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The Fabled Pour
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Ukraine

I have one sourced drink connected to Ukraine. The label on each card says how: where it began, what the country is known for, what people drink there, or where the origin is disputed.

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Ukraine on the world map. Boundaries are generalized Natural Earth data.

Drinks of Ukraine

Signature drinks and regional ones, with the evidence behind each. A drink marked non-alcoholic has no alcohol in the traditional serve.

  • Illustration of Varenukha: deep amber-brown, clear, with faint steam, in a small ceramic cup.

    Varenukha

    Poltava and central Ukraine

    PopularRegional drink

    A warm spiced vodka made by baking dried fruit, honey and spices in vodka in a sealed pot in a low oven, then straining it. One recipe bakes it for about five hours at low heat. It is served slightly warm, in small cups when restaurants offer it.

    Sunheron places it in Poltava and says it is traditionally served on Christmas Eve and at weddings. A Middlebury Bulgakov resource says the name means boiled and that it was a favored drink of the Cossacks. Wikipedia's horilka page names varenukha as a baked preparation in a pot sealed with bread dough.

    Made with: horilka or vodka, dried apples, dried pears, prunes, honey, cinnamon, ginger, pepper.

    Confidence: mediumEvidence: sunheron.com (opens in a new tab), cr.middlebury.edu (opens in a new tab), en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)

Map data: Natural Earth, public domain.