An American's Report From A Serbian Village

This is a fascinating read as the similarities between village life in Serbia and Bulgaria very close indeed. And of course the Rakia remains part of the traditions that carry on.

Djole’s grandparents lived in the village for nearly 70 years (they passed away in 2003). They were totally self-sufficient and raised their family in the village, including Dusan. They owned pigs and goats; grew corn, tomatoes, and other vegetables; owned bee hives for honey; made wine and Rakia from grapes; picked fruit off surrounding trees; got fresh water from the well on their property. The family would barter and trade with other villagers on Mondays in the village center to accommodate any lacking nutritional needs. The family stretched out their food sources, as corn kernels were ground up and made into bread, lamb’s wool was wound for garments, and domestic leather shoes were produced. We were once again treated to a great Serbian meal of grilled lamb and cucumber/tomato salad. Of course we were convinced to try the Rakia, as every new fruit flavor was coined to be “better than the other flavor.” Yeah, we caught on to their attempts to get us drunk. Clipped from footballinserbia.wordpress.com Well worth a read fo the whole report fro this link

A Night Of Punk And Rakia

Looks very much like the mixture of puck and rakia mix very well indeed considering getting hoplessly drunk is part of punk culture! Stephanie tells of her night combinng both, not recommended for the faint hearted.

On a very wet Thursday evening in April, I escaped to a nearby basement bar on Queen West, known as 751 or the Basement to locals, after a disastrous night at the Drake shooting for a band I won’t bother mentioning. It was pouring rain: my gear bag was doing a good job protecting my camera but I was wet, nearly soaked, and I wanted to go somewhere to help liven up my spirits. I dried off at the bar, warming up with a shot or two of Rakia, a Serbian plum liquor. As I swallowed the Rakia, the liquor entered my half-empty stomach, while my eyes and ears were met with intense energy provided by 751’s resident band, The New Kings. Sadly, the New Kings’ residency ended at 751 that night, along with a friend of theirs, Worldly Savages, moving to Montreal to pursue his musical career. I risked snapping some pictures in the maddening and partially drunk crowd, capturing some images you see here. No thanks to the Rakia, my head had a hard time recovering the next day. Clipped from stephaniecloutier.wordpress.com

Phatpigeon's Thoughts On Rakia

Whilst surfing I came across a post title 'The Power of Rakia...' It was written by a chap called Phatpigeon. He is an Australian living in Serbia, but is currently on holiday in Belgrade.

Within the post is a reference to Rakia that phatpigeon has given - I quote:

Still, the awesome power of rakia has helped me open up a little again. It's a 45% white alcohol made with plums, and is something like $7 a litre. Sure i get massive headaches afterwards, but at least for the preceding hours I feel on top of the world :p

If you want to read the full post you can @ http://phatpigeon.livejournal.com/3244.html

Photograph from Image by Boby Dimitrov via Flickr

Yambolska Rakia Television Advert for 2009

Here is this the 2009 television advert for Yambolska Rakia, which I often see in the evening. The mood is certainly a calm setting with a warm family and friends atmosphere. Added to which is a sensible stance to drink with food, namely shopska salad Bulgaria's national food combination. What a refreshing change for other drinks such as vodka aimed at young drinkers. Yambolska Rakia producers of this advertisers certainly have taken a responsible stand with this advertisement.

Coriander Rakia - A New Taste, A Great Taste

Image by AudreyH via Flickr

Another bout of Rakia drinking took place last night as we were invited to meet some new friends in an apartment block home. All we had to bring with us was some of my homemade grape Rakia as all the food was catered for.

We arrived and soon after the friends arrived. My own Rakia went down a treat in fact too well we got through the litre that I brought along and we ran dry after a few hours. This was no problem as one of the guests lives three flights above on the eighth floor and decided that we should try his own homemade grape Rakia so off he went.

