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🥤 DRINK

Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur)

Honey and warm spices simmered in water, then mixed with vodka and left to infuse into an amber liqueur, sipped warm on winter nights.
Lithuanian · easy · serves 20
prep 15 min · cook 20 min · plus 12 h hands-off time
~155 cal · 0g protein · 18g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 17g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Small glasses of amber honey liqueur beside a bottle, a honey jar and whole spices
AI-generated illustration
Krupnikas is Lithuania's honey liqueur: a sweet, amber spirit of honey and spices that families make at home before the winter holidays and give away in bottles. Across the border in Poland it is krupnik, and the two countries share the tradition.
Its origins are wrapped in legend. A popular story credits Benedictine nuns at Nesvizh in the late 1500s, in the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but there is no historical evidence for it. What is documented is older interest in strong honey drinks: in 1686 the French traveller Gaspard de Tende wrote that Lithuania and Ukraine had two kinds, one dark red and one pale. Krupnikas itself appears in dictionaries and recipe collections from the late 1700s on, and nineteenth-century writers describe honey and spices being heated in spirit until the whole room smelled of them.
There is no single recipe. Every family has its own mix of spices, from cinnamon, cloves and allspice to juniper, ginger, nutmeg, citrus peel and even rose petals, and the drink is served warm on cold evenings, when it is also reckoned a good remedy for a cold.
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Make it yours

✓ Naturally vegetarian 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 20
  • 200 ml water
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 8 whole cloves
  • 8 allspice berries
  • 8 juniper berries
  • 3 slices fresh ginger, sliced
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
  • 1 orange orange zest, in strips
  • 1/2 lemon lemon zest, in strips
  • 400 g runny honey
  • 800 ml vodka (40%)

Instructions

  • 1
    Put the water, spices and citrus zest in a saucepan, cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the kitchen smells of the spices.
  • 2
    Stir in the honey until it has dissolved and bring back just to a simmer, skimming off any foam.
  • 3
    Take the pan off the heat and away from the burner, then slowly pour in the vodka.
    ✎ Chef’s note
    Always add the spirit off the heat and away from any flame: the vapour can catch fire.
  • 4
    Return the pan to the lowest heat and warm it through for about 5 minutes, without letting it simmer or boil.
  • 5
    Leave to cool, then cover and leave to infuse overnight.
  • 6
    Strain through a fine sieve lined with muslin into clean bottles and seal.
    ✎ Chef’s note
    It is drinkable the next day but mellows and improves for weeks and months in a cool, dark cupboard.
  • 7
    Serve in small glasses, gently warmed in winter or at room temperature.
Lithuanian home tradition.

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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination

📍
Vilnius. The cold soup is a summer institution and its parts are fixed: kefir, grated cooked beetroot, cucumber, spring onion and a great deal of dill, with a hard-boiled egg on top. The hot boiled potatoes come on a separate plate rather than in the bowl, and leaving them off is not really an option.
🗺️
Lithuania. Cepelinai are named for their shape: fat grated-potato dumplings pinched into blimps around a pork filling, boiled and served under bacon and soured cream. They are widely called the national dish and they are heavy in a way that makes sense of the climate. Rye, mushrooms gathered from the forest and cured pork fill in the rest of the year.
🌍
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 Lithuania

Šaltibarščiai (Cold Beet Soup)A shocking-pink chilled soup of beets, kefir, cucumber, and dill, Lithuania’s summer in a bowl, with hot potatoes on the side.
Kugelis (Baked Potato Pudding)A dense baked pudding of finely grated raw potato bound with egg, milk, onion and smoked bacon, browned on top and served with sour cream.
CepelinaiZeppelin-shaped potato dumplings stuffed with meat, served with bacon-onion sauce and sour cream.
Browse all Lithuania 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 Lithuania meal

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TinginysDessert

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Frequently asked questions

What is Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur)?

Honey and warm spices simmered in water, then mixed with vodka and left to infuse into an amber liqueur, sipped warm on winter nights.

Where does Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur) come from?

Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur) is a Lithuanian dish from Vilnius, Lithuania.

Can Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?

This Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur) 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 Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur) 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 Krupnikas (Lithuanian Honey Spice Liqueur) take to make?

About 12 h 35 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 20 minutes cooking, plus 12 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 20.

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