Sbiten

Sbiten (

First mentioned in chronicles in 1128, sbiten remained popular with all classes of Russian society until the 19th century when it was replaced by coffee and tea.^[5] In the 18th century sbiten still rivalled tea in popularity and was considered a cheaper option.^[1] Peter the Great had sbiten given to the work force involved in building his new capital for reasons of cold prevention.^[1] In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian sailors would consume sbiten as a remedy against scurvy (especially when mixed with citrus or ginger juice).^[6]

After the breakup of the Soviet Union it was revived as a sickly sweet and spicy syrup widely distributed through monastery shops.^[7] A producer from Pushkinskiye Gory reports sales of about 12 tons of sbiten each month.^[7] In September 2018 Vladimir Putin bought a bottle of sbiten at a market in Vladivostok and presented it to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.^[8]

Preparation

Like

Sbitenshchik (Russian: сбитенщик) was a sbiten vendor in medieval Russia and the Russian Empire who attracted attention to his merchandise by loud advertisement calls and chastushkas.^[1] Khodebshchik was a mobile sbiten vendor who carried his goods with him through the streets of a city.^[1] It was usually a stout strong man, as it required great physical strength to carry a string of glasses and a metal pot full of sbiten.^[1]

The comic opera The Sbiten Vendor (Сбитенщик – Sbitenshchik) by Yakov Knyazhnin with music by Czech composer Antoine Bullant (1783) was very popular in Russia at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.^[9]

Sbiten peddlers contributed to the development of the samovar. In the 18th century they invented its precursor called sbitennik (сбитенник) — a type of kettle that kept sbiten warm at all times.^[1]

See also

• Russian tea culture

References