Kvass is a
fermented
Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...
cereal-based
low alcoholic beverage with a slightly cloudy appearance, light-brown colour and sweet-sour taste. It may be flavoured with berries, fruits, herbs or honey.
Kvass stems from the northeastern part of Europe, where the grain production is thought to have been insufficient for beer to become a daily drink. The first written mention of kvass is found in the ''
Primary Chronicle'', describing the celebration of
Vladimir the Great
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...
's baptism in 996. In the traditional method, kvass is made from a mash obtained from
rye bread or rye flour and malt soaked in hot water, fermented for about 12 hours with the help of sugar and
bread yeast or
baker's yeast
Baker's yeast is the common name for the strains of yeast commonly used in baking bread and other bakery products, serving as a leavening agent which causes the bread to rise (expand and become lighter and softer) by converting the fermentabl ...
at a room temperature. In industrial methods, kvass is produced from
wort
Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort als ...
concentrate combined with various grain mixtures. It is a popular drink in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Baltic countries, Finland and some parts of China.
Terminology
The word ''kvass'' is ultimately from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
base
*''kwh₂et-'' ('to become sour').
Max Vasmer
Max Julius Friedrich Vasmer (; russian: Максимилиан Романович Фа́смер, translit=Maksimilian Romanovič Fásmer; 28 February 1886 – 30 November 1962) was a Russo-German linguist. He studied problems of etymology in I ...
. ''Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Winter'', Heidelberg, 1953–1958 (in German). Russian translation by Oleg Trubachyov
Oleg Nikolayevich Trubachyov (also transliterated as Trubachev or Trubačev, russian: Оле́г Никола́евич Трубачёв; 23 October 1930, in Stalingrad – 9 March 2002, in Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian linguist. A re ...
: Этимологический словарь русского языка. Progress, Moscow, 1964–1973
квас
/ref> In English it was first mentioned in a text around 1553 as ''quass''. Nowadays, the name of the drink is almost the same in most languages: in Belarusian: , '; Russian: , '; Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
: , ; in Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
: ' (, to differentiate it from ''kwas'', 'acid', originally from ''kwaśny'', 'sour'); Latvian: '; Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
: '; Hungarian: '; Serbian: '; Chinese: , ; Eastern Finnish: '. Non- cognates include Estonian ', Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
', Latvian ' (), Latgalian dzyra (, similar to Lithuanian ''gira''), Lithuanian ' (, similar to Latvian '), and Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
' ().
Production
In the traditional method, either dried rye bread or a combination of rye flour
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...
and rye malt is used. The dried rye bread is extracted with hot water and incubated for 12 hours at room temperature, after which bread yeast and sugar is added to the extract and fermented for 12 hours at . Alternatively, rye flour is boiled, mixed with rye malt, bread yeast, sugar, and baker's yeast
Baker's yeast is the common name for the strains of yeast commonly used in baking bread and other bakery products, serving as a leavening agent which causes the bread to rise (expand and become lighter and softer) by converting the fermentabl ...
and then fermented for 12 hours at .
In the simplest industrial method, kvass is produced from a wort
Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort als ...
concentrate. The concentrate is warmed up and mixed with a water and sugar solution to create wort with a sugar concentration of 5–7% and pasteurized
Pasteurization American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mi ...
to stabilize it. After that, the wort is pumped into a fermentation tank, where baker's yeast
Baker's yeast is the common name for the strains of yeast commonly used in baking bread and other bakery products, serving as a leavening agent which causes the bread to rise (expand and become lighter and softer) by converting the fermentabl ...
and lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacillales are an order of gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally nonsporulating, nonrespiring, either rod-shaped ( bacilli) or spherical ( cocci) bacteria that share common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bact ...
culture is added and the solution is fermented for 12–24 hours at . Only around 1% of the extract is fermented out into ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...
, carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
and lactic acid
Lactic acid is an organic acid. It has a molecular formula . It is white in the solid state and it is miscible with water. When in the dissolved state, it forms a colorless solution. Production includes both artificial synthesis as well as nat ...
. Afterwards, the kvass is cooled to , clarified through either filtration or centrifugation, and adjusted for sugar content, if necessary.
