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Slivovitz is a fruit spirit (or
fruit brandy In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
) made from
damson The damson () or damson plum ('' Prunus domestica'' subsp. ''insititia'', or sometimes ''Prunus insititia''),M. H. Porche"Sorting ''Prunus'' names" in "Multilingual multiscript plant names database, University of Melbourne. Plantnames.unimelb.e ...
plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). If anyone else has a dictionary of some Slavic language that translates your word for slivovitz as "plum brandy", please add additional citations here. Slivovitz is produced in
Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
,
Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...
and
Southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Alb ...
, both commercially and privately. Primary producers include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. In the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
, slivovitz is considered a kind of ''
rakia Rakia, Rakija, Rachiu or Raki (), is the collective term for fruit spirits (or fruit brandy) popular in the Balkans. The alcohol content of rakia is normally 40% ABV, but home-produced rakia can be stronger (typically 50%). Etymology Fruit s ...
''. In Central Europe it is considered a kind of
pálinka Pálinka is a traditional fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) with origins in Carpathian Mountains, more exactly known under several names, and invented in the Middle Ages. Protected as a geographical indication of the European Union, only fruit spir ...
(Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine—
pálenka In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, pálenka is any kind of distilled beverage but especially fruit brandy. The term is often used generically for all kinds of liquors, including vodka, gin and borovička. The word derives from the Slavic verb * ...
, or Greece, Romania and Italy-pălincă), and similar to Romanian
țuică Țuică (; sometimes spelled tuica, tzuika, tsuika, tsuica, or tzuica) is a traditional Romanian spirit that contains ~ 24–65% alcohol by volume (usually 40–55%), prepared only from plums. Other spirits that are produced from other fruit or ...
, corresponding to the distilled spirits category.
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
put it in a
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.Compare: This list is published by the Intergover ...
in 2022 on request of the country of geographic origin Serbia.


Etymology

The word ''slivovitz'' derives from
Proto-Slavic Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately from the 2nd millennium B.C. through the 6th ...
"plum" ( bg, слива, cz, švestka or ''slíva'', pl, śliwka, sh, šljiva/шљива, or sk, slivka) with the diminutive
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
(; ''-ice'' in Czech). Distilled spirits from different fruits are named similarly. For example, Czech apricot → apricot spirit; peach → peach spirit. Other names include slivovitza, slivovitsa, șliboviță, šljivovica, śliwowica, Schlivowitz, slivovice, slivovica or slivovka.


Production and consumption

The primary producers are
Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and Pars pro toto#Geography, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of Southern Europe, south and southeast Euro ...
, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia.


Regional names

Following the claims of several nations to the
protected designation of origin The protected designation of origin (PDO) is a type of geographical indication of the European Union and the United Kingdom aimed at preserving the designations of origin of food-related products. The designation was created in 1992 and its main ...
, in October 2007 the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
went for a compromise solution, leaving "slivovitz" as a generic name, and granting individual nations the right to protect the origin with their own adjective. In respective languages, ''slivovitz'' () is known as: bg, сливова, сливовица; cz, slivovice; nl, Slivovits,german: link=no, Sliwowitz, Slibowitz; hu, sligovica; it, slivovitz; mk, сливова; pl, śliwowica; ro, şliboviţă; russian: link=no, сливовица; hr, šljivovica; sr, шљивовица; sk, slivovica; sl, slivovka; ua, слив'янка; and yi, שליוואָוויץ. Identical or similar spirits are also produced in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United States, and regional names include generic ''plum spirit'', ''Pflümli'', or '' eau-de-vie de
quetsche The prune plum (''Prunus domestica'' subsp. ''domestica'') is a fruit-bearing tree, or its fruit. It is a subspecies of the plum ''Prunus domestica''. The freestone fruit is similar to, but distinct from, the clingstone damson (''Prunus domest ...
''.


