Slivenska Perla Rakia

The grape brandy "Slivenska Perla" is produced from the aromatic grape varieties Muscat Ottonel, Perla and Tamianka, widely distributed in the region of Sliven. It is with special technology aquired over the years, which guarantees consistency of quality. The rakia is matured for one year before bottling.

It has a soft taste and delicate flavour, the reason is due to the grape varieties used namely, Muscat Ottonel, Perla and Tamianka. Because of the quality this particular grape brandy "Slivenska Perla" (Sliven's Pearl) is in great demand throughout the country and beyond.

It is produced by Vini Sliven, Bulgaria which was oringally a wine produing compny started in 1920. This is one of the big two companies from that have own distillery for production of spirit from wine.

It is a standard 40% alcohol by volume and sold in 750 ml bottles.

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Caramalised Rakia Cocktail

This is a recipe that was given to me from a Bulgarian friend. He had travelled quite a bit and can't remember exactly where he got it from, he said he's had a few Rakia when to was told to him!

The caramelised sugar is a lovely accompaniment to this cocktail and compliments the Rakia and rum perfectly. It takes less than fifteen minutes to make

For one serving, you will need:

100 mls double cream
1 tsp vanilla syrup
2 sugar cubes (white or brown)
25 ml rum
100 ml Rakia
Ground nutmeg

Method:

Mix the cream and the vanilla in a warmed serving glass or tumbler.

The rum should now be poured over the sugar in a metal dessertspoon and set alight. The sugar will caramelise shortly.

Add the Rakia into the cream mixture and stir in the freshly caramelised sugar.

Serve with a small sprinkling of nutmeg and enjoy.

Making it is almost as enjoyable as drinking it.

Rakia Never Alone

Rakia, its a drink that is never lonely. What do I mean by that?

The Rakia is often if not mostly drunk in company of Bulgarian family or friends. It is normally the women that serve the Rakia to the men at the meal table. A Rakia therefore is subject to being served and drunk involving at least two parties, the server and the drinker, never alone.

Of course there are a few who regularly drink Rakia without human company, but this is confined in the main to shepherds who are out with the the goats and sheep each day; they the company in this case, never alone.

Rakia is always served with a side drink and food, another case of never being drunk alone. This gives further evidence that Rakia is never lonely. With all this company about, Rakia is responsible for the well being of Bulgarian communal society. It inspires friendship and discussion and a common element for all who are Bulgarian. It remains a part of the culture in which communication is the main ingredient and Rakia plays a major is part of that.

If ever you see a person drinking Rakia on its own and on their own, you will know that the chances are that either they are not a true Bulgarian, or they have a drink problem.

Kahlibar Rakia from Karnobat

Kehlibar Rakia, is made from grapes grown from vineyards in the Karnobat region. This is in south east Bulgaria some 50 kilomters west of Borgua and the Black Sea.

The grapes used are extensively a micture of Muscat, Dimyat, Pearl and Pamid varieties. There is an ageing process that takes a year stored small 230-litre barrels. This adds to the character of the Rakia with of oak and vanilla bouquets apparent. This gives a unique mild taste and dense amber colour.

The quality Kehlibar Rakia have been recognized by leading overseas experts. It has had the accolade of a bronze medal from the Monterey Wine Competition in King City, California. , USA. It also was awarded an Honorary Diploma at the specialized international competition Vinaria in Plovdiv in 2005.





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Euxinograde Rakia

Euxinograde Grape Brandy comes in a 375ml bottle with a standard 40% alcohol content by volume.

The minimum age of the Rakia is 3 years and is produced by the Euxinograde Chateau.

The Rakia has a pleasant aroma without being too perfumed. There is a certain life within the white fruit taste. The taste reminds you of sweet raisins, pear and green apples, along with herbal, wet hay and tall grass.

Euxingrade Rakia is quintessentially fresh with a perfect balance and texture. It it both delicate and persistent. The alcohol strength felt is minimal, but doesn't compromise with a firm, fruit-packed character.

With a Royal background this Rakia will give you a memorable Rakia experience.

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A bit of background about Euxinograde.

The Euxinograde Palace and Park

The Euxinograde Palace was started in 1882. It was designed by Ruppelmeyer a Viennese architect. The Bulgarian Prince Alexander Battenberg accepted as a present from the Council of senior clergy at the Greek Bishopric the monastery Saint Dimitar inclusive of its fields, vineyards and buildings in that particular year.

