness, you need to take into account that fresh lemon slices will add sourness when serving.

 

Ayran dairy drink

Ayran

Ayran_glass

Ayran is a refreshing fermented diary drink made of yoghurt substance. This slightly fizzy sourish drink  is a great thirst quencher.

It has made its way to Russia either from Turkic countries such as Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan or from the North Caucasus countries such as Armenia, where this drink is also very popular.

Ayran can give you an energy boost and revive you on a sweltering day. Try it and discover for yourself.

Another similar drink is tan.

ayran_bottle

 

Russian soft fermented drink

Kvass

kvass

Kvass is a traditional Russian fermented beverage made from rye bread. Having been popular for many centuries, since Soviet times it became associated with yellow trailers selling it in hot summer days.

It is indeed a perfect refreshing drink when it’s hot outside being not too sweet and not too savoury. There is a small percentage of alcohol in kvass (0,5 – 0,8 per cent).

These days kvass is also manufactured and sold in plastic bottles and the growth of this market is leaping ahead of other beverages, especially in hot summer days. Despite the popularity of mass production, some people in search of “old good traditional kvass” brew the beverage at home which is quite easy using fermentation starter called “zakvaska”.

There are two  types of kvass: normal drinking kvass, somewhat sweeter, and more savoury okroshka kvass. The latter is used for the cold soup “okroshka”.

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