Initially, it was filled in large containers, from which the kvass was sold on streets, but nowadays the vast majority of industrially produced kvass is filled and sold in 1–3-litre plastic bottles, and has a shelf life
Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a ...
of 4–6 weeks.
Kvass is usually 0.5–1.0% alcohol by weight, but may sometimes be as high as 2.0%.
History
The exact origins of kvass are unclear and whether it was invented by Slavic people or any other Eastern European ethnicity is unknown, although some Polish sources claim that kvass was invented by Slavs. Kvass has existed in the northeastern part of Europe, where the grain production is thought to have been insufficient for beer to become a daily drink. It has been known among the Early Slavs
The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the S ...
since the 10th century. The first written mention of kvass is found in the '' Primary Chronicle'', describing the celebration of Vladimir the Great
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...
's baptism in 996 when kvass along with mead and food was given out to the citizens of Kyiv. Kvass making remained a daily household activity well into the 19th century.
In the second half of the 19th century, with military engagement
A military engagement is a combat between two forces, neither larger than a division nor smaller than a company, in which each has an assignor perceived mission. An engagement begins when the attacking force initiates combat in pursuit of its mis ...
, increasing industrialization and large-scale projects, such as the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the ea ...
, created a growing need to supply large numbers of people with foodstuff for extended periods of time, commercial kvass producers began appearing in the Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. Many of them specialised in the use of different raw ingredients and more than 150 kvass varieties, such as apple, pear, mint, lemon, chicory, raspberry and cherry kvass, are recorded. As commercial kvass producers began selling it in barrels on the streets, domestic kvass making started to decline. For example, in the year ended 30 June 1912, there were 17 factories in the Governorate of Livonia
The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a Baltic governorate of the Russian Empire, now divided between Latvia and Estonia.
Geography
The shape of the province is a fairly rectangular in shape, with a maximum ...
producing a total of 437,255 gallons of kvass.
In the 1890s, the first scientific studies into the production of kvass were conducted in Kyiv, and in the 1960s, commercial mass production technology of kvass was further developed by chemists in Moscow.
Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
Possibly invented in the Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
and known there since at least the 10th century, kvass later became a national beverage of Russia and Ukraine in the 16th century.
Although the massive flood of western soft drinks after the fall of the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
such as Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
and Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi wa ...
substantially shrank the market share of kvass in Russia, in recent years it has regained its original popularity, often marketed as a national soft drink or "patriotic" alternative to cola. For example, the Russian company Nikola has promoted its brand of kvass with an advertising campaign emphasizing " anti cola-nisation." Moscow-based Business Analytica reported in 2008 that bottled kvass sales had tripled since 2005 and estimated that per-capita consumption of kvass in Russia would reach three litres in 2008. Between 2005 and 2007, cola's share of the Moscow soft drink market fell from 37% to 32%. Meanwhile, kvass' share more than doubled over the same time period, reaching 16% in 2007. In response, Coca-Cola launched its own brand of kvass in May 2008. This is the first time a foreign company has made an appreciable entrance into the Russian kvass market. Pepsi has also signed an agreement with a Russian kvass manufacturer to act as a distribution agent. The development of new technologies for storage and distribution, and heavy advertising, have contributed to this surge in popularity; three new major brands have been introduced since 2004.[''Russia's patriotic kvas drinkers say no to cola-nisation.''](_blank)
The New Zealand Herald
''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspaper ...
. BUSINESS; General. 12 July 2008.
Belarus has several breweries producing kvass: Alivaria Brewery
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, url www.alivaria.by
Olivaria brewery (also known as Olivaria or Alivaria ...
, , and . It also has a variety of kvass tasting and entertainment festivals. The largest show takes place in the city of Lida
Lida ( be, Лі́да ; russian: Ли́да ; lt, Lyda; lv, Ļida; pl, Lida ; yi, לידע, Lyde) is a city 168 km (104 mi) west of Minsk in western Belarus in Grodno Region.
Etymology
The name ''Lida'' arises from its Lithuan ...
. Numerous Ukrainian brands of kvass are also sold on the Polish market.
