How to Make the Drinks Peppermint Tonic, Sbiten and the History Behind Them

In traveling all over the world, one of my favorite drinks I found was a fancy one from Canada called Peppermint Tonic. Indian tonic water contains sugar, ascetic acid, carbon dioxide, natural flavorings and quinine. Jacob Schweppe was a Swiss native, who left his home with numerous wines, liqueurs and schnapps and went to London to build his first factory for non-alcoholic drinks. Tonic water has been an accepted phenomenon since 1783 and Schweppes lemonade and mineral water have been used as mixers with alcoholic drinks almost since that time as well. Gin and tonic became the most well known of these, but this Peppermint tonic from the north of Canada also tastes excellent. If you want to make it on your own:

4 small ice cubes

100g (4oz) blackberries

1 dash lemon juice

2cl (1 ½ tablespoons) peppermint liqueur

Tonic water to fill glass

To garnish: 1 sprig mint

Now you are gonna place the ice cubes in a long drink glass, heap over thoroughly washed blackberries, pour over lemon juice and peppermint liqueur and top up with ice cold tonic water. Lay a sprig of mint over it and serve with straw and spoon for fruit. What is awesome about Peppermint tonic is that it tastes good at any time during a hot day.

Honey drinks are a different animal altogether, like the Sbiten from Russia. Russian honey drinks have been around since ancient times. Bees and honey play a great role in Russian myths, legends and fairy tales. By the Middle Ages, Russia was already supplying large parts of Europe with the valuable honey from its woods. At that time, Sbiten was drunk instead of tea, but also as a bar drink. Today, it is drunk preferably on cold winter days. If you want to make a decent amount, like 4 portions or more:

120g (4 ½ oz / ¾ cup) honey

1 ½ liter (2 1/3 pints / 7 cups)

Water

80g (3oz / 1/3 cup) sugar

3 cloves

5 black peppercorns

1 pinch ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons dried mint

Now bring honey and ¼ liter (9 fl oz / 1 generous cup) water to the boil and sieve off the scum. Bring sugar with ¼ liter (9 fl oz / 1 generous cup) water to a boil as well, mix with the honey mixture and simmer over a low flame until the water content has reduced almost entirely. Boil the spices for 15 minutes in 1 liter (1 ¾ pints / 4 2/3 cups) water in a pan with a lid on, leave to draw for another 10 minutes and strain the spice mixture through a fine sieve into the honey-sugar-mixture. You can reheat briefly and serve very hot. In my personal experience it tastes amazing.