šljiva, Serbia's popular brandy, could be the next mezcal | Hacker News Reader

šljiva, Serbia's popular brandy, could be the next mezcal

thedailybeast.com

30 pointsibobev60 comments

The Balkans have some interesting drinks I'd never heard of before but would probably be popular if they were more widely exported. In Croatia I had travarica which is apparently a type of rakija with savory herbs like rosemary or lavender (it seems the mix differs across different producers). The bottle I bought even still had the herbs in it. It instantly became my favorite hard liquor and it apparently does get exported to the states, just not where I live at the moment.

The problem with exporting it is that we don't get to drink what we send abroad.

Just make more.

Not sure why this article is drumming this up as something special, but fruit brandies (from various fruits) are popular all over Southern, Eastern and even Central Europe, under various names: Raki (apparently Rakija in Serbia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rak%C4%B1 ; Slivovitz (apparently Slivja in Serbia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivovitz ; Țuică https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C8%9Auic%C4%83 ; Pálinka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A1linka ; Schnap(p)s/Obstler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schnapps etc. etc. etc. Or, to quote the overarching Wikipedia article, "there are about 80 different kinds of fruit spirits in the European Union, registered with protected designations of origin from Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_brandy). Actually, it looks like fruit spirits are popular almost wherever fruit are grown. Further North, they have to turn to grain or potatoes...

Every Country in Europe has its own boze.

In the Balkans is called Rakja. It's popular in all the Balkan peninsula and in eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, etc. ) under different names

In Italy there are similar fruit spirits (or fruit brandy) but the most popular one is Grappa, which is distilled pomace.

Greece has their own, Outzo (made with grapes, which also contains anice), Raki and Tsipouro (pomace).

In France the equivalent of Italian Grappa is called Marc, in Spain they have the Orujo.

There are also a lot of spirits that were made in the past in Benedictine monasteries.

They're all made in the same way and part of the large fruit brandy family, which is very popular across continental Europe.

Spain has Pacharán, Orujo, Casalla (Anís) to name a few, and many more from each individual region.

Drinking is a long cultural tradition all over Europe, which is probably why you get these hyper-local variants. It makes for great conversation.

> Every Country in Europe has its own boze

I'm fairly certain that any area where a large enough community has been living for long enough has its own booze

Agree, and probably cheese and cured meat/sausages.

Meats maybe. Much of the world is lactose intolerant though. The highest concentrations of lactose-tolerant folks are in Europe.

Yes, of course, but this article was specifically about Southern Europe and my comment was simply saying that the same kind of booze they talk about in the article, is common across all over Europe.

USA doesn't have its own booze though.

Vodka and Whisky are not native from the USA.

See now I don't think this is true, because AFAIK England doesn't have any native spirits, and nobody I've asked could think of one either. Gin came from the Dutch and it's introduction caused a literal "Gin epidemic" of people dying from it, which seems to support this point.

Genuinely curious to be proven wrong here...

Gin had become its own thing by the time of the gin craze. The origins of the gin epidemic are varied but introduction from a foreign source is not one of them. In fact one of the major factors was Britain subsidizing the local gin industry and establishing protectionist laws that cut down trade for liquor from Continental Europe. 20 years of that plus the majority of Londoners losing their shirt in the South Seas panic was a recipe for disaster. It’s a fascinating case study with echoes to the current opioid crisis. For more information checkout, Gin: The Much Lamented Death of Madam Geneva.

You could also make an argument for rum is native to Britain given it was likely in invented in Barbados, or another British sugar island as a direct result of colonization.

This is the best answer I've had so far, thanks! And even better that book is available on Kindle Unlimited, thanks for the recommendation.

> You could also make an argument for rum is native to Britain given it was likely in invented in Barbados, or another British sugar island as a direct result of colonization.

That does make sense in fact and I think you've proven me wrong - technically at least - which is great, because my rum connoisseur friends did not propose that argument and I can tease them about it next time we hang out :)

I’ll bite. If we want to be pedantic, England is not a country, but obviously we mean uk.

It is difficult to prove this one wrong, without knowing how many years back you would accept before claiming it is from another country. I suspect all the other drinks could be traced to have origins in another country as well. This is further complicated by the fact that going back enough in time the country might not be considered the same country.

I will try with this brandy: Rush

https://www.brightwellvineyard.co.uk/ourshop/prod_7108518-Ru...