Market shares for Russia (2014)
Poland
Kvass may have appeared in Poland as early as the 10th century, it quickly became a very popular beverage thanks to it easy and cheap method of production as well as its thirst-quenching and digestion-aiding qualities. By the time of Władysław II Jagiełło
Jogaila (; 1 June 1434), later Władysław II Jagiełło ()He is known under a number of names: lt, Jogaila Algirdaitis; pl, Władysław II Jagiełło; be, Jahajła (Ягайла). See also: Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło. ...
's rule kvass was universal. It was at first commonly drunk by peasants in the eastern parts of the country, but eventually the drink spread to the szlachta. One example of this is ''kwas chlebowy sapieżyński kodeński'', an old type of Polish kvass that is still sold as a contemporary brand. Its origins can be traced back to the 1500s, when founded the town of Kodeń
Kodeń is a village in eastern Poland on the Bug River, which forms the border between Poland and Belarus. Administratively, it belongs to Biała Podlaska County in Lublin Voivodeship. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) calle ...
on land granted by the Polish king
Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16th ...
. He then bought the mills and 24 villages of the surrounding areas from their previous landowners. It was then that the taste of kvass became known among the Polish szlachta, who used it for its supposed healing qualities. Throughout the 19th century, kvass remained popular among Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...
who lived in the Congress Poland of Imperial Russia and in Austrian Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...
, especially the inhabitants of rural areas. Up until the 19th century, recipes for local variants of kvass remained well-guarded secrets of families, religious orders, and monasteries.
Production of the beverage in Poland on an industrial scale can be traced back to the more recent interwar period, when the Polish state regained independence as the Second Polish Republic. In interwar Poland, kvass was brewed and sold in mass numbers by magnates of the Polish drinks market like the Varsovian brewery Haberbusch i Schiele or the ''Karpiński'' company. Kvass remained particularly popular in eastern Poland. However, with the collapse of many prewar businesses and much of the Polish industry during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, kvass lost popularity following the aftermath of the war. It also gradually lost favour throughout the 20th century upon the introduction of mass-produced soft drinks and carbonated water onto the Polish market. In the early 21st century kvass experienced a renaissance in Poland due to the heightened interest in healthy diets, natural products, and traditions.
Kvass can be found in some supermarkets and grocery stores where it is known in Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
as ''kwas chlebowy'' (). Commercial bottled versions of the drink are the most common variant, as there are companies that specialise in manufacturing a more modern version of the drink (some variants are manufactured in Poland whilst others are imported from its neighbouring countries, Lithuania and Ukraine being the most popular source).[Gerima dystrybutor kwasu chlebowego w Polsce](_blank)
Gerima – distributor of kvass in Poland. However, old recipes for a traditional version of kvass exist; some of them originate from eastern Poland, others from more central regions include adding honey for flavour. Although commercial kvass is much easier to find in Polish shops, Polish manufacturers of more natural and healthier variants of kvass have become increasingly popular both within and outside of the country's borders. A less healthy alternative of quick to make variants using kvass concentrate can also be purchased in shops. One colloquial Polish name for ''kwas chlebowy'' is ''wiejska oranżada'' ("rural orangeade"). In some Polish villages, such as Zaława
Zaława is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Chlewiska, within Szydłowiec County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Chlewiska, north-west of Szydłowiec, and south of Warsaw
...
and its surroundings, kvass was traditionally produced on every farm.
Latvia
In Latvian, kvass was also called ''dzersis''. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the street vendors disappeared from the streets of Latvia due to new health laws that banned its sale on the street, and economic disruptions forced many kvass factories to close. The Coca-Cola Company moved in and began to quickly dominate the market for soft drinks. In 1998, the local soft drink industry adapted by starting to sell bottled kvass and launching aggressive marketing campaigns. This surge in sales was stimulated by the fact that kvass sold for about half the price of Coca-Cola. In just three years, kvass constituted as much as 30% of the soft drink market in Latvia, while the market share of Coca-Cola fell from 65% to 44%. The Coca-Cola Company had losses in Latvia of about $1 million in 1999 and 2000. Coca-Cola responded by purchasing kvass manufacturers as well as producing kvass at their own soft drink plants.