Moments later another 1 litre of Rakia arrived and we were told that it registered 50% on the Richter scale. As the first sip was taken, my mouth came alive with the taste of which I had never experienced before. Even at the 50% strength it travelled smoothly to the stomach and left a trail of herby tastes in its wake. I asked how he got these wonderful flavours in his Rakia and his answer was no secret, he used coriander in the process.

Most if not all coriander in Bulgaria is exported and they export a load! This was the first time I had known it to be used in Rakia and was very impressed with the final result. There is a coriander farm near my village so it might be a little trip there to get some coriander and try his recipe out on my next batch. He did mention that it had to be grape Rakia as this was the best ingredient to use with so much natural sugar.

Well the evening passed and we finished the bottle between us just before midnight as we danced our way back home it was a quick and easy sleep with all that Rakia and hanging flavours in my system.

Coriander Rakia? It certainly impressed me and another twist in varieties experienced.

Another Private Distillation Of Rakia In Bulgaria

This was made about a year ago from a 27 year old Bulgarian called Gligorash. His system uses a gas heated still to heat up the 'wine'. The rakia glass is placed in the reception container where the rakia trickles out to speed up the cooling of the spirit. It can get quite warm even hot after condensing. Not an exciting video, but it does give you a glimpse of another private distillation process in Bulgaria.

A Visit To Bulgaria The Rakia Country

Grant Podelco is an American journalist living and working in Prague. His visit to Bulgaria opened his eyes to what life is like there and of course rakia is part of that. His post has some great pictures in a slide show of the food and drink that is part of everyday life in Bulgaria.

I have just taken a short extract here, but recommend you read the full post of Grant's account. I'm sure he'll return at some point, and it was good that respect was given to the rakia drunk and no sore heads in sight.

Bulgaria, Inside And In Style We ate lots of incredible home-cooked food -- from drob sarma, a subtle Bulgarian lamb and rice pie, to what seemed to me to be an entire roasted lamb, cooked to perfection. We drank what seemed like liters of homemade rakia, a fruit brandy that packs a powerful punch. For the full accoutn go to: http://gusto-blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/bulgaria-inside-and-in-style.html

Yambolska Rakia Drinking Glass

Local Rakia from Yambol known as Yambolska Rakia often comes in 700 cl or 1 litre sized bottles. On these bottles sometimes is a Rakia drinking glass. It's not free as they up the price if this is with the bottle. You will find many homes in Yambol with these glasses in their kitchen. Hardly any in villages as they never buy Rakia but drink their own.

I personally have around five of these, all bought during the first year here when my own prodution wasn't in action. They are of good quality and I always use this glass to drink my own Rakia. As you can see the black print is slightly worn away where it has been picked up and drunk every evening over the last few years.

Bulgarian Homemade Rakia In Jeopardy Before EU Entry

This article was published back in 2003 well before Bulgaria became entangled with EU regulations concerning duty from home made distilled rakia. I'm sure it was a warning shot from Bulgarian politicians who knew that one of the conditions for Bulgarian EU entry was rakia making accountablility to become mandatory. This of course could prejudice Bulgaria becoming an EU member if not applied.

It is now know that it continues to be an ongoing battle for Bulgarians to have the freedom to produce alcoholic products from nature and their own hand from within Bulgarian and the EU.

What do you think? - Have a vote on the poll on the left column.

Home-Made Rakia Stilled by Vine-Growers Only Only people growing vineyards or other fruit of their own, will be let to still home-made rakia up to 50 litres per household, the Budget Committee adopted at the second reading of the amendments to the Excise Duties Act. From August 1, 2004 on, all the private-owned small distilleries will have to be equipped with special gauges to measure the quality of the liquors. The amendment stipulating higher fines to be levied on illicit distilling will be debated next week. Liquors in plastic bottles exceeding 1 l to be banned, the MPs passed. They, however, allowed liquors to be sold in glass bottles up to 1.5 l. The MPs are to adopt the notorious new excise duties on fuels next week, too. -------- Sourced from new.standartnews.com on Saturday, 29 November 2003 Image via Wikipedia