Coffee, Wine, and What to Drink During the Fast
The fast is usually discussed in terms of what is on the plate. But the glass and the mug matter too, and they are where some of the most common questions — and the most honest confusion — show up. Can I have my morning coffee? Is wine ever allowed? What about the oat milk? The short answer is that drinks follow the same logic as food: most plant-based beverages are fine, oil and wine are governed by the calendar, and the precise lines vary by jurisdiction and by what your own priest asks of you. Here is how to think about it without overthinking it.
COFFEE AND TEA: GENERALLY FINE
Black coffee and plain tea are, for the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Christians, perfectly acceptable on fasting days. They contain no meat, dairy, eggs, oil, or wine. Espresso, pour-over, cold brew, drip, green tea, black tea, herbal tea — none of these break the fast in the ordinary sense.
Two caveats. First, some monastic and stricter lay practices treat coffee and tea as small indulgences to be moderated or set aside during the most intense seasons — the first week of Great Lent, Holy Week, or strict xerophagy days. This is not because coffee is "non-fasting" but because the fast is also about loosening our grip on the comforts we lean on. Second, the Eucharistic fast is separate and absolute: nothing to eat or drink (water included, in most practice) from waking until you receive Communion. Your morning coffee waits until after Liturgy on a Sunday you are communing.
WHAT GOES IN THE COFFEE
Here is where most people stumble. Dairy milk and cream are out on fasting days — that part is simple. The good news is that plant milks have made fasting coffee genuinely good, not a sacrifice.
- OAT MILK is the closest thing to dairy for coffee. It steams and foams well, and barista-edition oat milks (Oatly Barista, Minor Figures) are formulated to not split in hot espresso. This is your best bet for a fasting latte.
- SOY MILK is the highest in protein (about 7-8g per cup) and foams reasonably. Note that some people on this site avoid soy and seed oils; if that is you, oat or pea is the move.
- COCONUT MILK (the carton kind, not the can) adds richness and a faint sweetness.
- ALMOND, CASHEW, AND PEA milks all work; pea milk (Ripple) is another high-protein option at around 8g per cup.
One real consideration: oil. Many plant milks and especially coffee creamers contain added oils (sunflower, canola, coconut oil). On strict no-oil days, a creamer built on seed oil is technically oil. Most people do not count a splash of plant milk as "breaking the oil fast," and most priests would tell you not to agonize over a tablespoon of oat milk. But if you keep a strict oil discipline, read the label, or take your coffee black on xerophagy days. When in doubt, ask your spiritual father — this is exactly the kind of small, personal question he exists to answer.
THE WINE QUESTION
Wine occupies a specific place in the traditional fasting calendar, and it is tied to oil. On many days of the stricter fasts, the rule is "xerophagy" — no oil, no wine. On other days, the typikon "allows oil and wine," and the two are lifted together as a single small relaxation. Weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) during Great Lent typically permit wine and oil, as do a number of feasts that fall within fasting periods. Wine, in this framework, is not an indulgence sneaked past the fast; it is a blessing the Church explicitly restores on certain days.
What counts as "wine" in the old rubrics is grape wine. Beer, spirits, and liquor are not addressed by the ancient typikon at all, because they did not exist in their modern form. Most contemporary practice treats beer and spirits the way it treats wine — permitted on wine days, set aside on strict days — but again, practice varies, and moderation is always the governing principle. Fasting and drunkenness are opposites; no day permits the latter.
KVASS AND TRADITIONAL FASTING DRINKS
The Slavic fasting table has its own drinks, and they are worth knowing:
- KVASS, the lightly fermented rye-bread drink, is a fasting staple across Russia and Ukraine. It is barely alcoholic (often under 1%), tangy, and refreshing, and it pairs with the black-bread-and-soup core of a Slavic fast. Bottled kvass is widely available; you can also brew it at home from rye bread, water, sugar, and yeast.
- KISEL, a thickened fruit drink, and KOMPOT, a simmered dried-fruit beverage, are both naturally fasting-compliant and provide sweetness and calories without dairy.
- SBITEN, a hot honey-and-spice drink, is a warming winter option.
These are not historical curiosities — they are practical, hydrating, calorie-bearing drinks for a season when the body is working hard on less food.
HOW STRICTNESS VARIES
This is the part to hold onto. Drinks are an area of real and legitimate variation. A Greek parish, a ROCOR parish, an OCA convert, and an Athonite monk may draw the coffee line and the wine line in four different places, and all four are practicing the same faith. The calendar gives the framework — wine on wine days, plants over dairy, moderation always — and your priest gives the application to your life, your health, and your stage in the fast.
So drink your black coffee, keep oat milk in the fridge, pour the wine on the weekend if your rule allows it, and try a bottle of kvass before the fast is out. Then take the genuinely uncertain questions to confession, where they belong.