I might be wrong but Bechrovka is a digestive drink like Fernet or Bitter.
Is akavit sold at all in the US? It’s a Danish liquor as I understand. My cousin’s husband, who is of Danish descent likes it but can’t find it anymore, and you probably can’t airmail booze.
Akvavit* is Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, etc. (slight spelling variations) might be found in more specialty liquor stores. I’d imagine it’s a lot easier to find in Minnesota and other Scandinavian influenced places. Where are you? BevMo might ship. Airmail from Europe? I don’t know if you can, but I assume it’d be possible, but too expensive.
Slivovitz - if you’re expecting a plum taste, be disappointed. I don’t know if it’s worse than vodka or anything, and it depends on if it’s professionally bottled or not. I found it at BevMo. They had Maraska - Croatian brand at least.
*note the two "v"s. I think that’s the Swedish name?
It is, indeed, regarded as a digestif.
Aquavit/akvavit is a Scandinavian liquor and you can find it in the US. My local liquor superstore has four different kinds, a three domestic (one distilled in Chicago, one distilled in Minnesota, one from Washington) and one from Norway (Linie.) I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Swedish aquavit in the US, as well, but I can’t remember ever seeing anything from Denmark.
To me, it does taste like plums, but just the essence of plums, with all the sweetness removed. Much like kirschwasser (which is the same idea as slivovitz, except with sour cherries), has the smell and taste of sour cherries, but with no sweetness. There’s all sorts of clear fruit brandies out in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe like this. (Pretty much any fruit that grows there has been made into clear brandy. I’ve tried: apricot, pear, plum, cherry, white mulberry, quince, apple, sloe, mixed, etc. As you might guess, I love clear fruit brandies. You’ll also occasionally come across aged versions of these, where they take on a bit of a whiskey-ish color from the barrel aging.)
try Ikea. not sure if the US Ikea carries it but the Shanghai Ikea did
My mom used to make plum liqueur out of canned plums and vodka. All sugar and alcohol; thick as syrup. It took a couple months to take the edge off, but a pleasant thimble-full after that. Always wanted to make some, but I kept drinking the vodka.
Yeah, sorry, meant no sweet plum taste like a liqueur. It isn’t as neutral as vodka.
I’ve never had kirschwasser, but I impulse bought a bottle the other day because it was small and I’m not buying a big one. A cheap brand; I have no idea how authentic. Let me pour some… for science!
Yeah it’s in there, but not sweet per se. Although still would be unexpected if I didn’t know better because sour isn’t the first association with cherries.
Is she Polish by any chance? It seems like pretty much any old school Polish household will have a collection of homemade nalewkas, and plum is one of the common ones, called “śliwówka”, which is distinct from the Polish version of distilled plum brandy, which is śliwowica.
No. Bohunk.
In case there’s confusion, by “sour cherry,” I mean something like Morello or Montmorency cherries. They’re pretty popular up here in the Midwest, especially since Michigan and Wisconsin produce tons of them (the Montmorency kind.) They are especially good for pies and have more of what I would call the stereotypical “cherry” flavor than your sweet varieties.
Similar traditions there, too, so makes sense.
No, I know. In the west, the vast majority you can buy at regular supermarkets are Bing, followed by Rainier. The latter are rarer but still easy enough to find in season, and more expensive.
Sweet cherries are definitely more popular at the groceries, here, too. (Although sour cherries are quite popular because, like I mentioned, they’re grown a whole lot around here.) But when I think “cherry flavor” (like, say, in cherry cola or cough syrup or whatnot) , I think that sour cherries are closer to that stereotypical flavor vs. sweet cherries.
My wife is Jewish. The slivovitz lives in the freezer and comes out for shots on occasions of either celebration or commiseration. Ice cold is the only way it’s tolerable. The harsh almond-y flavor comes from the pits of the plums. Side note: slivovitz is not made from the kind of plums you would eat out of your hand; it’s made from damsons.
I was racking my brain trying to remember the usual type of plum used (although there’s various kinds used, depending on where it’s from. And, as mentioned above, some are made with pits, some without.) Damsons–that’s the one. They also make the best plum jam I’ve ever had.
No, Bohunks are frugal. Polaks are cheap. She and I have discussed this.
Years ago, Daniel offered me a shot glass of Maraska Slivovitz. This was the first time I had sat down with him and Mom always said to “Be Polite.” I found it stunning. He downed his shot and said, classically, “Ahh! That’s the stuff to feed the troops!” Over the next five years or so, I developed a taste for it and bought a bottle or two, or three to bring to his table, and several for my own. Oddly enough, identical bottles tasted better at his table than mine.
Years later, another friend was moving to his new neighborhood and I thought I would give him an intro to Slivovitz. He had previously experienced it and referred to it as battery acid. I ignored the comment and went on to prep him for an intro to my friend Daniel and explain the importance of “… the stuff to feed the troops…”, he jumped past that and referred to it, again, as battery acid!
They never met as Daniel had passed on before they met.
Having trouble typing, my eyes are blurring.
Maraska Slivovitz doesn’t seem to be available in the Cleveland area, I’m still looking.
I like Slivovitz, but for a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, mix it 1:1 with Kruskovac (pear liqueur). Now that is tasty stuff.