Zubrovka

Ingredients

The base

• 700 mlvodka
• bought, at 40 percent
• a clean neutral one
• see the note on distilling

The grass

• 4to 6 dried blades of bison grass
• Hierochloe odorata
• sweetgrass, sold dried
• from a herb supplier
• correctly identified and labelled
• see the note on foraging
• and the note on coumarin

Optional

• 1 teaspoonhoney
• to round it
• a strip of lemon zest
• no pith

To serve

• very cold, in small glasses
• or long, with apple juice
• the szarlotka
• with a slice of apple
• and a grating of cinnamon

Directions

1. Check that what you buy is food grade. Use a few blades rather than a handful. Anyone taking anticoagulant medication should ask a doctor.
2. Use a clean neutral vodka. There is no need for an expensive bottle. Cut the blades to fit the bottle. Too much grass turns it bitter and grassy.
3. Start low. Put the grass in a jar and pour the vodka over. Seal it. One week is enough. Shake it once a day.
4. Taste after three days. If it is already right, strain it. Strain it through muslin into a clean bottle.
5. Put one fresh blade in the finished bottle. It also keeps infusing very slowly.
6. Serve it very cold in small glasses. Keep the bottle in the freezer. It goes thick and viscous.
7. Use cloudy pressed apple juice. Clear juice tastes thin and sweet. Keep it dark or in the freezer.

Technique

• This is an infusion of a bought spirit, which is legal and safe, rather than a distillation.
• Buy the grass dried and labelled from a herb supplier. Sweetgrass is easily confused with other grasses, correct identification matters, and it is protected or restricted in some places. Sweetgrass braids are also sold for burning as incense, so check that what you buy is food grade.
• Do not go and pick it in Białowieża. The forest is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage site, and central to the recovery of the European bison, which lost its wild population in the early twentieth century and was rebuilt from captive animals.
• Coumarin is the compound that gives the grass its hay-and-vanilla scent — the same one in tonka bean, woodruff and cassia cinnamon. It is not permitted as a direct food additive in the United States, and the bison grass vodka sold there uses a formulation without it, made to smell similar by other means.
• Coumarin at high intake is associated with liver effects in some people and regulators in different countries have taken different views. The atlas records that the difference exists and makes no medical claim. Use a few blades rather than a handful and drink it as a spirit in small glasses. Anyone with liver disease, or taking anticoagulants, should ask a doctor — coumarin is not warfarin despite the similar name, but it is still reasonable to check.
• More grass is not better. Too much turns it bitter and grassy, and the hay note becomes hay itself. Four to six blades for seven hundred millilitres, and start low.
• Bruise the blades lightly before they go in. Whole unbruised blades extract slowly.
• Taste after three days. Grass extracts faster than most botanicals, and you cannot take it back out.
• Keep it in the dark. Light fades the pale gold colour and degrades the aromatics.
• Put one fresh blade in the finished bottle — the visual signature of the drink, which also keeps infusing very slowly.
• Use a clean neutral mid-range vodka. The grass is the whole flavour and a characterful spirit fights it; an expensive bottle is wasted here.
• Keep it in the freezer. Vodka at forty percent does not freeze in a domestic freezer — it goes thick and viscous, which is how it is drunk in the region.
• Use cloudy pressed apple juice for a szarlotka. Clear juice tastes thin and sweet where cloudy tastes of apple. The drink is named for apple pie in Polish and genuinely tastes like it — that is not marketing.
• A szarlotka tastes far weaker than it is, because apple juice hides the vodka completely.
• Do not drink alcohol if you are pregnant or driving.

Substitutions

• Bottled Żubrówka or Zubrovka is widely sold if you would rather not infuse it.
• Dried woodruff gives a related hay-and-vanilla note and carries the same coumarin point.
• Any clean neutral vodka works as the base.
• Cloudy apple juice is essential to the szarlotka; pear juice is the variant.
• Honey rounds it; lemon zest brightens it.
• Non-alcoholic cloudy apple juice with cinnamon is the drink without the spirit.

Variations

• Szarlotka, or tatanka, mixes it long with cloudy apple juice.
• Krambambula is the honey and spice infusion of the same region.
• Nalewka is the wider family of Polish and Belarusian infusions.
• The US formulation is made without coumarin.
• A honeyed version rounds the grass with more honey.
• Served neat and very cold is how it is drunk at a Belarusian table.

History

Flavoured with sweetgrass picked in the Białowieża forest, the last refuge of the European bison, which Belarus shares with Poland.

Frequently asked questions

What is Zubrovka?

Zubrovka is a wine & spirit from Belarus: vodka infused with bison grass from the Białowieża forest. Flavoured with sweetgrass picked in the Białowieża forest, the last refuge of the European bison, which Belarus shares with Poland.

How long does Zubrovka take to make?

Zubrovka takes 15 minutes plus 1 week of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 700 ml. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Zubrovka?

Yes, within limits. Bottled Żubrówka or Zubrovka is widely sold if you would rather not infuse it. Dried woodruff gives a related hay-and-vanilla note and carries the same coumarin point. Any clean neutral vodka works as the base. Cloudy apple juice is essential to the szarlotka; pear juice is the variant. Honey rounds it; lemon zest brightens it. Non-alcoholic cloudy apple juice with cinnamon is the drink without the spirit.

What is the most important thing to get right in Zubrovka?

Check that what you buy is food grade. Use a few blades rather than a handful. Anyone taking anticoagulant medication should ask a doctor.