Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Sekanjabin
An ancient Persian sweet-and-sour syrup of sugar, vinegar, and mint, diluted with iced water, cooling and appetite-reviving.
Iranian · easy · serves 8
prep 5 min · cook 30 min
~308 cal · 0g protein · 77g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 77g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sekanjabin is one of Persia's oldest drinks, an oxymel, a syrup of honey or sugar and vinegar, that back many centuries and appears in classical Persian medical and culinary texts. Its beauty is its balance: the sharpness of vinegar and the sweetness of sugar, married with a strong steeping of fresh mint.
The syrup is boiled until thick, steeped with mint, and then kept, to be diluted with cold water (and often more fresh mint) whenever a cool drink is wanted. Classically it is served with crisp romaine lettuce leaves or grated cucumber for dipping into the syrup, a refreshing sweet-and-sour ritual in itself.
It is the quintessential cooler of a Persian summer, long valued as a digestive and a remedy for heat as much as a pleasure. Reviving, tangy, and mint-cool, sekanjabin is an ancient drink that still tastes perfectly at home on a hot Tehran afternoon.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
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
US
Metric
Serves 8
3 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
a large handful fresh mint
Instructions
1
Dissolve the sugar in the water and simmer 20 minutes into a light syrup.
2
Stir in the vinegar and simmer 10 minutes more until slightly thickened.
3
Take off the heat, submerge the mint, and steep until cool, then remove the mint and bottle the syrup.
4
To serve, mix a few tablespoons of syrup into a glass of iced water and stir.
Persian summer tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tehran. Tehran cooks refined Persian food, herb-stuffed stews (khoresh), saffron rice with golden tahdig, and delicate kebabs. Dried lime, pomegranate, and fresh herbs perfume the capital's table.
🗺️
Iran. Sourness in Persian cooking usually comes dried. Limoo amani, limes boiled in brine and left to dry until they are hollow and black, are pierced and dropped whole into stews, and the same dried lime runs through Gulf cooking further south. The year turns on Nowruz, when the spring table calls for sabzi polo mahi, herb rice with fish.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Iran
Ghormeh SabziIran’s beloved herb stew: mountains of sautéed greens, kidney beans, dried limes, and lamb over saffron rice.
AdasiA warming Persian lentil breakfast stew spiced with turmeric, cumin, and cinnamon.
Ash-e ReshtehOne of Iran’s best-loved thick soups: legumes and a mountain of herbs simmered with reshteh noodles, finished with tangy kashk, sizzled mint, and caramelized onion.
Browse all Iran recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Iran meal
Ash-e ReshtehDinner
Sholeh ZardDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Sekanjabin?
An ancient Persian sweet-and-sour syrup of sugar, vinegar, and mint, diluted with iced water, cooling and appetite-reviving.
Where does Sekanjabin come from?
Sekanjabin is a Iranian dish from Tehran, Iran.
Can Sekanjabin be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sekanjabin recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sekanjabin 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 count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), 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 Sekanjabin take to make?
About 35 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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