It is not known for certain when exactly honey and pepper first met in the Russian culinary tradition, but this meeting undoubtedly took place at the royal court. Honey has always been one of the main export goods of Russia and arrived in abundance in the capital of the Muscovite kingdom from wild-honey farmers who extracted the cherished sweetness in the forests along the banks of the rivers in the Tambov, Tula, and Ryazan lands. People in Russia first got red «Chinese» pepper with caravans of merchants travelling through Persia and Turkey during the reign of the first tsars from the Romanov dynasty. This seasoning cost a lot and, like everything most expensive and rare, was first presented to the royal court. The unusually peppery taste at first established only in combination with other spices and sweet honey - a little pepper was added to traditional strong honey «to heighten the one’s appetite». The recipe did not get widespread at that time, because due to the unusual taste, rarity and high cost of the Chinese pepper, it was available only to the grand ducal court. But references to it have survived in recipes from the 17th-18th centuries. The secret was not to make the drink sickeningly sweet and pungent; spice, pungency and honey sweetness had to create a special balance. This is exactly what «Pronskaya Pepper &honey» was created.