Spiced Honeyed Wine for Days of Rejoicing
Red wine sweetened with honey, scented with cinnamon, nard, and pepper, served warm. The comforting warmth of festive evenings, a descendant of ancient conditum.
Red wine sweetened with honey, scented with cinnamon, nard, and pepper, served warm. The comforting warmth of festive evenings, a descendant of ancient conditum.
Drink moderately, child, for the rule requires wine diluted with water; but on feast days, allow yourself this sweetness. We would warm the wine without boiling, melt honey into it, and perfume it with cinnamon and a grain of pepper brought from the East by caravans. Warm in the cup, it warms the body after long vigils and loosens the tongue among brothers. Give thanks first, then taste: it is the balm of joyful evenings.
- •Red wine — a pitcher (base)
- •Honey — generous (sweetness)
- •Cinnamon — a stick (spice)
- •Pepper — a few grains (spicy warmth)
- •Nard or mastic — a trace (Byzantine perfume)
- •Water — to dilute (temperance)
Spiced Honeyed Wine for Days of Rejoicing
Red wine sweetened with honey, scented with cinnamon, nard, and pepper, served warm. The comforting warmth of festive evenings, a descendant of ancient conditum.
Why this dish? Wine diluted with water accompanied Byzantine monastic meals, and on feast days it was perfumed with honey and spices, in the manner of conditum inherited from Rome. A drink of fraternal communion, shared by the brothers between stages of their mission.
Drink moderately, child, for the rule requires wine diluted with water; but on feast days, allow yourself this sweetness. We would warm the wine without boiling, melt honey into it, and perfume it with cinnamon and a grain of pepper brought from the East by caravans. Warm in the cup, it warms the body after long vigils and loosens the tongue among brothers. Give thanks first, then taste: it is the balm of joyful evenings.
Ingredients (period version)
- Red wine — a pitcher (base)
- Honey — generous (sweetness)
- Cinnamon — a stick (spice)
- Pepper — a few grains (spicy warmth)
- Nard or mastic — a trace (Byzantine perfume)
- Water — to dilute (temperance)
Ingredients
- Fruity red wine — 75 cl (base)
- Honey — 4 to 5 tbsp (sweetness)
- Cinnamon stick — 1 (spice)
- Black peppercorns — 5 (warmth)
- Mastic tear (or 1 clove) — 1 small (Byzantine perfume)
- Water — 10 to 15 cl (to dilute the wine)
Method
- Pour the wine and water into a saucepan with the honey.
- Add the cinnamon, pepper, and mastic.
- Heat gently without ever boiling, for 10 minutes, stirring to dissolve the honey.
- Let infuse off the heat for 5 minutes, then strain.
- Serve warm in cups; for children, prepare a grape juice version (see twist).
How it was made : Conditum, honeyed and spiced wine, persisted through late antiquity and the Byzantine Empire. Monks drank wine diluted with water for temperance, but feast days permitted this perfumed preparation. Pepper and spices, being costly, signaled the exceptional nature of the occasion.
The contemporary twist : Non-alcoholic family version: replace the wine with red grape juice heated with the same spices — all the fragrance of Byzantium for the children's table.
Cyril and Methodius · Charactorium