Distilling process

Only Damson plums may be used as the base fruit for distillation. Before the production process, the plums may be slightly pressed or otherwise disrupted to speed up the fermentation process, but without damaging their ground kernels;
yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...
,
starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human die ...
, and sugar may be added to the juice. The mixture is then allowed to ferment. There may be one or more distillation stages, depending on the desired final product or region of production, and aging is common to enhance the distillate's finer flavours. Some producers have obtained a
Hechsher A hechsher (; he, הֶכְשֵׁר "prior approval"; plural: ''hechsherim'') is a rabbinical product certification, qualifying items (usually foods) that conform to the requirements of halakha. Forms A hechsher may be a printed and signed certi ...
certifying that it is
kosher for Passover ''Chametz'' (also ''chometz'', ', ''ḥameṣ'', ''ḥameç'' and other spellings transliterated from he, חָמֵץ / חמץ; ) are foods with leavening agents that are forbidden on the Jewish holiday of Passover. According to halakha, Jews ...
, and thus suitable for consumption during the festival when grain-based liquors are forbidden. Some modern production techniques, such as those used by Clear Creek in Oregon, omit the use of the pits in fermentation to create a less acerbic or bitter taste. Imitation slivovitz is made by flavouring spirits with
prune A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum (''Prunus domestica''). Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. A prune is the firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of '' Prunus domestica'' varieties that have a high so ...
juice and artificial oil of bitter almonds.


History, by country


Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the "Troyan plum spirit" (Troyanska Slivova) has been distilled in the
Troyan Monastery The Monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God ( bg, Троянски манастир „Успение Богородично“) or, as it is more commonly called, the Troyan Monastery is the third largest monastery in Bulgaria. ...
by the monks since the founding of the monastery in the 14th century. The original recipe included 40 herbs, and was passed through the centuries from abbot to abbot. In 1894, the Monastery's spirit was presented at a spirits competition in
Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
, Belgium, where it won a bronze medal. Some of its distinguishing characteristics include that it is made of a plum variety that only grows in the Troyan region, an old variety the locals call "Madzharkini plums", very juicy and aromatic whose stone, unlike the Teteven plums, is easily removed from the fruit; it is distilled in a vessel with a capacity of 80 to 120 litres; and only the best of the harvest is distilled. It is considered best distilled to an alcohol level between 39 and 41 degrees. Some celebrities who have tasted Troyan plum spirit are
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
and former US President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
. Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria celebrated his 95th birthday in 2009 in the Sofia Metropolitanate with Troyan plum spirit. In 2007, in cooperation with the Bulgarian government, the Czech distillery ''Rudolf Jelinek'' protected the brands "Troyanska slivova" and "Tetevenska slivova" in the EU. That same year, this distillery, the largest European manufacturer of fruit distillates, bought a majority share in the largest Bulgarian slivovitsa vinery "Vinprom-Troyan", after having bought, half a year earlier, the second largest "Destila Teteven". However, the Czechs reduced the
alcohol content Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
to pay less duty. The production of "Vinprom-Troyan" is mainly for export. For the past 18 years, Troyan has had a special holiday: ''The Festival of Plum''. This holiday is celebrated at the end of September in Troyan and in the village of Oreshak, where the Troyan Monastery is located. The plum has always been an essential produce in this region. Since the beginning of the 20th century, plums have been made into marmalades, pesto, dried prunes, and pulps, all of which were exported into Western Europe.


Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia ''slivovice'', or '' slivovica'', respectively (as well as other fruit-based distilled alcoholic drinks) due to the somewhat symbolic status of the
Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The ...
n "national" drink is strongly presented in local traditions, culture and pop culture like in proverbs, songs, TV shows and movies. ''Slivovice'' is primarily produced in the southern and eastern provinces of Moravia and in Vysočina, where the country retains its rural character. Although not legal, traditional
moonshine Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...
home
distilleries Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heat ...
still exist, nonetheless, the majority of private production moved to certified local community-owned distilleries to prevent errors during the distillation process (leading to concentration of toxic
methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is ...
). Certified production also allows state authorities to collect respective taxes (based on the proof of the alcohol in the final product), however tax-reliefs for limited private and non-commercial production of the drink exist. The usual proof of private-produced ''slivovice'' is over 50% of
alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...
in the final product, commercially available mass-produced slivovice is proofed less. ''Slivovice'' is mostly served in small shot glass known locally as ''"panák"'' (literally: a dummy), "''kalíšek'' (colloquial for a small cup) or "''štamprle'' (from German "''das Stamperl'', a little glass). Keeping slivovice cold helps to reduce the effects of high proof; however, the drink is almost never served on the rocks. To enjoy the aroma and taste of the original fruit it is better and more common to drink ''slivovice'' served at room temperature.


