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Cloudberry Sima / Lakka Sima​ LAKKA SIMA – CLOUDBERRY FINNISH SPRING MEAD – our sima version made to celebrate the …

Sima is a light alcoholic homemade drink, traditionally enjoyed in spring and very easy to make! Known as the Finnish mead, is originated in the 1700’s but it’s during the 1900s that the drink became associated with the Finnish labour movement and the Finnish Walpurgis Night festivities (Vappu).

Light, refreshing and easy, this mead lemonade is best enjoyed in spring but it may as well be enjoyed all year round, we do! Truth is, actual mead takes months to be ready, while this Finnish mead is prepped and popped in days and is equally delicious!

In August, we were struck with luck when a friend brought us some bags of cloudberries that he himself handpicked, while on holidays in the north. Some we froze, some we used in new recipes right away. One of them was to make cloudberry sima.

We love the original sima, don’t get me wrong, but we were curious to use this seasonal berry in such a traditional finnish drink, and since we couldn’t find any recipe for it, we figured that either is terrible idea or simply is something that people don’t do often. So, we went for it anyway.

I went through dozens of recipes, even found some recipes of sima made of berries, mainly blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, but not specifically a cloudberry recipe. So, i picked a few ideas from all the recipes i found and made our own.

Basically you need water, fresh active yeast, sugar and the cloudberries. Ah, and a few raisins. They are added for fermentation but most importantly to know when your sima is ready. They will float to the top and stay there. That’s how you know for sure is ready.

3L water – 1 to boil with the berries and 2 at room temperature.

*We added honey but is not necessary. Actually i think we won’t next time because you can taste it quite a lot in the end and unless you like your drinks sweet, i advise in skipping this.

In a steel pot add 1L of water the cloudberries. Press them a bit. Add the sugars and let it boil for a couple minutes. Take from stove and add the other 2L of water.

Let it cool down till hand temperature. Separately mix the yeast with a few drops of the liquid and then add it to the total, mixing it well with a wooden spoon.

Let it stay overnight marinating at room temperature, just cover with a cloth.

Next day, give it another mix and bottle it! In each bottle add 1 spoon of sugar and few raisins (4 or 5) and be carefull with the lid you use. It will carbonate and if the pressure it’s too much it might explode.

After 4 or 5 days it should be ready to drink! You will notice by the floating raisins!

Personally we used a 5L container for the whole mixture in the fridge with the berries still there and bottled one bottle at a time, straining the drink and leaving the berries in the bigger container while waiting to bottle again. But you can totally strain the liquid to the bottles right before putting them in the fridge! Just add the raisins to each bottle instead of the whole mixture.

**If you use 1 big container for the whole mix then add 3 spoons of sugar and about 10-15 raisins before putting in the fridge. If you are bottling in separate bottles then add 1 spoon of sugar plus about 5 raisins each bottle!

Cloudberry sima is a sweet, super refreshing drink. Definitely an all-year kind of drink, you can even mix with alcohol and make some really fancy different cocktails! You can taste the cloudberries, not bitter and not too sweet, carbonated and with a BEAUTIFUL color.

Try it, will ya? And let us know what you think and how you used it! Family lunch new natural soda, Sunday brunch drink or mixed it for some cocktails? We want to see pics btw.