On 30 September 2010, the Saeima adopted quality and classification requirements for kvass, defining it as "a beverage obtained by fermenting a mixture of kvass wort with a yeast of microorganism cultures to which sugar and other food sources and food additives are added or not added after the fermentation" with a maximum ABV of 1.2 percent, and differentiating it from an unfermented non-alcoholic mixture of grain product extract, water, flavourings, preservatives, and other ingredients, which is designated as a "kvass (malt) beverage".
In 2014 Latvian kvass producers won seven medals at the Russian Beverage exposition in Moscow with Ilgezeem's ''Porter Tanheiser'' kvass winning two gold medals. In 2019, ''Iļģuciema kvass'' ranked second in the Most Loved Latvian Beverage Brand Top, and first in the subsequent 2020 top.
Lithuania
In Lithuania, kvass is known as ''gira'' and is widely available in bottles and draft. First written records of kvass and kvass recipes in Lithuania appear in the 16th century. Many restaurants in Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
make their own kvass', which they sell on the premises. Some brands of mass-produced Lithuanian kvass are also sold on the Polish market. Strictly speaking, ''gira'' can be made from anything fermentable—such as caraway
Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa.
Etymology
The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...
tea, beetroot juice, or berries—but it is made mainly from black bread, or from barley or rye malt.
Estonia
In Estonia, kvass is known as ''kali''. Initially, it was made from either brewer's spent grain
Brewer's spent grain (BSG) or draff is a food waste that is a byproduct of the brewing industry that makes up 85 percent of brewing waste. BSG is obtained as a mostly solid residue after wort production in the brewing process. The product is ...
or wort
Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort als ...
left to ferment in a closed container, but later special kvass bread (''kaljaleib'') or industrially produced malt concentrate was started to be used. Nowadays, ''kali'' generally is industrially produced with the use of pasteurization, the addition of preservatives
A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by ...
and artificial carbonation
Carbonation is the chemical reaction of carbon dioxide to give carbonates, bicarbonates, and carbonic acid. In chemistry, the term is sometimes used in place of carboxylation, which refers to the formation of carboxylic acids.
In inorganic ch ...
.
Finland
In Finland, a fermented drink made from a mixture of rye flour and rye malt, which in parts of Eastern Finland
Eastern Finland ( fi, Itä-Suomen lääni, sv, Östra Finlands län) was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2009. It bordered the provinces of Oulu, Western Finland and Southern Finland. It also bordered Russia to the east.
History
On Septemb ...
was heated in the oven, was very common. It was called ''kalja'' (which can also be used to refer to small beer
Small beer (also known as small ale or table beer) is a lager or ale that contains a lower amount of alcohol by volume than most others, usually between 0.5% and 2.8%. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Eu ...
) or ''vaasa'' (in Eastern Finnish), while nowadays the drink is often known as ''kotikalja'' () and is available in many work canteens, gas stations, and lower-end restaurants.
Traditionally, ''kalja'' was usually made in households once a week from a mixture of malted and unmalted rye grains. Other grains, such as oats or barley, were also sometimes used and, occasionally, leftover potatoes or pieces of bread were added as well. Everything was mixed with water in a metal cauldron or a clay pot and kept warm in the oven or by the stove for at least six hours for the mixture to darken and sweeten. Sometimes, the grain solids were filtered out through lautering. In Eastern Finland, the mixture was formed into large loaves and briefly baked for the crust to turn brown. The porridge or pieces of the malt bread were mixed into a wooden cask with water and fermented for one or two days with a previous batch, a sourdough starter, spontaneously or in more recent times with commercial baker's yeast. In the early 20th century, with sugar becoming more readily available, it started replacing the malting process and modern ''kalja'' is made from dark rye malt, sugar and baker's yeast.
Sweden
Kvass was also made in Sweden, where it was known as ' (), although it was very likely limited only to areas where rye bread was the standard bread as opposed to crispbread
Crispbread ( sv, knäckebröd (lit. crack bread), ''hårt bröd'' (hard bread), ''hårdbröd'', ''spisbröd'' (stove bread), ''knäcke'', da, knækbrød, no, knekkebrød, fi, näkkileipä or näkkäri, et, näkileib, is, hrökkbrauð, fo, k ...
