Compote
A
compote is a dessert made of fruit cooked in sugar syrup. Compotes may also contain
spices.
Compote, known in
Romanian,
Serbian,
Polish,
Slovenian,
Bosnian,
Russian and
Bulgarian as
kompot (
Cyrillic: компот)
Lithuanian kompotas, is a traditional drink in Eastern European countries. It is a light refreshing drink most often made of dried fruit (raisins, prunes, apricots, etc.) boiled in water with some sugar and left to cool and infuse. In the mid-
1980s, 60 percent of beverages consumed by an average Pole consisted of compote and other home-made concoctions. In recent years, that number has dropped to 30 percent. In some homes,
tea with lemon may be an alternative to compote (in many Eastern European countries, tea is drunk not only after meals, but also with meals). Compote is unlikely to be found in Polish restaurants, but it is often available in smaller Russian restaurants. It is considered a typically homemade beverage in Poland, though nowadays compote and tea are being more and more frequently supplanted by
fruit juices in the country.
