As you may remember, we are fond of the occasional tipple. And the Balkans are full of them, with enough variety to suit every taste. We’ll cover the basics, in our order of preference.
Rakija
You might know this as raki, arak, or even zivania (from Cyprus). Technically, they’re all fruit brandy or fruit spirits, with a fairly high alcohol content (especially if you buy them homemade from the farmer’s market, like we just did – but don’t worry, we haven’t gone blind yet). Rakija is at least seven hundred years old, though there is evidence suggesting it dates to the eleventh century.
What kind of fruit? Well, the kinds plentiful in Eastern Europe: grape, plum, apricot, peach, cherry, pear, fig, quince, mulberry, apple, raspberry and strawberry, and even walnut in (roughly, we think) that order of popularity across the area. Whereas in Greece and Turkey, the beverage often has an anise taste, here it is fruit-forward. Super-forward.
We struggled to decide what flavours to taste first. Sljivovica, the plum-flavoured one, is traditional, but we’ve tried it before (and liked it!), so we opted for novelty. And we did our usual when faced with a choice and picked them all. They were a surprise. We were expecting the throat-burning kick of ouzo or brandy but the ones we tried were sweeter and more pleasant going down. For us, the the grape rakija with honey was the winner. But we liked the pear and the apricot too, and the cherry (though the pear turns out to be Croatian). Luckily they come in little bottles, so we can keep several on hand.
Rakija usually comes chilled in shot glasses. According to one of our new Montenegrin friends, it cures what ails you. In fact, she also told us that many Montenegrins drink a small glass with their morning coffee, as a kind of vitamin. Which explains either why Montenegrins are so friendly, or why (they claim) they are so lazy. Or both.
Wine
Montenegro also grows grapes, and has for millennia. We’ve seen local Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay, but have concentrated our efforts on the indigenous grapes, Krstač (white) and Vranac (red). The Krstač is very dry, better with food than on its own. The Vranac is rich; it’s apparently related to Zinfandel grapes, so has those berry/ cinnamon/chocolate flavours. Yum!
In the interests of completeness, we also tracked down a rosé. made from Krstač, which is lovely to drink when you are sitting out on your balcony on a sunny day. The vast majority of Montenegrin wine comes from Plantaže, one of the largest companies in Montenegro (which owns one of the largest vineyards in Europe). Vranac is legitimately a big deal in the wine world; many countries import it, and it’s well worth tracking down if you like Zinfandel.
Amaro Montenegro
This actually comes from Bologna, not Montenegro. Still, we’ve seen it all over menus here. It’s not the bitters that go into cocktails, but rather the kind like Campari or Aperol or Averna. It’s a lovely aperitif, tasting to us most like Averna, i.e. sweet, then bittersweet, but then citrusy. They usually serve it over ice with orange peel, but you can also get it with soda. To be honest, we like it just fine, but it’s priced about the same as Aperol, which we would drink by preference, if we managed to drink anything other than rakija or wine. As we very well might not.
Balkan beers
This is also a part of the world that knows its beer. Trebjesa is the big brewer in town (a Molson Coors company), and they make a number of light lagers. There are a few craft beer companies too, some large like Akademija, some smaller like Mammut. Fabrika has won awards, and seems to have a wider range of beers (including stout). We like these beers well enough, though we will usually pick wine instead, unless it is really hot out or we are eating very particular kinds of food (Indian and Mexican). Which aren’t the foods of here.
Sweet liqueurs
We told you they like booze here! Here’s another one. On the suggestion of a guy we met in the grocery store (did we mention that people here are friendly?), we tried a sweet cherry liqueur, Baba Višnja. It was excellent: it’s cherry juice soaked in alcohol and then mixed with the Vranac grape. Just the right sweetness for us! Free history lesson: Baba Višnja is the mother of the founder of the Obrenović Serbian royal family. So very possibly we are committing a political act by drinking this alcohol. This is yummy stuff, but a bit too sweet for every day. Plus we’re trying our best not to make any controversial statements while we’re here, and we don’t know what this one signifies.
So as you can see, there is quite a variety of spirits to be consumed here. One of the nice things about these different drinks is how they resemble drinks we like from elsewhere but have their own particular tastes. No doubt there are more spirits that we have yet to encounter. We also want to find out whether certain spirits go better with particular foods or whether they are appropriate for particular occasions. In other words, there is a lot of research still to be done! And, as usual, you can count on us to continue to do the hard work to bring you this valuable information.
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