When friends ask me what I want from Russia, I almost always say instant soup. They do a double take and I ask them to go to a Lenta store and buy a bag of “Tomato and Basil” and “Chicken Noodle with Croutons,” but not the creamy kind. That adds to my overall image of their slightly insane friend, but they do it nevertheless, and on cold mornings and evenings I treat myself to a simple pleasure of wrapping my hands around a warm mug and taking a savory sip.
That’s not to say that you can't find similar joy in hot cocoa or coffee or mulled wine. Apparently, sipping on a beverage that’s between 37 and 46 Celsius (or 98 and 114 Fahrenheit) raises your body temperature by almost a degree, so it actually makes your warmer.
According to another study, participants who held a hot cup judged a person in front of them as having a more generous, caring personality than those who held a cold drink, suggesting that feeling warmer can make a person act more warmly.
Experts suggest that the perfect liquid to fight the winter chill is a warm, milky beverage, such as a decaf latte or black tea with whole milk, as calories that most quickly convert to heat come from fat. Even back in the days of Genghis Khan, the Mongols reportedly drank a beverage made from yak butter during their long winters.
In Russia, a close alternative to that is a popular drink called raf, a frothy mixture of coffee, heavy cream, and vanilla sugar. It’s thick and satisfying, almost like the Mongol drink but without the yucky yaks.
If you feel a cold coming on, many Russian mothers would recommend hot milk with honey and butter (which I personally hated) as well as more humane options, like tea with raspberry jam.
So if you’ve just come in from the cold and are heading into a work meeting, consider wrapping your hands around a warm mug of your favorite morning drink – and don’t worry about the calories.
