Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Kvass
A lightly fermented, tangy-sweet drink made from dark rye bread, refreshing and barely alcoholic.
Russian · medium · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 10 min
~136 cal · 3g protein · 30g carbs · 1g fat · 1g fiber · 16g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kvass has slaked Slavic thirst for over a thousand years, a drink so old it appears in the earliest Russian chronicles. It is made by fermenting stale dark rye bread with water, a little sugar, and yeast for a day or two, turning what would be waste into something faintly fizzy, tangy, and refreshing.
Barely alcoholic, sour-sweet, and the colour of weak cola, it was for centuries the everyday drink of peasants and tsars alike. In summer it is sold on Russian and Ukrainian streets from big wheeled tanks, poured by the cup or the bottle, as much a seasonal ritual as a beverage.
Beyond drinking, it is a cooking ingredient in its own right: it forms the tangy, chilled base of okroshka, the cold summer soup of chopped vegetables and meat. Frugal, ancient, and distinctly Slavic, kvass turns old bread into one of the region's most enduring tastes.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
8 oz dense dark sourdough rye bread (Borodinsky if you can get it)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp raisins
a few sprigs mint
10 cups water
Instructions
1
Cut the bread into chunks and toast it in the oven until it is very dark, dry and hard right through, then pour just-boiled water over it and leave it to steep for a few hours as it cools.
✎ Chef’s note
The bread decides everything. Use a dense dark sourdough rye; Borodinsky, with its coriander, makes the best kvass of all, and ordinary wheat bread makes a pale, bland drink not worth the trouble. Toast it darker than feels comfortable, right up to but not past burnt: that toasting is what turns the starch into fermentable sugar and builds the malty flavour.
2
Strain out the bread and stir the sugar into the warm liquid; cool to lukewarm.
3
Whisk in the yeast and add the raisins and mint.
4
Cover loosely with a cloth, never a sealed lid, and ferment at room temperature until it is tangy and lightly bubbling, 12 to 24 hours for a fresh kvass or 2 to 3 days for a sourer one.
✎ Chef’s note
Traditional kvass is drunk young, at around 18 to 24 hours, when it is at its brightest. Past about 48 hours it turns sharp and yeasty. The raisins are worth including for more than flavour: they bring extra wild yeast and are what makes the fizz reliable.
5
Strain into bottles leaving a little headspace, seal them and leave them at room temperature another 12 to 24 hours to build carbonation, burping them once or twice, then refrigerate.
✎ Chef’s note
That sealed second stage is where the fizz comes from; strained and chilled straight away, kvass stays flat. Open it over the sink, always serve it properly cold, and drink it within three to five days, because it is alive and still working. The Russian Primary Chronicle, compiled around 1113, records kvass being handed out in Kyiv in 988, which makes it one of the oldest documented drinks still in daily use.
Moscow summer tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Moscow. Borscht is not settled as Russian. The culture of Ukrainian borscht cooking was inscribed by UNESCO in July 2022 on its list of heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, a listing fast-tracked because of the invasion, and Moscow objected to it. UNESCO's own note is that the inscription does not imply exclusivity.
🗺️
Russia. Kasha is the spine of the older cooking, buckwheat above all, dry-toasted before it is cooked so it smells nutty, and served under butter or with mushrooms rather than as a side dish. Pelmeni have a Uralic and Siberian lineage, made in huge batches in winter and frozen outdoors, which is why they are small and thin-skinned rather than plump.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Russia
Beef StroganoffSeared strips of beef and mushrooms in a mustard-spiked sour cream sauce over noodles, 19th-century Moscow at its most elegant.
Grechnevaya KashaToasted buckwheat simmered until fluffy and served with butter, the quintessential Russian porridge.
PelmeniSmall dumplings of thin dough around a juicy meat filling, boiled and served with sour cream, a Russian staple.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Russia meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Kvass?
A lightly fermented, tangy-sweet drink made from dark rye bread, refreshing and barely alcoholic.
Where does Kvass come from?
Kvass is a Russian dish from Moscow, Russia.
Can Kvass be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kvass 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 Kvass 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 Kvass take to make?
About 30 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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