The prince later expanded the estate's boundaries to its' current state, It is situated around 8 km north of Varna,covering 80 hectares.

It was originally called Sandrovo, after its owner Alexander Battenberg- Sandro, but in 1983, it was given it#s new name at the request of Princess Maria Louisa, wife of the new Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand, Euxinograde means a "hospitable town".

The famous Euxinograde Park began being constructed in 1890. Different plant species from the Mediterranean, Asia and South America amount to over 200 and were personally selected by the 'Green Fingered' Tsar.

A cedar tree from the Himalayas called 'Deodar' is now one hundred years old was planted in a special fertile soil taken from the estuary of the Kamchia River. Adjacent to this, grows towering palm trees.

There are two intriguing bridges, one made of metal, the other made of cement, a copy of the trunk of a felled tree. This gives a finishing touch to the park's architecture.

And today, Euxinograde is for the privileged few, as it is now designated a Government residence. ("Every one is equal but some more equal than others!")

(Picture from http://www.visittobulgaria.com/images/gallery/Euxinograd_interior.jpg)

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Rakia and Shopska Salad

Yet another merry band of Rakia and Shopska Salad lovers, this time from the home of Shopska, Sofia!

clipped from sosofia.com Rakia and Shopska Salad Published by rada at 2:01 pm under Traditional Food Rakia cannot go without a meze (an appetizer) and maybe this is one of the reasons you cannot find it in the clubs or the discos. The most preferred choice is the Shopska salad. The name comes from the people who inhabit the area around Sofia and are usually referred to as Shopi. Rakia is a drink made of plums, grapes, apricots, or other fruits which is similar to the brandy and a great part of the people prepare it themselves. It is normally 40% alcohol but it can be much more stronger, especially when it is home-made. Though almost all Slavic nations have it, we consider it as a traditional drink, and indeed, its popularity here is enormous. Once you sit on a table with some locals you’ll notice that they order rakia right away. For my grandfather, for example, it is a matter of honor to offer his home-made rakia to his guests. Isn’t this a nice start to getting familiar with traditions?

Another Rakia Definition

Another official variation for the definition of Rakia.

It's amazing how many ways can you skin a cat?

rakia
noun

1. any of various alcoholic spirits distilled from fruit in the Balkans

Etymology: From rakija < possibly from Arabic (ARchar, Ù) ('araq) meaning sweat or wine (as the rakija or wine vapor drops are similar to drops of sweat). Exact etymology is hard to pinpoint as this word (or a variant of it) is found throughout the Balkans, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

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Drinking Rakia in Nesebar, Black Sea

An account of a holiday and the return to Bulgaria for a travelling Bulgarian.

Rakia and tradtional accompaniments are first on the menu as memories of Bulgaria are relived!

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Weekends or weekdays..... life never stops in BG. The restaurants and bars are full, the food is really great. All the things I loved to eat and grew up on I've had the opportunity to taste again, various salads with grated fetta on top, a multitude of choices for the meatlover: grilled delicacies and spit roasts, a selection of exotic seafood from the Black Sea and much more.

A standard 'small' drink is 50ml here, but the locals always order the 'standard' large of 100ml, served with a glass full of ice and a bottled mixer of their choice. Yes, they certainly can hold their drink around here. In some clubs it's possible to order 'hard' alcohol by the bottle, and the account is charged to the table. Many of the clubs which my cousin took me to had paid dancers breaking up the decor. In some of the exclusive ones, to sit at the bar you needed a reservation.

Weird. But Iveta, my cousin, was 'in the know', so it was no problem to secure a spot in these 'elite' clubs, prop ourselves at the bar for the night and watch the action unfold around us.

Nesebar, the old town

I had the pleasure of showing my Swiss friends, Beat and Jeremy, around Sofia for a weekend and we went bar-hopping. Apart from visiting quite a few hot nightspots, we even made it to a Chalga club. I loved watching the expression on their faces, puzzled looks of surprise.

After some typical sight-seeing around Sofia, Beat, Jeremy and I headed to Veliko Tarnavo (the old capital) for a day before making our way down to the Black Sea.
To be continued........