, which was more common in Western Sweden and did not stale. ' was still being made in Öland
Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...
farms up until 1935.
China
In mid 19th century, kvass was introduced in Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
, where it became known as ''kavas'' and eventually became one of the region's signature drinks. It is usually consumed cold together with barbecue. In 1900, Russian merchant Ivan Churin founded Harbin Churin Food in Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...
, offering kvass and other specialties and by 2009 the company was already producing 5,000 tons of kvass a year making up 90% of the local market. In 2011, it moved its kvass factory to Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...
increasing its sales to 20,000 tons in the first year.
Elsewhere
In the UK, following the influx of immigrants due to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union
The largest expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population took place on 1 May 2004.
The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries (sometimes referred to as the "A10" countries): ...
, a number of stores selling cuisine and beverages from Eastern Europe were established, many of them stock kvass. In 2019, kvass began being produced domestically in the United Kingdom. In recent years, kvass has also become more popular in Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
.
Nutritional composition
Naturally fermented kvass contains 5.9%±0.02 carbohydrates, of which 5.7%±0.02 are sugars (mostly fructose, glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, u ...
and maltose), as well as 0.71±0.09, 1.28±0.12, and 18.14±0.48 mg/100 g of thiamine
Thiamine, also known as thiamin and vitamin B1, is a vitamin, an essential micronutrient, that cannot be made in the body. It is found in food and commercially synthesized to be a dietary supplement or medication. Phosphorylated forms of thi ...
, riboflavin and niacin
Niacin, also known as nicotinic acid, is an organic compound and a form of vitamin B3, an essential human nutrient. It can be manufactured by plants and animals from the amino acid tryptophan. Niacin is obtained in the diet from a variet ...
respectively. In addition to that, 19 different aroma volatile compounds have also been identified in naturally fermented kvass, most notably 4-penten-2-ol (10.05×107 PAU), which has a fruity odour, carvone
Carvone is a member of a family of chemicals called terpenoids. Carvone is found naturally in many essential oils, but is most abundant in the oils from seeds of caraway (''Carum carvi''), spearmint (''Mentha spicata''), and dill.
Uses
Both c ...
(2.28×107 PAU) originating from caraway
Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa.
Etymology
The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...
fruits used as an ingredient in rye bread, and ethyl octanoate (1.03×107 PAU), which has an odour of fruit and fat.
Traditional kvass made from rye wholemeal bread has been found to have on average two times higher dietary fibre
Dietary fiber (in British English fibre) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical composition, and can be grouped generally by th ...
content, 60% higher antioxidant activity (due to the addition of caramel and citric acid
Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in ...
to the bread) and three times lower reducing sugar
A reducing sugar is any sugar that is capable of acting as a reducing agent. In an alkaline solution, a reducing sugar forms some aldehyde or ketone, which allows it to act as a reducing agent, for example in Benedict's reagent. In such a reacti ...
content than industrially produced kvass.
Historically, alcohol by volume (ABV) of kvass varied depending on the ingredients, microbial flora, as well as temperature and length of fermentation, but nowadays it is usually not higher than 1.5%. The wide availability and consumption of kvass, including by children of all ages, together with the lacking indication of ABV for kvass on the labels and in advertisements has been named a possible contributor to chronic alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...
in the former Soviet Union
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
.
Use
Apart from drinking, kvass is also used by families (especially the poor ones) as the basis for many dishes. Traditional cold summertime soups of Russian cuisine, such as okroshka
Okróshka (russian: окро́шка) is a cold soup of Russian origin and probably originated in the Volga region.
The classic soup is a mix of mostly raw vegetables (like cucumbers, radishes and spring onions), boiled potatoes, eggs, cooked ...
, botvinya
Russian cuisine is a collection of the different dishes and cooking traditions of the Russian people as well as a list of culinary products popular in Russia, with most names being known since pre-Soviet times, coming from all kinds of social ...
and tyurya
Tyurya, sometimes known as murtsovka, is a traditional bread soup in the Russian cuisine, sometimes considered a variant of okroshka. It consists of chunks of bread, often stale or semi-stale, or dried/baked into ''sukhari'' biscuits/hardtac ...
