Kvass is a fermented, cereal-based, low-alcoholic beverage of cloudy appearance and sweet-sour taste.
Kvass originates from northeastern Europe, where grain production was considered insufficient for beer to become a daily drink. The first written mention of kvass is found in Primary Chronicle, describing the celebration of Vladimir the Great's
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 at room temperature. In industrial methods, kvass is produced from wort concentrate combined with various grain mixtures. It is a drink known in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Georgia, Poland,
Terminology
The word
kvass is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European base ('to become sour').
In English it was first mentioned in a text around 1553 as
quass.
[Kvass in Oxford English Dictionary. c 1553 Chancelour Bk. Emp. Russia in Hakluyt Voy. (1886) III. 51 Their drinke is like our peny Ale, and is called Quass.] Nowadays, the name of the drink is almost the same in most languages: in
Polish language:
kwas chlebowy (, to differentiate it from kwas, 'acid', originally from kwaśny, 'sour'); Belarusian: квас,
; Russian language: квас, ; Ukrainian: квас/хлібний квас/сирівець, ;
Latvian language:
kvass; Romanian:
cvas; Hungarian:
kvasz;
Serbian language:
квас/kvas;
Mandarin Chinese: 格瓦斯/克瓦斯, ; Eastern Finnish:
vaasa. Non-
include Estonian
kali,
Finnish language kalja, Georgian ბურახი,
;
Latvian language dzersis (), Latgalian dzyra (, similar to Lithuanian gira), Lithuanian
gira (, similar to Latvian
dzira), and
Swedish language bröddricka ().
Production
In the traditional method, either dried rye bread or a combination of
rye flour 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 are added to the extract and fermented for 12 hours at . Alternatively, rye flour is boiled, mixed with rye malt, sugar, and baker's yeast and then fermented for 12 hours at .
The simplest industrial method produces kvass from a wort 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 pasteurization to stabilize it. After that, the wort is pumped into a fermentation tank, where baker's yeast and lactic acid bacteria culture is added, and the solution is fermented for 12–24 hours at . Only around 1% of the extract is fermented out into ethanol, carbon dioxide, and lactic acid. 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 now, the vast majority of industrially produced kvass is filled and sold in 1–3-litre plastic bottles and has a shelf life of 4–6 weeks.
Kvass is usually 0.5–1.0% alcohol by weight,
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 grain production is thought to have been insufficient for beer to become a daily drink.
It has been known among the
Early Slavs since the 10th century.
Possibly invented in the Kievan Rus' and known there since at least the 10th century, kvass has become one of the symbols of East Slavic cuisine.
The first written mention of kvass is found in the
Primary Chronicle, describing the celebration of Vladimir the Great's baptism in 988, when kvass along with
mead and food was given out to the citizens of
Kiev.
Kvass-making remained a daily household activity well into the 19th century.
In the second half of the 19th century, with military engagement, increasing industrialization, and large-scale projects, such as the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway creating a growing need to supply large numbers of people with foodstuff for extended periods of time, kvass became commercialized; more than 150 kvass varieties, such as apple, pear, mint, lemon, chicory, raspberry, and cherry were recorded. As commercial kvass producers began selling it in barrels on the streets, domestic kvass-making started to decline.
In the 1890s, the first scientific studies into the production of kvass were conducted in Kiev, and in the 1960s, commercial mass production technology of kvass was further developed by chemists in Moscow.
By country
Russia
Although the massive flood of western soft drinks after the fall of the
USSR, such as
Coca-Cola and
Pepsi, 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 the famous Coca-Cola drink. For example, the Russian company Nikola has promoted its brand of kvass with an advertising campaign emphasizing "
Cocacolonization." Moscow-based Business Analytica reported in 2008 that bottled kvass sales had tripled since 2005 and estimated that
per capita kvass consumption 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's 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 kvass drinkers say no to cola-nisation. The New Zealand Herald. BUSINESS; General. 12 July 2008. ]
Market shares for Russia (2014)
Belarus
Belarus has several breweries producing kvass:
Alivaria Brewery, , and . It also has a variety of kvass tasting and entertainment festivals.
The largest show takes place in the city of
Lida.
File:2022-09-17 Белы квас Аліварыя.jpg|Belarusian white kvass, produced by Alivaria Brewery (Minsk, 2022)
Poland
Kvass may have appeared in Poland as early as the 10th century,
it quickly became a popular beverage thanks to its easy and cheap method of production as well as its thirst-quenching and digestion-aiding qualities.
By the time of
Jogaila'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 on land granted by the Polish king. He then bought the mills and 24 villages of the surrounding areas from their previous landowners. Then, 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
Polish people who lived in the
Congress Poland of
Imperial Russia and in
Austrian Poland, especially the inhabitants of rural areas.
Up until the 19th century, recipes for local variants of kvass remained well-guarded secrets of families,
, and monasteries.
The beverage production 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 Warsaw brewery Haberbusch i Schiele or the Karpiński company.
