Europe → Finland → North Karelia
🥤 DRINK

Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead)

A lightly fizzy, barely alcoholic Vappu drink of brown and white sugar, lemon and a pinch of yeast, bottled with raisins that rise when it is ready.
Finnish · easy · serves 16
prep 20 min · cook 10 min · plus 2.5 days hands-off time
~111 cal · 0g protein · 29g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 28g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
Bottles and a glass of cloudy golden sima with raisins floating at the top, next to a lemon and tippaleipä funnel cakes
AI-generated illustration
Sima is the drink of Vappu, the Finnish May Day and Walpurgis Night on 30 April and 1 May, when the whole country goes outdoors to picnic in white student caps. It is made at home in the days before, and every family has its own proportions.
It is called a mead, and mead did come to Finland in the 1500s from the Hanseatic ports of Lübeck and Riga. But the modern drink, lightly and made with sugar rather than honey, took shape in the 1700s, when versions appeared in household cookbooks such as those of the Swedish writer Cajsa Warg. In the 1900s it became tied to the labour movement and to the Vappu festivities.
The fermentation is kept deliberately short, so sima stays sweet, gently fizzy and very low in alcohol, and children drink it too. Brown sugar gives it a golden colour and a caramel note, and lemon keeps it fresh. A few raisins go into each bottle: they swell with carbon dioxide and float to the top when the sima is ready. It is drunk cold with tippaleipä, the tangled funnel cakes, and munkki doughnuts.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.

Make it yours

✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.

Ingredients

Serves 16
  • 2 lemons, scrubbed
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 4 l water
  • 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
  • 4 tsp sugar, for bottling, about 1 tsp per litre bottle
  • 2 tbsp raisins, for bottling, a few in each bottle

Instructions

  • 1
    Pare the yellow zest from the lemons with a peeler, then cut away the white pith and slice the lemons thinly, removing the pips.
    ✎ Chef’s note
    The pith makes sima bitter, so leave it out.
  • 2
    Put the white and brown sugar and the zest in a large, clean pot or food-safe bucket. Bring half the water to the boil, pour it over and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
  • 3
    Add the rest of the water, cold, and the lemon slices. Leave until it is only lukewarm, around body temperature.
  • 4
    Stir the yeast into a small cup of the liquid until dissolved, then stir it into the pot.
    ✎ Chef’s note
    Very little yeast is used on purpose: sima should ferment gently and stay sweet and low in alcohol.
  • 5
    Cover with a clean cloth and leave to ferment at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours, until tiny bubbles rise to the surface.
  • 6
    Strain the sima into clean bottles, leaving a little room at the top. Add about 1 tsp sugar and a few raisins to each bottle and close them.
    ✎ Chef’s note
    Swing-top bottles are ideal. Open them briefly once a day to release pressure while the sima is at room temperature.
  • 7
    Leave the bottles at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, until the raisins float up to the top, then move them to the fridge. Serve well chilled within a week.
    ✎ Chef’s note
    In a cool room it takes closer to a week. Once the raisins rise, the sima is ready.
Finnish Vappu (May Day) tradition.

Ratings & reviews

Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.

🌏 While it simmers, know your destination

📍
North Karelia. This is the Finnish remainder of a region divided by war. Karelians displaced in the Second World War were resettled right across the country and took their cooking with them, which is how a pie from a border province ended up in every Finnish supermarket, holding an EU protected name.
🗺️
Finland. The Karelian pie has held a protected EU name since 2003: a thin rye crust crimped around barley or rice porridge, baked hot and fast, and eaten with munavoi, butter mashed with chopped boiled egg. It belongs to Karelia as a historical region rather than to modern Finland alone, which is part of why the recognition mattered.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.

More from Finland

Karjalanpiirakka (Karelian Pies)Little rye-crusted boats filled with creamy rice porridge, brushed with butter and topped with egg butter.
Hernekeitto (Finnish Pea Soup)A thick, slow-simmered soup of dried peas and smoked pork seasoned with marjoram, Finland's traditional Thursday soup, served with mustard.
Pannukakku (Finnish Oven Pancake)A single thick, custardy pancake baked in a hot buttered pan until puffed and golden, cut in squares and eaten with jam and berries.
Browse all Finland recipes →

Good to know

You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.

Make it a Finland meal

Karjalanpaisti (Karelian Hot Pot)Dinner
MustikkapiirakkaDessert

Similar dishes from around the world

Biarozavik (Belarusian Fermented Birch Sap)Belarus
Boza (Bulgarian Millet Boza)Bulgaria
LimoncelloItaly
Socată (Romanian Fermented Elderflower Drink)Romania
Ginger BeerAntigua and Barbuda
Tan (Armenian Herbed Yogurt Drink)Armenia
Drinks
Drinks of the World

Frequently asked questions

What is Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead)?

A lightly fizzy, barely alcoholic Vappu drink of brown and white sugar, lemon and a pinch of yeast, bottled with raisins that rise when it is ready.

Where does Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead) come from?

Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead) is a Finnish dish from North Karelia, Finland.

Can Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

This Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.

Is Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead) safe for people with food allergies?

Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.

How long does Sima (Finnish May Day Lemon Mead) take to make?

About 2.5 days in all: 20 minutes prep and 10 minutes cooking, plus 2.5 days of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 16.

Get the Sunday Spin

One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.