.......We stayed in Nesebar, in the old part of town, dating back to the Byzantine period. It was originally an island, but these days it's connected to the main land via a long channel built over the water.

There we stayed in a 2-storey greek cottage style house, where we rented a two bedroom apartment with a large balcony. We spent the next 5 evenings chatting away on our balcony, sipping fine Rakia (known as 'grapa' in English). We polished off a couple of bottles of 'Peshterska' Rakia (the name means 'from the cave'), as well as, a bottle of green apple flavoured Vodka. It was brilliant.

Nesebar, the old town

But the fun didn't end there. In the mornings we would rise to the sound of ........ Bag pipe solo, the seagulls, then stroll down through the busy streets of the old town and walk along the narrow way over the sea and to the beach. There we would sit down at the same cafe' every morning for a serving of hot pancakes and fresh coffee.

By about lunchtime, we'd made our way along the beach to the end, where we'd set up just meters away from the bar. We'd spend the rest of the day lazing about catching rays and going for the occasional dip in the water. About mid afternoon we would shift to the bar for a few beers and Beat would throw down a few Rakias, as well. Ha!

We would proceed with a couple more coconut oil tanning sessions, then wait for the lifeguards to disappear around 5pm, so that we could swim out into the water as far as we wished. At dusk we would make our way back through the cobble stone streets of Nesebar, watching the sky change colour, knowing there was still quite a bit of Rakia left in our room.

After a few refreshments we'd head out for seafood, before returning to the room for some more Rakia.

Nesebar, the old town

Jeremy and the bag pipe guy... one on one day we'd do it all over again. Muy bueno!

By chance we discovered there would be a huge beach party called Metropolis (i think), which was going to take place on Saturday night, the same night we were leaving. We thought we'd try to change our bus tickets back to Sofia for the Sunday morning, to arrive back in time for Beat and Jeremy to take their flight to Switzerland. It was going to be a close call, but for those who feel lucky, things always work out fine. Right! So, luckily, we managed to secure our new seats.

We went to the party, it turned out to be a huge beach concert with bands starting off the night, and then the DJ sets to close off in the morning. I took photos of the most memorable bands, which you can view below. Both Gravity Co. and Ladytron played songs in English and some in Bulgarian. They were really great.

We were due to leave the party at 5am, so we could get our bags and head to the bus stop, but we managed to catch some of Sasha's DJ set. The last two hours of music we heard

View from our balcony

On the way back along the beach and from the balcony of our apartment. The sound was so loud it could be heard across several kilometers of sea water.

After spending 6 hours on the bus back to Sofia, the lucky ones felt pretty unlucky. My Swiss freinds' flight was at 4pm and at 2.30 we were still driving through a mountain range outside of town........

Surprisingly, one out of our three brains was still functioning, Beat's. We convinced the bus driver to drop us off near the airport on the way into town. It was 3pm when we hopped off the bus and caught the first taxi to the airport. A 10min ride and we arrived just in time for their flight. The perfect ending to a perfect holiday.

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Many thanks to Zoe Malinova for donating her story.

More of Zoe's travel adventures can be found at this link: http://www.travelblog.org

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Rakia al-Gassra the Athlete

Another Rakia link came out as I watched the Olympics last night. This time. the name of a woman called Rakia.

Her full name is Rakia al-Gassra and she was born on September 6th 1982 she is currently a Bahraini athlete and competing in the Olympic Games in Beijing.

A quick run down of her history to give the the full picture:

In 2004 a the Asian Indoor Championships in Iran, she won three silver medals, in the 60 metre, 200 metre and 400 metre races, She also represented Bahrain in the 400 metre event at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest.

She was one of the first women to represent Bahrain at the Olympic Games, by taking part in the women's 100 metres sprint at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She ran with a head scarf and her body fully covered and finished fifth in her heat with a time of 11.49 seconds.

By 2006, she had improved her time to 11.34 seconds and won the gold medal in the 200 metre race at the Asian Games, in Doha. This made her the first Bahraini-born athlete to win gold at a major international athletics competition extending beyond the Arab world. She also also won bronze in the 100 metre race.

In 2007, she was scheduled to take part in the Pan Arab Games in Egypt, the Asian Championships in Lebanon and the IAAF World Championships in Osaka but she pulled out of the latter championships due to injury.

