Zagorka is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

brand from the city of

Stara Zagora Stara Zagora (, ) is a city in Bulgaria, and the administrative capital of Stara Zagora Province. It is located in the Upper Thracian Plain, near the cities of Kazanlak, Plovdiv, and Sliven. Its population is 121,582 making it the sixth largest c ...

. It is brewed at the

Zagorka Brewery Heineken N.V. is a Dutch brewer which owns a worldwide portfolio of over 170 beer brands, mainly pale lager, though some other beer styles are produced. The two largest brands are Heineken and Tecate; though the portfolio includes Amstel, Fost ...

. The company was founded in 1902, in the Czech tradition, by a doctor who returned from

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. The current brewery was opened in 1958 and since 1994 is owned by

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

. The company produces three Bulgarian brands (Zagorka,

Ariana In the Greco-Roman world, Ariana was a geographical term referring to a general area of land between Central Asia and the Indus River. Situated far to the east in the Achaemenid Empire, it covered a number of satrapies spanning what is today th ...

and

Stolichno Stolichno is a Bulgarian bock beer () produced by the Zagorka Brewery since 2004. The beer was originally brewed at Sofia's Ariana Brewery (hence the name, which literally means "of the capital city"). It is a strong beer with an ABV Alcoho ...

) and four licensed brands (

Birra Moretti Birra Moretti () is an Italian Brewery, brewing company, founded in Udine in 1859 by Luigi Moretti. In 1996, the company was acquired by Heineken N.V. The brewing plant in Udine was sold to the newly formed Birra Castello S.p.A., and the beer i ...

Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam, to which the rive ...

and

Desperados Desperado or desperados may refer to: * Outlaw, particularly in the American Old West Books * ''Desperadoes'' (comics), a comic book series * ''Desperadoes'' (novel), a 1979 novel by Ron Hansen * Desperado Publishing, an American independent co ...

). The "Zagorka" brand has three variants – Zagorka Special (

lager Lager (; ) is a Type of beer, style of beer brewed and Brewing#Conditioning, conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be Pale lager, pale, Amber lager, amber, or Dark lager, dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially availab ...

, 5% ABV) and two artisan beers – Zagorka Reserve (dark, flavoured with berries, 6% ABV, since 2011) and Zagorka Fusion (Light, flavoured with

grapes A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

, 2% ABV, since 2012).Heineken Brewery – brands
heinekenzagorkabrewery.bg. Retrieved Mar 2013. Historically, Zagorka had several other variants, including Zagorka Light (Загорка Светло), and Zagorka Gold (both until the early 2000s). The label was originally written in

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

, with a period of overlap in the late 1990s ("Light" having

labels and "Special" having

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

ones), and it is currently written mostly in Latin.

Gallery

File:Zagorka Rezerva 2011.JPG, Zagorka Rezerva File:Zagorka Fusion.JPG, Zagorka Fusion

References

External links

zagorka.bg
– official website
Heineken Zagorka Brewery
– brewery home page
Zagorka Tours
– marketing information and history {{Beer and Breweries in Bulgaria Heineken brands Beer brands of Bulgaria Bulgarian brands Food and drink companies established in 1902 Bulgarian companies established in 1902