Author: Luca Trifiletti
When I stepped out of the church, a Slovak gentleman handed me a shot glass. I was surprised: in Italy, after the wedding, you throw rice at the newlyweds, here you drink a shot? Dazed and confused, I stand for a few seconds with the glass in my hand, observing the bottles behind the gentleman, as they look kind of vintage, and dusty. His happy smile makes it impossible for me to turn it down, even though it is morning and a shot of brandy is the least of my desires for breakfast. I reluctantly gulp it down, feeling immediately tipsy, while my girlfriend explains to me that this is a tradition in Slovak towns and villages: the bride has a dowry of bottles, often stacked in a wooden crate buried in the family garden. The booze inside the bottles was proudly home-made, sometimes even decades ago, and then hidden for good luck, waiting for the special day.
This was my first time being invited to a Slovak wedding. It is difficult to describe the amount of folklore, dances, costumes, and colourful traditions you will witness if you ever participate in a Slovak “svadba” (wedding), but they are a big show. And the unexpected drinks waiting for you right outside the church are only the beginning. But weddings can be a topic for a different article, this time I want to write about the popularity of hard alcohol in Slovakia.
Fruit brandies being probably the most popular product: for example, the shot I described above was from slivovica, a plum brandy. But every fruit in Slovakia will be turned into spirits, from “hruška” (pear) they get hruškovica, from “jablko” (apple) jablkovica, from “višňa” (sour cherry) višňovica, from “hrozno” (grapes) hroznovica, from “marhuľa” (apricot) marhuľovica, from “dula” (quince) dulovica, and so on and so forth, just to list the most frequently encountered “destiláty”.
Then of course there is vodka, tasteless and strong, as the real men like their drinks. Well, at least this stereotype is the only reason I can find for the extreme marketability of this liquor in this part of Europe. Fun fact: “vodka” means “little water”, as the result of “voda” (water) combined with the typical Slavic diminutive suffix “-ka” (the same suffix that creates the nickname “Ivanka” for Ivana Trump, for example). Calling vodka “little water” is something of an understatement that says a lot about the Slavs’ irony!
And if a Slav wants to get drunk, chances are that they will choose vodka. But if they want something slightly more local than vodka, they will opt for borovička: especially popular in the mountains, this distilled drink is flavoured with juniper berries, therefore tasting similar to dry gin. It is quite strong, so much so that the hangover from borovička has its very own name in Slovak: “pomsta z lesa”, the revenge from the forest (Slavs let their irony loose when it comes to alcohol-related expressions).
And since we are in the mountains, at least with our imagination in this drinking guide, I will introduce another typical Slovak liquor invented in the High Tatras (a beautiful mountain range within the Carpathians and a beloved national symbol): Tatranský čaj, or Tatratea. Even though its large-scale production and distribution only began in 2003, Tatratea is an old traditional drink invented by Slovak mountaineers when they started enriching the tea with herbal liquors. The taste is a warm mix of tea leaves with the mild sweetness of tonic liquors, making it one of my favourite Slovak drinks.
Here I should at least mention the weirdly delicious hriatô here, but since I described it in a previous article about tlačenka and other pork delicacies, I will move to the next authentic Slovak spirit, another one of my personal favourites: medovina, which is the slovak word for mead, or hydromel. Being made by fermenting honey, medovina might be the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage: agriculture made possible producing beer and wine, but way before that, honey was already available. Did you know that mead, also known as honey wine, may be the reason why we say “honeymoon”? In Central Europe, according to the folktales, it was tradition to provide the newlyweds with a stock of medovina, so that they could drink it for the first month (lunar month, so based on the moon phases) of their marriage to make them energetic and uninhibited, facilitating the intercourse. This etymology is just a theory, but I find it fascinating. Fast-forward to the present day, Slovaks usually drink medovina straight and undiluted, but sometimes also mixed with hot tea in wintertime, and they are very proud of their mead: its quality is excellent, and Slovakia holds the record for the most awards won at competitions organized by Apimondia, the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations. Slovak medovina received recognition also at the Mazer Cup, the world's largest commercial mead competition, taking place in Kansas City, USA.
I don’t know if the delicious medovina is the flagship of Slovak drinks, but the competition from so many other beverages is pretty ruthless. If you visit Slovakia, you can experiment and you will have an embarrassment of riches, but take your time, enjoy every toasts, and choose your favourites, drinking in moderation. Na zdravie!
Team Global Slovakia
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