Kvass can be found in some supermarkets and grocery stores, where it is known in Polish language as kwas chlebowy (). Commercial bottled versions of the drink are the most common variant, as some companies 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 Gerima – distributor of kvass in Poland. ]
Latvia
In
Latvian language, 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. Economic disruptions forced many kvass factories to close. The Coca-Cola Company moved in and began quickly dominating the soft drink market. In 1998, the local soft drink industry adapted by selling 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 and producing kvass at their own soft drink plants.
On 30 September 2010, the Saeima (parliament) 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.
Lithuania
In Lithuania, kvass is known as gira and is widely available in bottles and drafts. The first written records of kvass and kvass recipes in
Lithuania appeared in the 16th century.
Many restaurants in
Vilnius 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 tea,
beetroot juice, or berries—but it is made mainly from black bread, or barley or rye malt.
Estonia
In Estonia, kvass is known as kali. Initially, it was made from either brewer's spent grain or
wort left to ferment in a closed container, but later, special kvass bread (kaljaleib) or industrially produced malt concentrate started to be used. Nowadays,
kali generally is industrially produced with the use of
pasteurization, the addition of
preservatives, and artificial
carbonation.
Finland
In Finland, a fermented drink made from a mixture of rye flour and rye malt was ubiquitous in parts of
Eastern Finland and was heated in the oven. It was called kalja (which can also be used to refer to
small beer) 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; occasionally, leftover potatoes or pieces of bread were added. 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
bröddricka (). However, it was very likely limited only to areas where rye bread was the standard bread as opposed to
crispbread, which was more common in Western Sweden and did not go stale.
Bröddricka was still being made in Öland farms up until 1935.
China
In the mid-19th century, kvass was introduced in
Xinjiang, 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
Harbin, offering kvass and other specialities, 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, increasing its sales to 20,000 tons in the first year.
Elsewhere
Following the influx of immigrants in the UK due to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, shops selling cuisine and beverages from Central and Eastern Europe were established, many of which stock imported (primarily pasteurised) kvass. As a result, since then a number of different flavours of not-pasteurised kvass, fermented using sourdough starter culture, have also become available in the UK in 2023.
In recent years, kvass has also become more popular in
Serbia.
In 2017 Biotic Ferments started to produce beet or carrot kvass in California
Nutritional composition
Naturally fermented kvass contains 5.9%±0.02 carbohydrates, of which 5.7%±0.02 are sugars (mostly
fructose,
glucose, and
maltose), as well as 0.71±0.09, 1.28±0.12, and 18.14±0.48 mg/100 g of
thiamine,
riboflavin, and niacin respectively. In addition to that, 19 different aroma volatile compounds have also been identified in naturally fermented kvass, most notably 4-penten-2-ol (10.05×10
7 PAU), which has a fruity odour;
carvone (2.28×10
7 PAU) originating from
caraway fruits used as an ingredient in rye bread; and
ethyl octanoate (1.03×10
7 PAU), which has an odour of fruit and fat.
Traditional kvass made from rye wholemeal bread has been found to have, on average, twice the dietary fibre content, 60% more antioxidant activity (due to the addition of caramel and citric acid to the bread), and three times less reducing sugars 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,
Use
Apart from drinking, kvass is also used by families as the basis for many dishes.
Traditional cold summertime soups of
Russian cuisine, such as
okroshka,
, and
tyurya, are based on kvass.
Cultural references
The name of
Kvasir, a wise being in
Norse mythology, is possibly related to kvass.
[Александр Николаевич Афанасьев (1865–1869). Поэтические воззрения славян на природу. Директ-медиа (2014) том. 1, стр. 260. (Alexander Afanasyev. The Poetic Outlook of Slavs about Nature, 1865–1869; reprinted 2014, p. 260; in Russian)][Karl Joseph Simrock. Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie mit Einschluss der nordischen, 1st edition (1855), p. 272 or 2nd edition (1864), p. 244 . Bonn, Marcus.][Jooseppi Julius Mikkola. Bidrag till belysning af slaviska lånord i nordiska språk. Arkiv för nordisk filologi, vol. 19 (1903), p. 331 .][Georges Dumézil (1974). Gods of the Ancient Northmen, p. 21 . University of California Press. ][Jan de Vries (2000). Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, p. 336 . 4th edition, Leiden (in German)]
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'[Svyatoslav Loginov, "We Used to Bake Blini..." ("Бывало пекли блины...") ] Another kvass-related term in Russian is "" (квасной патриотизм) dating back to an 1823 letter by the Russian poet Pyotr Vyazemsky who defined it as "unqualified praise of everything that is your own".
In the Polish language, several traditional sayings that reference kwas chlebowy exist.
In the Polish village of Zaława, 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 festivities.
In Tolstoy's War and Peace, French soldiers are aware of kvass on entering Moscow, enjoying it but referring to it as "pig's lemonade".[ War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy. Book 10, chapter 29, Pennsylvania State University translation.] In Sholem Aleichem's Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son, diluted kvass is the focus of one of Motl's older brother's get-rich-quick schemes.
See also
External links