, are based on kvass.
Cultural references
The name of Kvasir
In Norse mythology, Kvasir (Old Norse: ) was a being born of the saliva of the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods. Extremely wise, Kvasir traveled far and wide, teaching and spreading knowledge. This continued until the dwarfs Fjalar and Gala ...
, a wise being in Norse mythology, is possibly related to kvass.
There is a Russian expression "Перебиваться с хлеба на квас" (literally "to clamber from bread to kvass"), which means "to live from hand to mouth" or to "scrape by" referring to the frugal practice amongst the poor peasants of making kvass from stale leftovers of rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from whea ...
. Another kvass-related term in Russian is "" (квасной патриотизм) dating back to a 1823 letter by the Russian poet Pyotr Vyazemsky
Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky ( rus, Пëтр Андре́евич Вя́земский, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐnˈdrʲejɪvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈvʲæzʲɪmskʲɪj; 23 July 1792 – 22 November 1878) was a Russian Imperial poet, a leading personality of ...
, where he defines it as "unqualified praise of everything that is your own".
In the Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
, a number of traditional sayings that reference ''kwas chlebowy'' exist. There is also an old Polish folk rhyming song. It shows the history of kvass in the country as having been drunk by generations of Polish reapers as a thirst-quenching beverage used during periods of hard work during the harvest season, long before it became popular as a medicinal drink among the szlachta. The words of the song go as follows:
In the Polish village of Zaława
Zaława is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Chlewiska, within Szydłowiec County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Chlewiska, north-west of Szydłowiec, and south of Warsaw
...
, there is a customary game known as ''wulkan'' ("volcano") that is associated with the beverage. The fermentation of sugars makes kvass slightly carbonated, thus when shaken or heated it can cause the liquid to suddenly and rapidly rise out of an open vessel. Playing ''wulkan'' consists of vigorously shaking a bottle of kvass shortly before handing it to someone else who is going to drink it; the sudden "shooting out" of the beverage onto the person opening the bottle is a source of entertainment for the youth of Zaława and a well-known prank during regional fesitivities.
In Tolstoy's ''War and Peace
''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...
'', French soldiers are aware of kvass on entering Moscow, enjoying it but referring to it as "pig's lemonade". In Sholem Aleichem
)
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Pereiaslav, Russian Empire
, death_date =
, death_place = New York City, U.S.
, occupation = Writer
, nationality =
, period =
, genre = Novels, sh ...
's ''Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son
''Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son'', subtitled ''The Writings of an Orphan Boy'' (מאָטל פּייסי דעם חזנס; כתבֿים פֿון אַ ייִנגל אַ יתום — ''motl peysi dem khazns; ksovim fun a yingl a yosem''), is the last n ...
'', diluted kvass is the focus of one of Motl's older brother's get-rich-quick scheme
A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to obtain high rates of return for a small investment. The term "get rich quick" has been used to describe shady investments since at least the early 20th century.
Most schemes create an impression that part ...
s.
See also
* Borș (bran)
Borș is either (1) a liquid ingredient used in Romanian and Moldovan cuisine or (2) the sour soup (''ciorbă'') typically made with this ingredient.
The ingredient borș consists of water in which wheat or barley bran, sometimes sugar beet o ...
* Boza
Boza, also bosa, is a fermented beverage originating from the Middle East and made in parts of Southeast Europe, Central and Western Asia, Caucasus and North Africa. It is a malt drink made by fermenting various grains: wheat or millet in Alban ...
* Brottrunk
* Chicha
* Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
* Podpiwek
* Pruno
__NOTOC__
Pruno, or prison wine, is an alcoholic beverage variously made from apples, oranges, fruit cocktail, fruit juices, hard candy, sugar, high fructose syrup, and possibly other ingredients, including crumbled bread. Bread is incorrectly ...
* Rejuvelac
* Rivella
Rivella is a soft drink from Switzerland, created by Robert Barth in 1952, which is produced from milk whey, and therefore includes ingredients such as lactose, lactic acid and minerals. Other than Switzerland, it is sold in several other countr ...
References
External links
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Fermented drinks
Rye-based drinks
Soft drinks
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Chinese drinks
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