Sima is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

fermented low level

alcoholic drink An alcoholic beverage (also called an alcoholic drink, adult beverage, or a drink) is a drink that contains ethanol, a type of alcohol that acts as a drug and is produced by fermentation of grains, fruits, or other sources of sugar. The c ...

and soft drink. It is traditionally a form of mead, an alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water, although nowadays the honey is usually replaced with different kinds of sugar, mostly

syrup In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...

, which makes it a sugar wine. The drink also has a very low alcohol content due to limited fermentation. Sima is therefore a sweet sparkling beverage that is mainly seasonal and connected with the

'' Vappu'' festival. It is usually spiced by adding both the flesh and rind of a

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

. Sima is usually accompanied by a ''munkki'' (donut), a ''tippaleipä'' (a special Vappu

funnel cake Funnel cake (Pennsylvania German: ''Drechderkuche'') is a regional sweet food popular in North America, found mainly at carnivals and amusement parks. It is made by deep-frying batter. History The concept of the funnel cake dates back to the ea ...

), or a ''rosetti'' ( rosette). The Finnish word ''sima'' is an old name for honey, which

Elias Lönnrot Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish physician, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish oral poetry. He is best known for creating the Finnish national epic, ''Kalevala'', (1835, enlarged 1849), from short ...

used to mean a drink in his

epic poetry An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

, the ''

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...

''.Simaa simasuille - Kotimaisten kielten keskus
(in Finnish)

History

Mead was originally brought to Finland in the 1500s from

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

and Riga. The modern concept of a low-alcohol sima originated in the 1700s, as it was developed to be a more refreshing summer beverage. This version of sima is found in the cookbooks of

Cajsa Warg Anna Christina Warg (23March 17035February 1769), better known as Cajsa (or Kajsa) Warg, was a Swedish cookbook author and one of the best-known cooks in Swedish history. Early life Warg was born in Örebro, the younger of two daughters, to a ...

. During the 1900s, the drink became associated with the Finnish

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

and the Finnish

Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess ...

festivities.

Ingredients and preparation

Sima's usual ingredients include

, active dry

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

, and

raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the ...

s. Sugar is added as brown sugar, white sugar, honey, or some combination of them. Hops are also called for in some recipes. The concoction of water and the lemon and sugars are mixed, boiled, and cooled to room temperature. The yeast is added and the mixture left to stand overnight. Then it is carefully decanted into bottles and a few raisins are added to each bottle. During secondary fermentation,

s are added to control the amount of sugars and to act as an indicator of readiness for consumption — they will swell by absorbing

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

and rise to the top of the bottle when the drink is ready. The sima will be ready in about three to seven days depending on its temperature. It is served chilled. Usually, the alcohol content is low and the drink is suitable for children. Carbonation is produced by the yeast, and the drink is traditionally cloudy and not clarified or filtered. Because of this, traditional sima is a fresh product that does not store for long; fermentation may continue in a bottle and the alcoholicity may rise. A commercial and possibly foreign cheap "sima" is produced by mixing apple wine,

grape juice Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7–23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as '' must''. The sugars in grape juice allow it to be ...

and flavor with carbonated water; this doesn't produce the soft flavor of traditional fermented sima.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sima (Mead) Mead Finnish alcoholic drinks Walpurgis Night traditions