Sekanjabin (Persian mint vinegar syrup) substitutes
Sekanjabin (Persian mint vinegar syrup) substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Homemade sekanjabin
2 cups sugar
1 cup water : ¼ to ½ cup vinegar : 1 large handful fresh mint
The real answer, and easier than tracking down a bottle. Simmer sugar and water for about ten minutes until slightly syrupy, remove from the heat, stir in the vinegar, submerge the mint, cover and steep thirty minutes, then strain into a clean jar.
Make it, because it takes about fifteen minutes and four ingredients you already have: simmer two cups of sugar with one cup of water until it thickens slightly, take it off the heat, stir in a quarter to a half cup of white wine or cider vinegar and a large handful of fresh spearmint, then steep for thirty minutes and strain. If you genuinely cannot cook, whisk four tablespoons of honey with one tablespoon of vinegar and a teaspoon of dried mint for every third of a cup you need. The thing to understand is that sekanjabin is doing two jobs at once, sweetness and sharp acidity, with mint as the aroma on top, so any substitute has to bring both sugar and vinegar and not just one of them.
- Verdict —
- Works
- Best for —
- the drink, diluted with iced water
Updated 26 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of sekanjabin (Persian mint vinegar syrup) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Homemade sekanjabinthe drink, diluted with iced water | 2 cups sugar : 1 cup water : ¼ to ½ cup vinegar : 1 large handful fresh mintWorks | Works |
| 2 | Honey, vinegar and mint whisked togethermaking it in two minutes | 4 tbsp honey + 1 tbsp white wine vinegar + 1 tsp dried mint per 1/3 cup sekanjabinYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 3 | Mint simple syrup plus vinegarbar setups | 1/3 cup mint syrup + 2 tsp vinegar per 1/3 cup sekanjabinWorks | Works |
| 4 | Shrub or drinking vinegarcold drinks | Same amountThen add fresh mintYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 5 | Agrodolce or a sweetened balsamic reductiondipping romaine or endive | ¼ cup per 1/3 cup sekanjabin, then add mintTweak it | Tweak it |
| 6 | Mint lemonade with a splash of vinegarthe drink only | as a drink, to taste, plus 1 tsp vinegar per glassYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
Homemade sekanjabin
similar taste and texture
The real answer, and easier than tracking down a bottle. Simmer sugar and water for about ten minutes until slightly syrupy, remove from the heat, stir in the vinegar, submerge the mint, cover and steep thirty minutes, then strain into a clean jar.
- Best for
- the drink, diluted with iced water, a dip for romaine hearts, pouring over shaved ice, mixing into cocktails and spritzers, keeping in the fridge for months
Start with a quarter cup of vinegar and add more to taste, since the balance is personal and varies with how sharp your vinegar is. It should taste distinctly sour behind the sweetness, not just sweet. Made this way it keeps for months in the fridge and thickens slightly over time.
Honey, vinegar and mint whisked together
different taste and texture
The no-cook version, and historically a legitimate one, since the earliest oxymels were honey-based. Whisk until smooth and let it sit twenty minutes so the mint infuses.
- Best for
- making it in two minutes, the romaine dip, salad dressings, a quick summer drink
Thinner than a cooked syrup and noticeably more floral, because honey has a strong flavor of its own where plain sugar has almost none. The drink tastes of honey with mint behind it rather than of clean sweet-sour mint. A mild honey such as acacia or clover keeps it closest; chestnut or buckwheat honey will take over completely.
Mint simple syrup plus vinegar
similar taste and texture
The fastest route if you already keep mint syrup for cocktails or iced tea. Stir the vinegar straight in and taste.
- Best for
- bar setups, quick spritzers and cocktails, iced drinks, sweetening lemonade
Close, with one trap: many commercial mint syrups are flavored with peppermint oil, which tastes bracing and faintly medicinal, like toothpaste, rather than the soft green spearmint used in Persian cooking. Check that the label says spearmint or that it is made from real leaves. If it is peppermint, cut the amount by a third and add a few fresh mint leaves to the glass.
Shrub or drinking vinegar
different taste and texture
Commercial shrubs are sweetened fruit vinegars made for exactly this purpose: diluting into cold water as a drink. The sweet-to-sour balance is already right.