Poland

The
mountainous A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...
region of southern Poland has a long tradition of making slivovitz. Historically it has been distilled by local Goral highlanders and not necessarily given any particular brand names. One of the more recognised of such products is Śliwowica łącka associated with the town of Łącko. However, due to the fact that it is made without any specific control and brand ownership it has declined in quality, especially in recent years. Slivovitz was also distilled in large quantities by the Jewish community of Poland before the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. As a popular
Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...
alcohol, slivovitz had a strong standing among the traditional Jewish-Orthodox communities. State-owned distillers tried to reintroduce the slivovitz based on Jewish traditions in the form of ''Pejsachówka''. After 1989, Pejsachówka had disappeared from the market. Polish distillers continue to produce Śliwowica Paschalna and Śliwowica Strykowska (Strykover Slivovitz), which are both certified as
kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
.


Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia

Šljivovica ( sr-Cyrl, шљивовица, ) is the national drink of Serbia in domestic production for centuries, and the
plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found ...
is the national fruit. Šljivovica has a
Protected Designation of Origin The protected designation of origin (PDO) is a type of geographical indication of the European Union and the United Kingdom aimed at preserving the designations of origin of food-related products. The designation was created in 1992 and its main ...
(PDO). Plum and its products are of great importance to Serbs and are a part of numerous traditional customs. A Serbian meal sometimes starts or ends with plum products and šljivovica is served as an apéritif. A saying goes that the best place to build a house is where a plum tree grows the best. Traditionally, šljivovica (commonly referred to as " rakija") is connected to a Serbian culture as a drink used at all important rites of passage (birth, baptism, military service, marriage, death, etc.). It is used in the
Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous ( ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the population ...
patron saint celebration, Slava. It is used in numerous folk remedies, and is given certain degree of respect above all other alcoholic drinks. The fertile region of
Šumadija Šumadija (, sr-Cyrl, Шумадија) is a geographical region in the central part of Serbia. The area used to be heavily covered with forests, hence the name (from ''šuma'' 'forest'). The city of Kragujevac is the administrative center of ...
in central Serbia is particularly known for its plums and šljivovica. In 2004, over 400 000 litres of šljivovica was produced in Serbia. In 2017, Serbia was the 5th largest producer of plums and
sloe ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalisation (biology), naturalized ...
s in the world. After legal disputes, following the compromise of 2007 "Serbian Slivovitz" ( sr, Српска шљивовица / ''Srpska šljivovica'') became Serbia's first certified national brand. Šljivovica is consumed either directly from a leather-wrapped round bottle, or chilled in a shot glass called ''čokanjčić'' (plural: ''čokanjčići''). There is also a town in
Zlatibor Zlatibor ( sr-cyr, Златибoр ) is a mountainous region situated in the western part of Serbia. Among the most popular places in Serbia for tourism, Zlatibor's main attractions include health tourism, skiing, and hiking and the longest p ...
, called
Šljivovica Slivovitz is a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). If anyone else has a dictionary of some Slavic language that translates your word for slivovitz as "plum brandy", please ...
. A popular print in Serbia depicts a moustached peasant wearing the '' šubara'' (fur hat), drinking šljivovica from a leather-wrapped bottle, with the motto: ''"Fuck the Coca, fuck the pizza, all we need is šljivovica"''. In 2021, Serbia's sljivovica was added to the United Nations Intangible Cultural Heritage List as a "cherished tradition to be preserved by humanity". In Slovenia it is known as ''slivovka''. People used to drink it with morning coffee (some still do).


See also

* Damson gin * List of Slivovitz producers *
Plum jerkum Plum jerkum is an alcoholic drink produced from plums. It has been variously described as made in the same way as ciderHart-Davis, D. ''Country Matters, 1988, p.165 and as a fruit wine,Archer, F. ''Farmers, craftsmen and music makers: life in a W ...
*
Tsikoudia ''Tsikoudia'' ( el, τσικουδιά, tsikoudiá, literally "terebinth"), also often called '' raki'' ( el, ρακή, rakí) in the eastern part of Crete, is an alcoholic beverage, a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Cretan origin that co ...
* Tsipouro


References


Sources

*


External links

{{List of intangible cultural heritage of Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina distilled drinks Bulgarian distilled drinks Croatian distilled drinks Czech distilled drinks Hungarian spirits Fruit brandies Macedonian drinks Plum spirits Polish distilled drinks Serbian distilled drinks Serbian products with protected designation of origin Serbo-Croatian words and phrases Slavic words and phrases Slovak distilled drinks Slovenian distilled drinks