When you're thirsty, what do you think of first? It is estimated that in addition to boiled water, the most able to solve this problem is a variety of refreshing drinks, and each country has its own beverage type, such as the United States Coke, Germany's Fanta, Japan's Kelbis, and the popular Kvass in Eastern European countries.
Many people have mixed reviews of Gwas, and some have even listed him as "one of the hardest drinks in the world." But if you look back at the history of Kvass, you'll find that this bland drink contains many advantages and benefits that you can't imagine.
Kwass, also known as kvas (квас), literally means "fermented". As a popular national drink in Eastern European countries, Kvass has a very important place in the local area. According to historical records, as early as the ancient Rus' period, Kvass has appeared, and its long history is comparable to that of wheat beer in Egypt, liquor in China and corn drinks in the Americas.
Legend has it that during the ancient Rus' period, a tavern owner collected black bread pieces and bread crumbs that diners left on the table and used them to ferment wine in his spare time. The resulting wine was found to be not only low in alcohol, but also with a hint of sweetness, so the boss decided to sell it as a drink, which became a hit. This is thought to be the origin of Gwas.
During the Kievan Rus' period, GWas first appeared in historical documents and reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when each person consumed 200 to 250 litres of gvas per person per year, both for the poor and the supreme ruling class. And at that time, Kvass has already derived a number of flavors, and there are Kvass that belong to the characteristics of the region in different regions.
A stall selling Gervas in the 18th century
During the reign of Peter the Great, Gwass had become a popular relief for all classes. A 19th-century source indicates that in some areas where drought has strained water, monks and farmers consume large quantities of kvas for alternative drinking water, which also causes a serious shortage of KVA in domestic stockpiles.
In addition to being drinkable directly, kvass can also be used as an ingredient in some Russian dishes, such as Russian frozen soup okroshka, bread soup tyurya, vegetable cold soup botvinya, wheat porridge putra and so on. These traditional Eastern European dishes are made with more or less gervass to taste.
Add the Russian frozen soup from Kvass
After the 19th century, the Kvass brewing industry became a common industry and began to appear throughout Eastern Europe. Since then, Gwas has been given many other meanings, such as peter the Great, when some conservatives wanted to abandon the modernization reform program and reaffirm the idea of governing the country with the old Tsarist patriarchal system, which was ridiculed as "Gwas patriotism"; during the Soviet period, Gwas gradually evolved from a well-known national drink to a symbol of privilege.
Today, in all parts of Eastern Europe, the production of Kvass has a perfect scale and industrial system, from the original seasonal beverage to the ordinary canned and bottled beverage, which can be sold at any time of the year.
To manufacture Kvass, each region has its own different manufacturing methods. The most critical ingredient is the well-known black bread, and sometimes rye, wheat and barley become the main ingredients for fermentation. Early manufacturing methods were more complex, mixing malt, rye or wheat with flour and brown breadcrumbs in proportion, and then brewing them in boiling water to form a fermented dough.
To make, the dough needs to be placed at medium or low temperatures for a few hours for the maltase to break down the starch in the flour and breadcrumbs. The dough is then heat treated, followed by the addition of a diluted malt paste, yeast and flavoring in warm water, and the resulting wort is fermented in a warm place for several days before being filtered.
Now the method of making it has become much easier, the brown bread is cut into small pieces, roasted or fried in the fire, added sugar and yeast, and left in the shade for a period of time, in order to make the kvass have different kinds of flavors, it is generally added to the fruit, dried fruit and even birch sap. The canned kvass manufactured by enterprises are similar to carbonated beverages, generally made of malt, sugar, and fruit additives.
In terms of health, because it is fermented with grains such as brown bread and rye, the finished product of kvass has great nutritional value. For example, yeast and lactic acid bacteria after fermentation, will make the kvas contain a lot of lactic acid, acetic acid and carbon dioxide, can promote metabolism and help digestion, for the preference for greasy food In Eastern Europeans is definitely a health necessity; in addition, there are many free amino acids, minerals, vitamin B1, vitamin e, has a strong effect of stabilizing blood pressure and regulating blood lipids.
Because of the fermentation, the safety of KVAS is also a problem that cannot be ignored. For example, before making, the hygiene of the utensils must be strictly guaranteed, and the water that dilutes the malt must be boiled, otherwise after the production of lactic acid, it is easy to appear fermented butyric acid, and drinking such a kvass will cause serious gastrointestinal discomfort; and if it is not properly preserved, the kvass is easy to deteriorate, producing mold to cause health hazards, and the taste will become sour and not suitable for drinking.
During the Soviet period, Kvass was very popular throughout the country as the national drink, and for a time the streets were filled with local people who drank Kvass. But after entering the 90s, due to the impact of other soft drinks such as Coca-Cola, Kvass once had a dilemma of disappearing. Later, under the impetus of the people and the government, many local enterprises set up KVAS manufacturing companies, and adopted new processes to ensure the original taste, while learning from foreign drinks to add a lot of innovative new flavors.
In addition to being a drink, Kvass also has some cultural connotations throughout Europe, such as in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and other places, "kvas" can exist as a person's surname; in Norse mythology, the name of the wise kvasir is suspected to be related to Kvass. The Russian poet Pushkin also left the words in his book Yevgeny Onegin: "They consume the kvas as air."
There is a sentence in Russian that reads "Перебиваться с хлеба на квас", which literally means "climbing from bread to the kvas". However, in practical interpretation, this sentence generally describes the meaning of a family or individual's income and expenditure barely reaching equilibrium. Because in ancient times, when poor families made kvass, they were made from the detritus of black bread, so they represented the meaning of poverty.
"Перебиваться с хлеба на квас"的 illustration
In addition to the widespread popularity of KVAS in Eastern Europe, in the context of the development of world trade, Kvass has also gone to other corners of the world and begun to take root in many countries. At the end of the 19th century, some declining Russian aristocrats brought this drink into it, and soon after the process of brewing Kvas began to appear in xinjiang's Ili River Valley, Altay, Tacheng, Heilongjiang And other places. The fusion of traditional kvass with other ethnic drinks has also evolved into many new flavors and compounds.
As a traditional drink with a rich cultural atmosphere, Kvass not only fully reflects its own nutritional value, but also fully integrates culture and art with drinks. In the end, an ordinary national drink was successfully promoted to every corner of the world, and while winning the popularity of consumers, the concept of health was also deeply rooted in everyone's heart.
Resources
1. The Little Encyclopedia of the USSR
2. Lonely Planet: Eastern Europe