- Best for
- cold drinks, spritzers and highballs, when you want no cooking at all
The structure is right and the drinking use is right; the flavor is not. Raspberry, apple or ginger shrubs taste distinctly fruity where sekanjabin is clean and herbal, so the result is refreshing but not recognizably Persian. Bruise several fresh mint leaves in the glass to pull it back towards mint. As a romaine dip it is usually too thin.
Agrodolce or a sweetened balsamic reduction
different taste, similar texture
Useful specifically for the romaine dip, where what you need is a thick sweet-sour syrup to coat a crisp leaf.
- Best for
- dipping romaine or endive, drizzling over vegetables, salad dressings
It has the right viscosity and the right sweet-sour tension, but it is dark, grapey and much heavier, so a pale green plate of romaine ends up looking and tasting like an Italian salad. Do not use it for the drink; diluted in water a balsamic reduction is murky and unpleasant. Stir in chopped mint to give it some connection to the original.
Mint lemonade with a splash of vinegar
different taste and texture
The gentlest option, and a good drink in its own right for anyone who finds vinegar in a beverage strange.
- Best for
- the drink only, children and vinegar-averse guests, hot weather
Lemon acid is softer, rounder and fruitier than vinegar's sharp bite, so this stops being sekanjabin and becomes very good mint lemonade. The teaspoon of vinegar per glass restores some of the characteristic edge. It is far too thin to work as a dip for romaine, so use it for drinking only.
Questions
5 questionsWhat does sekanjabin taste like?
Sweet first, then unmistakably sour, with a clean green mint aroma running through it. It is closer to a sweetened vinegar than to a cordial, which is why it is bracing rather than cloying and why it works both as a drink and as a dip for bitter leaves. If yours tastes only sweet, it needs more vinegar.
What vinegar should I use for sekanjabin?
White wine vinegar is the most neutral and reliable choice. Apple cider vinegar is traditional in many Iranian households and gives a slightly fruitier result. Plain distilled white vinegar works but is harsher, so use a little less. Avoid balsamic and dark malt vinegars, which are far too heavy and will muddy both the color and the flavor.
Can I use peppermint instead of spearmint?
You can, but reduce the quantity by about a third and expect a noticeably cooler, more menthol flavor that reads as medicinal rather than fresh. Persian cooking uses spearmint, and the difference is easy to taste side by side. Dried mint works too, at about a tablespoon per batch, though the aroma is flatter and hay-like compared with fresh leaves.
How long does sekanjabin keep?
A properly made syrup, high in sugar and acidified with vinegar, keeps for several months in a clean sealed jar in the fridge. Honey-based no-cook versions are best used within a few weeks. Treat it as a refrigerated condiment: it is not a tested canning or preserving recipe, so do not water-bath it or store it at room temperature on the strength of these ratios. For shelf-stable preserving, follow a tested recipe from a reliable authority such as the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Can I leave the vinegar out?
Then it is not sekanjabin. The name itself comes from words meaning vinegar and honey, and the sourness is the defining feature: it is what makes the drink refreshing in heat and what makes the dip work against bitter romaine. Without vinegar you have mint syrup, which is pleasant but sweet and flat. If the vinegar is too sharp for you, halve it rather than removing it.
Tips for substituting sekanjabin (Persian mint vinegar syrup)
5 tips- Add the mint off the heat, never while the syrup is boiling. Boiled mint goes gray-brown and tastes of hay and stewed tea, and it will tint the whole batch a dull color. Steep it in the hot syrup for half an hour, then strain the leaves out.
- Use spearmint, the ordinary soft green mint sold as nana in Middle Eastern shops, rather than peppermint. Peppermint's menthol is far stronger and gives the syrup a cooling, medicinal edge that does not belong.
- Stop cooking the sugar syrup while it still runs freely off a spoon with a light coat. Take it much further and it crystallizes in the jar once it is cold, and you will end up with a solid block you have to reheat.
- For the drink, start at about one part syrup to six parts iced water and adjust from there. Grating a little cucumber into the glass, or adding a spoonful of grated cucumber and ice, is the classic Iranian summer version and makes a real difference.
- For the romaine dip, keep the syrup thick and undiluted, and serve it in a small bowl with cold crisp hearts of romaine to pull through it. It sounds odd until you try it: the sweet-sour syrup against bitter cold leaves is the point.