I’m pretty sure slivovica is specific to plum brandy, since sliva is the root word and means “plum.” At least this is how it works in Polish and Croatian. I may be wrong, but I’ve never come across slivovica/slivovitz/szliwowica as anything but plum brandy.
Anyhow, variations of clear fruit-flavored (but not sweet) brandies are found throughout Europe. In Germany, they’re called schnapps. In Hungary, palinka (pear, peach, sour cherry, and plum versions being the most popular). In Croatia, rakija (slivovica being the main type consumed there). In Poland, wodka is used as a general term for grain and fruit distillates.
100% right…mea culpa. The ending -vice is what I meant to further expound upon. Hruskovice (pear brandy), Tresnovice (cherry), Merunkovice (apricots), even Pivovice which is distilled from beer mash!
I LOVE the stuff…but man, it is strong and can hurt you in the morning. Less of a hangover than wine if poured drink for drink, but all too often once a bottle of Domaci Slivovice (homemade plum brandy) is cracked, that thing gets drained.
Pivovice, huh? Is that anything at all like whiskey? (Because whiskey is essentially distilled unhopped beer). I’ll have to keep an eye out for it next time I’m in the area.
I do love my slivovica, too. Most of my American friends think it’s the vilest stuff on earth, but, hey, more for me!
Hungarian Unicum is as near to medicinal as I like my alcohol to get.
Aqvavit (I had the caraway one) is yummy. It was imbibed in scary quantities by my Norwegian former housemates.
The big drink in large parts of Africa is corn beer, which, although not a distilled hard liquor, can be lethally intoxicating in its own right.
Although I’ve had Goldschlager often (the cinnamon flavour schnapps with flakes of gold in it), it’s harder to find the much nicer Gold Wasser, which is a Polish vodka, and is sort of orange flavoured.
And if made properly, are about the best alcholic drink I’ve ever had, and I’m typically a martini drinker. Our local Brazilian steakhouse has a server that goes around with a cart making these. Very, somewhat dangerously tasty.
Close. A pernod that has had wormwood steeped is not really considered an old school Absinthe, so much it would be an expensive way to do a maceration.
Absinthe, done properly, has wormwood, white oak, anise, and a host of other herms all distilled togehter. Basically it is an herbal liquor, but with the thujone to give it a kick and the mystique of the forbiden, at least here in the states.
I did mention it above since I’ve an opened bottle currently sitting on the bar (plus the powdered stuff used to make fake “sour pisco”. I wondered if someone else knew it.
This is what I opened the thread to mention. I had it for the first time a couple of years ago, at a house party hosted by a Peruvian student of my wife’s. He was very particular about explaining the difference between the Peruvian and Chilean varieties; he said Peru’s pisco was the “true” stuff, but he also allowed that someone would Chile would say the same about their own. Chile’s pisco is somewhat lighter and sweeter than the Peruvian version, he said, and then he poured me a shot of Peruvian pisco.
Fuckin’ rocket fuel, man. Damn.
I went out and bought some a couple of months later.
Dunno about Kummeling, but kümmel, the German (although I believe it was first made by the Dutch and then the Russians) liqueur flavored largely with caraway, cumin and sometimes fennel is widely available in the U.S.
Gotta bottle in the freezer at home. If it ain’t ice cold, it’s simply not palatable.
Yes, I got the same speech from the Peruvian shop-owner who sold me he bottle I currently have . Shame on me, I always had Chilean Pisco ( a friend of mine lives in Chile) and didn’t even know it was also produced in Peru.
Second. Second coolest. Coolest is “wodky”.
Anyway, no native spirit styles in my part of the world. Traditionally Australian whisky was the cheapest slop you could get, but now you can get rotgut Scotch even cheaper, so that kinda died out. There is a niche market for high end single malts from Tasmania and elsewhere, but that’s pretty small. The main spirit distilled here is red rum. Some of it is very good apparently, but I wouldn’t know because I don’t like the stuff.
Interesting. I got my knowledge from an article written years ago…This explains it so much more. Neat, thanks!
pulykamell, pivovice is not quite like whiskey…there is only one brewery in town that I’ve had it at- Pivovarsky Dum. They do a bunch of non-traditional beers there (banana beer, cherry) and other experiments- they also have a beer ‘champagne’ they call ‘S(h)amp’. I’d say pivovice is closer to an Aqvavit than to a whiskey. Definitely not a normal thing around here, but interesting.
. Shame on me, I always had Chilean Pisco ( a friend of mine lives in Chile) and didn’t even know it was also produced in Peru.