00:01This soup is so popular that it's got its own festival.
00:05Shultebarshe is creamy, cold and pretty unpronounceable.
00:09Thousands of people meet each year in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius,
00:13to pay homage to this soup made of red beets.
00:18The Biele-Auskarte-Zakarowski family lives north-east of Vilnius.
00:22They'll show us the traditional way to make the soup.
00:24And this is what you're gonna need. Cucumbers, then a lot of dill, onions, and at the end, kefir and beetroot.
00:42Vilnius and Ognius' favourite way to make their red beet soup is with our Aunt Jeva.
00:49It cools you down in summer, even if Lithuanian summers can be quite rainy.
00:54Unusual, refreshing, traditional, real Lithuanian.
01:05Lithuanian? Really?
01:09People in neighbouring Latvia see that differently.
01:12It's a real rap battle between two countries fighting over who owns the summer cuisine.
01:16Beetroot, kefir, still in the mix. Latvian slaver, it's a classic fish.
01:20Girl, you don't even know the recipe. And your rhymes are written by Chad GPT.
01:27Kurvarita, suolas, kurse, polo, luakki. You want a Latvian game? You better stick to ice hockey.
01:32So who's right? We'll probably never find out. After all, it's been said cold soups were already enjoyed in ancient times.
01:41And cold, shultibarshi, is considered a sister of borscht. Red beet soup with meat that is served hot.
01:46For centuries, Lithuania's neighbours, the Letts, Poles and Belarusians, have savoured the same cold soup.
01:54The widespread distribution is no accident. Lithuania and Poland, as well as parts of what are today, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine,
02:01belong to the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
02:05Since then, the borders may have shifted again and again, but the love of shultibarshi remained above it all.
02:14Lithuanian historian Rimvides Loshikes tells us why.
02:19Nations of former Commonwealth, we understand shultibarshi as part of its own identities.
02:24That's all. We have this typical, old-fashioned, I don't know, not soup, because in general shultibarshi was not perceived as soup,
02:35as like a dish. And it's typical for all social strata, historically, from peasants up to nobility, up to rulers.
02:46Regardless of who invented the pink soup, the Lithuanian capital Vilnius celebrates the brew at the pink soup fest like no place else.
02:56Dressing up in pink has become a requirement participants have grown fond of.
03:03And loads of variations of shultibarshi are part of the show too, whether it's with yoghurt, mint, chocolate or in a trendy drink.
03:11So we have here one of the interpretations of shultibarshi, because like milky products, shultibarshi can have a lot of different interpretations,
03:21and here is shultibarshi smoothie.
03:28Yeah.
03:30Back home with the Bieli-Auskarte-Zakarowski family. They don't want to know about all the frills.
03:34Here, only traditional shultibarshi has a place on the table. All the ingredients are chopped by hand.
03:43Well, nearly all.
03:47In just a few steps, the soup is ready, but the recipe has to be just right.
03:51And in Lithuania, that's a family matter.
03:54I don't know anymore who in the family made the cold soup first.
04:00My grandmother or my mother.
04:03But this dish has been in our family since we were kids.
04:07It's like bread. You eat it every day.
04:10Yes, cold borscht is something special.
04:13Back in the capital, the festival is coming to a climax with the pink soup parade.
04:17More than 10,000 people have gathered this year to celebrate. It's a record.
04:28And what about back at Antijeva's?
04:31And we're done.
04:33Things are coming to a head here too.
04:37The shultibarshi is finished, with freshly boiled potatoes and an egg on the side.
04:42Lithuania is ready for summer.
04:48And it can be a hot one, because shultibarshi keeps everything cool!
