Lithuania and Denmark Drinks

On our first food tradition post we are going to Lithuania and Denmark to take a look at a couple of common Christmas drinks.

Denmark is located in Northern Europe and consists of the peninsula of Jutland along with 443 named islands (74 are inhabited); many of the islands are connected by bridges! The largest cities are Copenhagen (the capital), Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense. Fun fact, Lego was created in Denmark in 1932 by a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen who hailed from Billund, Denmark.

Glogg is a traditional Christmas drink from Denmark. It is a spiced mulled wine that is served warm. Originally it was called Glogi and was consumed by messengers and postmen who travelled long and far on horseback or on skis in the very cold weather.

Traditional Glogg is made by firstly boiling water and then adding spices to it. Common spices are cloves, cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, and cardamom. It is then simmered for a few minutes and then strained and after that blackcurrant juice and wine or other clear spirits are added to it. Often raisins and almonds are added to this drink as well.

Check out this recipe...

1 bottle of red wine

½ cup of sugar

2 tbsp. of orange zest

2 tbsp. of raisins

1 tbsp. of cardamom

2 tbsp. of ginger

1 stick of cinnamon

8 cloves

1 ½ cups of bourbon or vodka

Combine all of the ingredients in a large pot. Heat to 175 degrees Fahrenheit and simmer for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let it stand for 1 hour.

Strain the spices out and add 1 extra tsp. of raisins. Garnish with an orange slice.

Lithuania is located in the Baltic region of Europe. It is located on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea and boarders Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and the Kaliningrad region of Russia. It has lots of rolling hills, forests, rivers, and streams. It has 108 km of Baltic seashore with many sandy beaches that attract lots of tourists. A couple fun facts about Lithuania, basketball is the most popular sport in the country, Lithuania has one of the oldest languages in the world today, and every St. Patrick’s Day the river Vilnia is dyed bright Emerald green!

Poppy milk is a sweet warm Lithuanian Christmas drink usually drunk with holiday dinner. It is made with two cups of poppy seeds that are soaked in hot water for a day or so until the seeds become soft. Change the water over this time. Crush the seeds in the food processor until a white milky liquid appears. Add some cool water and then strain the seeds and crush them over again. Do this quite a few times to get a good concentrated poppy milk flavour. Dilute the concentrate the you make with some cold boiled water and then finally add some honey or sugar to get the sweet flavour of your choice.