An ancient Persian sweet-and-sour syrup of honey or sugar simmered with vinegar and infused with fresh mint, diluted with cold water and grated cucumber into a cooling summer drink.
Sekanjabin—from the words for vinegar and honey—is perhaps the oldest of all Persian sharbats, praised by Avicenna in the eleventh century as a tonic for fevers and digestion. The Greeks and Romans copied it as oxymel. Offered to arriving guests and carried to the Sizdah Bedar picnic that closes Nowruz, it is sipped alongside crisp lettuce leaves dipped straight into the syrup.
Sweet and sharply sour at once, with a deep cooling rush of mint and the clean crunch of grated cucumber. The vinegar gives it a bracing, almost savory edge that ordinary lemonade lacks. Endlessly refreshing on a hot day.
Boiling sugar with water then adding vinegar yields a shelf-stable sweet-sour syrup; simmering off the vinegar's raw bite balances it. Steeping mint off the heat captures its volatile aromatics without cooking them bitter.
Variations
Honey or sugar based; flavored with mint or rose water; served as a drink or as a lettuce dip
On the Palate
Where Sekanjabin sits in the Persian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 16 min
Combine sugar or honey with water in a pot and bring to a boil.
- 215 min
Simmer until slightly syrupy, skimming any foam.
- 35 min
Stir in the vinegar and simmer a few more minutes to mellow its sharpness.
Watch outSimmer a few minutes after the vinegar goes in — cooking off its raw bite is what turns sharp sour into round sweet-sour.
- 42 min
Turn off the heat and submerge a generous bunch of fresh mint in the hot syrup.
Watch outSteep the mint off the heat, not in boiling syrup — heat holds its fresh aroma; a simmer cooks it flat and grassy.
- 560 min
Let the mint steep until the syrup is fragrant, then remove and discard it.
- 660 min
Cool the syrup completely and store in a sealed bottle.
- 73 min
To serve, dilute a few spoons of syrup with cold water and ice to taste.
- 82 min
Stir in grated cucumber and garnish with a fresh mint sprig.