If not, Tesco finest cognac I think fits the bill :) and we can settle on it

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/295693637

Cognac can only be made in a particular bit of France. It seems the Tesco one is from the Distilleries de Matha:

https://iwsc.net/results/detail/121623/tesco-finest-xo-cogna...

https://www.maisons-cognac.fr/en/maison/distillerie-de-matha...

AFAIK you're right, that's why I specifically refer to continental Europe.

There was distillation going on in England in the middle ages, but probably to make medicine rather than booze [1]:

https://distillatio.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/distillation-in...

As far as i know, the first widely-drunk spirit in England was brandy, imported from France by Dutch traders (hence the name, brandewijn = "burnt wine"). Gin and whisky both took off when England got into ones of its regular wars with France, and brandy became embarrassing to import.

My best guess at why England was late to start making its own spirits is that we have a crummy climate but good trade links to the continent, so it was cheaper to import brandy than to make whisky or apple brandy. Whereas Ireland and Scotland have slightly crummier climates but far worse trade links, so domestic distillation made sense there.

[1] Which are different things - remember, "people say alcohol's a drug, it's not a drug, it's a drink".

Bulgaria has a rich culture of distilling Rakia from a variety of fruits (Rakia is a type of fruit brandy). Personally I dislike the Slivi (plum) based ones. The grape is my favourite.

My father-in-law left a whole килер full of self-made Rakia when he died. I cannot say that I like any kind of Rakia, but we sometimes use it as a prophylaxis against cold, because we cannot imagine that any virus can survive that stuff.

Article has somewhat of a Serbian slant.

Raki seems to be mostly done with grapes rather than plums in the southern part of the Balkans. I am not convinced that Rakija is the most common form. Most of it is made cheaply and not particularly enjoyable.

The Rakija I had in Serbia reminded of the plum eau-de-vie my grandfather used to illegally make when I was a kid in France. It’s definitely better but it’s probably too strong to ever be massively popular.

Good rakija, just like good whiskey, requires a significant investment of time to produce. Aging for 15 or more years is necessary to produce a high-quality rakija, which is why only a few distillers in Serbia are able to produce good rakija. When made at home, the quality of rakija can be inconsistent. Additionally, many home distillers face the problem of producing rakija that is excessively strong, which is not in line with its intended strength. Rakija is not supposed to be stronger than whiskey.

Cheap rakija is traditionally used as a household cleaner, for example windows

Related, I have been to Slovenia (Lake Bled and Triglav area)

The "Blueberry Snaps" or "Borovničevec" was excellent, and it should be better known. Unfortunately I can't get it here.

They also make variations with Cherries, honey, herbs, just about any fruit or flavour at hand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropinovec

It's a regional thing, as it has a bit in common with Slivovitz (plum brandy from Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Poland and multiple other countries) and Limoncello (lemon-infused liqueur from neighbouring Italy).

I wouldn't just focus on Serbia alone as a unique island of good distilled spirits, that's clearly not the only thing.

>..and Limoncello (lemon-infused liqueur from neighbouring Italy).

Eh, as you mention limoncello is a liqueur while all the others you mentioned are brandies. Italy has it's own variety of brandies though. Grappa probably being the major one.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but judging by the name Borovničevec should be made of Juniper berries, bot blueberries.

I'm sure there's a Juniper variant too, like I said "any fruit or flavour at hand".

There's definitely a popular blueberry one, google suggests that "Borovničevec" is it. However, I'm not the expert on Slovenian naming, I suggest that you try it under whatever name it goes by.

No, borovinčevec is made with blueberry (latin Vaccinium). blueberry in Croatian and Slovenian is borovnica.

Thought it might be about tsipouro, Greek unaged pomace brandy. It has a lovely bright freshness that to me is much more like tequila than an aged brandy. Doesn't have the broad range of weird tastes that mezcal has, though.

I attended a wedding in Albania where they served homemade raki. They drank it before the meal, which surprised me because I thought it would have been after as a digestive.

What does it mean to be "the next mezcal"?

Mezcal had a bit of a moment recently and spiked in popularity, for example it gained a few connoisseurs and cocktail bars started to work with it more. It sounds like this article suggests Rakija will experience this too, sadly I don't think it'll turn out this way.

I was always disappointed that mezcal had nothing to do with mescaline...

Mezcaline could be your legacy!

One makes you puke sometimes, and the other makes you puke most of the time.

