Sima is a refreshing soft drink that’s traditionally enjoyed during May Day celebrations in Finland. It tastes slightly lemony, but is also quite sweet and fruity with a hint of fizziness. Sima is made by fermentation and since the process of making it is similar to mead, sometimes it’s translated as ‘Finnish mead’. This recipe is super easy to make but allow up to a week for the fermentation process!
Sima Drink
🍴 Makes: 2 litres
🕒 Hands-on: ~ 15 minutes
🔷 Fermentation: 5 – 7 days
INGREDIENTS
- 2 litres water
- 1 lemon, juice & rind
- 125g (1.5dl) white sugar
- 125g (1.5dl) soft dark brown sugar
- ¼ – ½ tsp dry yeast
Plus
- 10 raisins
- 2 tsp white sugar
STEPS
1 Remove the lemon rind in long strips using a knife or peeler.
2 Next, measure both sugars and put into a large pan with the lemon rind.
3 Bring 1 litre of water to the boil in a separate pan, or simply using a kettle, and pour over the sugars. Then squeeze in the lemon juice and add remaining 1 litre of water, this time cold. Give the liquid a good stir.
4 Scoop out about 100ml of the liquid and stir in the yeast. Then pour it back into the pan and give the liquid a final stir.
5 Cover the pan with a lid and allow to sit at room temperature for about 24 hours.
6 Day 2: Strain sima into two clean bottles using a funnel. Add about 5 raisins per bottle, followed by a teaspoon of sugar. Loosely seal the bottles with the caps and refrigerate until the raisins start floating! This should take 4 to 6 days.
7 Keep sima refrigerated and serve cool! It will keep in the fridge for about a week once the raisins start floating.
Notes:
- Lemon — When peeling the lemon, try to only peel the yellow part as the white pith has a bitter flavour
- Water — The reason why I prefer to boil half of the water and add half cold is to get the temperature right for activating yeast (about 40-45℃). If the water is too cold, the yeast won’t activate, whereas if it’s too hot, the yeast will die
- Bottling — You can use any size bottles (or containers) for fermenting sima, but do not fill the bottles too full! If you fill them to the brim and seal tightly, there’s a risk the bottles will explode when sima starts fermenting. As a precaution, I always use plastic bottles as with them you can see if the bottle starts expanding. However, I’ve never had any issues making sima, and neither does anyone I know, so as long as you follow the recipe you’ll be fine!
- Raisins — Don’t worry if you don’t like raisins, they won’t flavour sima! They are added to provide extra nutrients for the yeast and to help you to determine when sima is ready to be drunk (raisins will ferment alongside sima and puff up like CO2 balloons when sima is ready)
- Alcohol — Note that yeast fermentation always produces alcohol (yeast consumes sugar, fermenting it into carbon dioxide and ethanol). Thus, sima will contain a tiny, tiny bit of alcohol. We are talking about kombucha amounts, so around 0.5%
- Tip: if you like ginger, you can add some for sima! If you want to flavour the whole batch, you can add it with the lemon peel. Alternatively, add it into just one bottle when bottling sima. For 2 litres I’d recommend about 20 grams (peeled and finely sliced)
ALLERGEN & DIET INFO:
(VG) Note that not all sugar is vegan so just remember to check the packaging if you want your sima to be vegan-friendly! For example, one brand’s granulated sugar may be vegan while other brand’s sugar is not.
Main equipment:
Saucepan (3L)
Peeler or knife
Kitchen scales/measuring cup
Kettle or saucepan
Measuring jug
Funnel
Two bottles (each ideally over 1L)
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