Spiced Honey Drink

Sbiten’ is an ancient Russian drink. I first tasted it in Azov, a sleepy town in the Don River delta. Azov was once a strategically important city, guarding the entrance to Russia’s waterways and the site of a great battle against the Turks in the eighteenth century. Stone ruins still stand overlooking the water, and a charming restaurant, The Fortress Ramparts, has been built on the promontory. The restaurant is decorated in the Old Russian style, with ornately carved window shutters and l