🥤 DRINK
Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink)
Dried pears, apples and smoky prunes brought just to a simmer, then left to steep for hours and sweetened with honey, the drink of the Ukrainian Christmas Eve table.
Ukrainian · easy · serves 8
prep 15 min · cook 20 min · plus 4 h hands-off time
~151 cal · 1g protein · 40g carbs · 0g fat · 4g fiber · 32g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Uzvar is the ritual drink of Sviat Vechir, the Ukrainian Holy Supper on Christmas Eve, where it stands among the twelve meatless dishes and is one of the most important of them. It is made again for Epiphany, and old chronicles and monastery manuscripts mention it often.
It can look like kompot, the fruit drink of Poland and much of eastern Europe, but Ukrainians keep the two apart. Kompot is made from fresh fruit, usually sweetened with sugar, and can be drunk as soon as it cools. Uzvar is made from dried fruit, classically apples, pears and smoked prunes, sometimes with smoked pears, raisins or cherries, which give it a deep amber colour and a gently smoky taste. The fruit is only brought to the boil or simmered briefly and then left to , which is where the name comes from: zavaryty, to brew. It is sweetened with honey, stirred in once it has cooled a little, and it has to rest before it is served.
Some cooks add a few cloves or a pinch of poppy seeds, and it is served cool or at room temperature, with the soft fruit spooned out and eaten.
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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.
🥕 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
- 100 g dried apples
- 100 g dried pears, smoked if you can find them
- 150 g smoked prunesHard to find? 150 g ordinary pitted prunes - the drink will be less smoky
- 50 g raisins or dried cherries
- 2.5 l water
- 3 tbsp honey, to taste
- 3 whole cloves (optional)
Instructions
- 1Rinse the dried fruit well in warm water, rubbing off any dust, and drain.✎ Chef’s noteChoose fruit dried without sugar syrup, which makes uzvar cloying.
- 2Put the apples and pears in a large pot with the cold water, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
- 3Add the prunes and raisins or cherries, bring back just to a simmer for a few minutes, then turn off the heat and add the cloves if using.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the cooking short. Uzvar is brewed, not boiled: the flavour comes from the long steep that follows.
- 4Cover the pot and leave the uzvar to steep for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- 5When it is no more than warm, stir in the honey to taste.✎ Chef’s noteAdding honey to very hot liquid dulls its aroma.
- 6Serve cool or at room temperature, strained or with some of the soft fruit in each glass.
Ukrainian Christmas Eve (Sviat Vechir) tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Poltava. This is chernozem country, the deep black soil belt, and the cooking follows what grows easily there. Varenyky are filled with cherries in summer and potato or curd cheese the rest of the year, salo is salted and kept for months, and garlic, dill and soured cream turn up so consistently that their absence would be noticed.
🗺️
Ukraine. Ukraine is Europe's breadbasket, and its table centers on beetroot borscht, varenyky dumplings, and dark sourdough breads. Salo (cured pork fat), garlic, dill, and fermented vegetables anchor a resilient, deeply seasonal home-cooking tradition.
🌍
Europe. Europe has written a great deal of its food into law. A regulation of 1992 created the protected designation of origin and the protected geographical indication, tying a name to a place and a method, and an EU evaluation published in 2021 counted more than three thousand registered names across those schemes, from cheeses and hams down to particular shapes of bread.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Ukraine
Varenyky (Potato Dumplings)Half-moon dumplings of tender dough filled with mashed potato and fried onion, boiled and tossed in butter, served with fried onions and sour cream.
BorschtThe famous beet soup, sweet-sour and garnet-red, ladled over beans and finished with dill and sour cream.
Chicken KyivA breaded chicken cutlet rolled around herb-garlic butter that bursts out golden when you cut in.
Browse all Ukraine 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 Ukraine meal
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink)?
Dried pears, apples and smoky prunes brought just to a simmer, then left to steep for hours and sweetened with honey, the drink of the Ukrainian Christmas Eve table.
Where does Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink) come from?
Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink) is a Ukrainian dish from Poltava, Ukraine.
Can Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink) 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 Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink) 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 Uzvar (Ukrainian Smoked Dried Fruit Drink) take to make?
About 4 h 35 min in all: 15 minutes prep and 20 minutes cooking, plus 4 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
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