Krambambula

Ingredients

The base

• 700 mlvodka
• bought, at 40 percent
• see the note on distilling
• 300 ghoney
• buckwheat or forest honey
• 200 mlwater

The spices

• 6cloves
• no more, see the note
• 1cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoonblack peppercorns
• half a nutmeg, grated
• 3bay leaves
• a thumb of fresh ginger, sliced
• 4allspice berries
• optional
• a strip of orange zest
• optional, no pith

To serve

• warm, in small glasses
• or cold, from the refrigerator
• with black bread
• salo, cured pork fat
• smoked fish
• pickled mushrooms

Directions

1. Use a dark strong honey. Do not boil the honey. Warm the honey with the water gently. Take it to a bare simmer. Stir until it dissolves. Skim any foam off the top. Add the spices to the warm honey syrup.
2. Let them steep as it cools. Warmth extracts far faster than cold. Let the syrup cool completely before adding the vodka. Adding spirit to a hot pan on a stove is dangerous.
3. Heat boils the alcohol off. Take the pan off the heat and off the stove. Let it come to room temperature. Pour the cool spiced syrup and the vodka into a jar.
4. Seal it and shake it. Leave it two weeks in a dark place. Shake it every few days. Taste after a week. Spices keep extracting.
5. Strain it through muslin into a clean bottle. A second straining through a coffee filter clears it if you mind.
6. Warm it gently in a pan or by standing the glass in hot water. Never boil it and never heat it over a flame.
7. Stand the bottle or glass in a bowl of hot water. Honey should not be given to children under one year old. Keep it in a dark cupboard.

Technique

• This is an infusion, not a distillation. You start with bought vodka, and infusing a bought spirit is legal and safe where distilling one at home is neither. The samahon entry covers the other case.
• Let the syrup cool completely before adding the vodka. Alcohol vapour is flammable and adding spirit to a hot pan on a stove is dangerous, and heat boils the alcohol off anyway. Take the pan right off the stove first.
• Never boil it or heat it over a flame when serving it warm. Stand the bottle or glass in a bowl of hot water instead — that warms it safely and it cannot ignite.
• Do not boil the honey. Boiling drives off the aromatics that make honey worth using and leaves sweetness and little else. Warm it to a bare simmer and skim the foam, which is wax and impurities.
• Use a dark strong honey. Buckwheat honey is dark, malty and almost savoury; forest honey is resinous; a pale acacia honey simply disappears into the vodka.
• Count the cloves. Clove dominates everything it is put with, six is plenty for a litre, and too many makes the drink taste medicinal.
• Steep the spices in the syrup while it is warm rather than in the cold spirit. Warmth extracts in minutes what cold takes days to do.
• Taste after a week. Spices keep extracting, so strain early if the clove or bay is already forward — you can always leave it longer, but you cannot take spice back out.
• Give it another two weeks in the bottle after straining. The spirit and honey settle together and the edges soften; it is noticeably better for the wait.
• It ends around thirty percent and honey makes it taste far weaker than it is. It drinks like a sweet warming cordial while sitting at or above fortified-wine strength, and people misjudge it.
• Bay leaf in a sweet drink surprises people, and it belongs — it gives the savoury backbone, as the black pepper gives the warmth at the back of the throat.
• Honey should not be given to children under one year old, because it can contain Clostridium botulinum spores and infant botulism is the documented risk. This drink is not for children in any case; the atlas notes it because a non-alcoholic honey syrup version exists.
• Slight cloudiness from the honey is normal; a second straining through a coffee filter clears it.
• Keep it in the dark. Light degrades the aromatics and fades the colour.
• Do not drink alcohol if you are pregnant, driving, or on medication that interacts with it.

Substitutions

• Any neutral vodka works as the base; a bought spirit is the point.
• Forest, heather or chestnut honey replace buckwheat as dark strong honeys.
• Brandy replaces vodka for a rounder, less clean version.
• Star anise, cardamom and juniper are all used in variant spice mixes.
• Omit the vodka entirely for a spiced honey syrup to stir into tea.
• Ready-made krambambula is bottled commercially in Belarus.

Variations

• Krupnik in Poland and Lithuania is the closest relative, also honey and spice.
• Medovukha is the fermented honey drink of the same region, not a spirit.
• Zubrovka infuses vodka with bison grass instead.
• Nalewka is the general Polish and Belarusian family of infused spirits.
• A warm winter version is heated gently and drunk from mugs.
• A non-alcoholic honey spice syrup stirs into tea for children.

History

Spiced honey vodka infusion recorded in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, revived in modern Belarus and shared with Polish tradition.

Frequently asked questions

What is Krambambula?

Krambambula is a wine & spirit from Belarus: honey-and-spice spirit infusion of old nobility. Spiced honey vodka infusion recorded in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, revived in modern Belarus and shared with Polish tradition.

How long does Krambambula take to make?

Krambambula takes 20 minutes plus 2 weeks of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 1 litre. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Krambambula?

Yes, within limits. Any neutral vodka works as the base; a bought spirit is the point. Forest, heather or chestnut honey replace buckwheat as dark strong honeys. Brandy replaces vodka for a rounder, less clean version. Star anise, cardamom and juniper are all used in variant spice mixes. Omit the vodka entirely for a spiced honey syrup to stir into tea. Ready-made krambambula is bottled commercially in Belarus.

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

Use a dark strong honey. Do not boil the honey. Warm the honey with the water gently. Take it to a bare simmer. Stir until it dissolves. Skim any foam off the top. Add the spices to the warm honey syrup.