In 2008, al-Gassra won gold in the 60 metre race at the Asian Indoor Championships in Doha, setting a new championships record with a time of 7.40 seconds.

Currently she is to compete in the 100 metre and 200 metre events at the Olympics in Beijing and will be her country's flag bearer at the Games' opening ceremony.

All Rakia lovers will I'm sure wish Rakia luck with a few 'Nastraveys!' if she wins a medal.

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What is Distillation?

Distill actually means:

• To let fall or send down in drops.

• To obtain by distillation; to extract by distillation, as spirits, essential oil, to distill brandy from wine; to distill alcoholic spirits from grain; to distill essential oils from flowers, to distill fresh water from sea water.

• To subject to distillation i.e. to distill molasses in making rum; to distill barley, rye, corn and so on.

The Distillation Process

Distillation in it's most basic form is a process used to separate a composite mixture into base elements. It involves a metamorphosis or change of state, namely liquid to gas and then subsequent a to return of gas back to liquid.

The basic distillation apparatus (still) has three parts:

• A flask with an outlet tube

• A condenser

• A vessel

Distillation A Simple Explanation

Distillation has been and is used to separate alcohol from various fruits, grains, wines and beers. Once the raw material (fruits, grains, etc) has fermented it is heated. Since different base elements in the material, such as water, alcohol, and fuel oils have varying boiling points, the elements separate. The distilled material is then collected in a vessel - with care that the heads and tails (undesirable elements) are excluded from the drinkable alcohol.

The Stills Used in the Rakia Making Process

The Alembic Pot is the oldest and most recognizable still designs. The flask or kettle which a bulb shaped and usually made from copper. this is where the alcohol escapes from one the 'wine' mixture is heated. The gas rises and passes through a narrow pipe through to a serpentine styled coil. Waiting at the other end is a cold-water bath which condenses the gases in the coils, magically converting this back to liquid form.

There is a new modern equivalent called the reflux or column still more technically advanced than the pot system used extensive in Bulgaria. It is naturally more efficient, needing only a single distillation.

Much rakia made from the other system is used again the following year as the alcohol content it is too weak. There is much more control with the end result and takes the 'chances' and 'luck' and some would that it takes the tradition out of rakia making. The reflux however is not only more efficient, but also reduces potential harmful cyanides and other poisons that can harm drinkers if too much of them are present.

So, we all know the end result but the lead up to this is quite scientific. The tradition and rule of the thumb distillation will remain for many years to come in rural Bulgaria. But as the technical know how rolls on the quality of rakia can only be improved over the years.




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Bulgarian Rakia House Video Clip

To get a taste of what a rakia house looks like I found this clip for you to see.

I must admit it is the cleanest rakia house I've ever seen, and I seen a few. Perhaps they scrubbed it up for the video.

Even if you can't speak Bulgarian it doesn't matter, the clip and the actions paint a thousand words in any language anyway.



A Rakia story.... -


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Dolph Lundgren and Rakia

Quote
"Rakia is part of a keep fit training diet"

Dolph Lundgren

Dolph Lundgren is a household name due to his acting roles in Universal Soldier and Rocky IV. He is now directing a move in Bulgaria called 'Command Performance'.

He was in Stara Zagora filming some karate scenes and met the major of the city whilst he was there. Dolph is a friend of Bulgarian Slavi Slavov who is part of the Bulgarian National Karate Team. Slavi also works with Dolph in many scenes in his current film.

He was given a useful present, a bottle of 'First Class' rakia to help him with his training.



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Religious Rakia

You would think that the blood of Christ is represented by wine. With this the essential part of the Eucharist rite tradition in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in the region would stick to this.

However rakia has crept into the deep founded religious traditions, where are you likely to fin this? Naturally in rakia country where certain religious and related rituals are still practiced across the Balkans peninsula.

Examples of these are at the end of the Orthodox Christian burial service. Visitors are offered a piece of soda bread, at the exit from the cemetery. Accompanying this is a glass of rakia. When drinking the rakia you have to spill some on the ground and say "May God receive this for him or her". It is given for the soul of the deceased, after which you finish the drink conventionally.

During wedding ceremonies, a glass of rakia is offered to all the guests by the groom's father. Then sharing a toast for the happiness of the newlyweds. This is beyond the normal custom of offering rakia to guests as a welcoming gesture.

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