I always enjoy seeing a bottle of Montelobos mezcal sitting on a shelf behind the bar in a place far from Mexico. Over the course of a month, I drank one Istanbul restaurant’s Montelobos supply.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chacha_(brandy)

You and me both, I really like it. A local cocktail place (“bar který neexistuje” - the bar which doesn’t exist) came out with a twist on the Moscow Mule a while back called the “Mezcal Mule” which are very more-ish :-)

And I legit love Chacha. I drank it a lot in Georgia and brought a bunch back home with me. I particularly love how most little shops sold it homemade and distributed in reused bottles of Coca Cola etc.

I also drank a lot of chacha in Georgia. A driver I had gave me plenty of in a “shot horn” from some animal. Good stuff.

In Europe, you could probably write "the next gin" instead, because that seems to be the alcoholic beverage du jour at the moment over here...

trigger warning: serbia is referred to as "southern europe"

Well, it's south of Switzerland.

I don’t understand your objection. It’s obviously well south of the middle. Even France is often lumped together with Southern Europe (esp in discussions about EU monetary policy) and it’s way further north than Serbia.

Also Serbian culture shares plenty of traits with other mediterranean cultures, despite not having a coastline (anymore). I don't understand who would be triggered, frankly.

> yebiga

Lol, nice name

Translation: fuckit

what I found nice about it is the use of `y` instead of `j` so that it could be pronounced correctly by international speakers who more often associate the letter `j` with the english (or to a lesser extent french) pronunciation of the letter.

EDIT: while at the same time making the word more web-searchable

Using the Serbian flag for a liquor that's popular all across the Balkans certainly is a choice, especially in an area that's infamous for its ethnic tensions...

I suppose so. The article does focus on Serbia pretty heavily though, and states that rakija originated there.

I don't think there's any conclusive evidence on rakija's origin, afaik the earliest evidence found so far is from 11th century Bulgaria.

Claiming it originates from Serbia is straight up Serbian nationalist propaganda imo.

Claims that "$foodstuff originated in $sountry" when it's more a than a few hundred years old should generally be read as a puff piece to raise tourism and country profile. They're common, e.g.

Hummus: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20171211-who-invented-hum...

halloumi is from Cyprus, but that's ... divided now: https://www.halloumicheese.eu/halloumi-cheese/the-history-of...

Wine plausibly originated in Georgia (the country) but it's so old, who can really tell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine

Arguing continuity of national borders over centuries in the Balkans is a fools game anyway.

Since you say that Cyprus is 2 countries now, you must be from Turkey.

I apologise if I offended you, yes it's complex and I no doubt oversimplified. But you don't know me in the slightest, assume nothing.

I have edited, since as you can surely see, nitpicking over this border is, as stated above "a fools game anyway".

It's not really that complex to be honest.. Turkey invaded Cyprus, occupied half of it and instated a puppet state.

It might be unpalatable for some, but it is the truth.

Yep, fools game to argue it under this topic.

> Arguing continuity of national borders over centuries in the Balkans is a fools game anyway.

Hear, hear.

Yet, the knowledge of the so called historical regions will get you far in Eastern and Southern Europe. The maps of voting behavior pop up here every now and then. And this is only one aspect.

Why are some Western people so stubborn about "branding" some parts of the world as "former warzone" for a way too long time?

Hmmm, Serbia wasn't "southern europe" last time I checked.

Both Worldatlas and Wikipedia disagree with you and include Serbia in Southern Europe

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-countries-make-up-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Europe

Then I stand corrected, I didn't think of the wider classification, that surely is correct, but to me it is southeast Europe or Balkan peninsula.

It depends on who you ask. The "World Factbook" puts Serbia in South-Eastern Europe [1], the Serbian Wikipedia page [2] puts it in South-Eastern or Eastern Europe. Myself, I would consider it part of the Balkans, with Southern Europe more traditionally defined as Italy, Spain, Portugal, maybe Greece.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Europe [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbia

EDIT: It's like saying that Arizona is part of the Southern United States.

We consider ourselves to be a continent of our own ;)

Part is contextual rather than geographical. People tend to lump countries which used to form Yugoslavia together as the Balkans and view them as somewhat similar to Romania from an economic point of view. Meanwhile, Greece which is definitely part of the Balkan Peninsula is lumped with southern countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal because it entered the EU as an early member at roughly the same time despite it bordering the European part of Turkey which most would definitely view as eastern.

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