that amazing drip, drip, drip

Considering how much of it I drink, I figured I should find out how it is made. Today I did. Rakia. My experience in Bulgaria would not be the same without it. For those uninitiated, rakia is a national alcohol, most closely resembling brandy. It is used to celebrate a variety of occasions, ranging from weddings, the purchase of new furniture, name days, birthdays, having guests, being guests, New Years Eve, New Years Day and the day after New Years Day and simply watching Big Brother. It can be bought in a store but the best and strongest kinds are made at home.

So today, on my vacation, I woke up at 7:00 am to join my friends in making Rakia. We went to their house in a village near Bobov Dol and started, what turned out to be a long, boring and cold process. Don’t get me wrong I had a great time, but it was because of the company, not the actually distillation process. I don’t know what I was expecting: dancing? singing? magic? In the end, it was just alcohol pouring into a pot.

To make rakia, you first need fruit. Most people use grapes. Some people make it from pears or apples, and my friends in Krichim make it from strawberries. Today we used grapes and quince. So you put your fruit of choice in a big barrel, add a lot of water and sugar and let it sit a couple of months. After this time, the fruit ferments (read: turns moldy and smells like that time I left out that bottle of apple cider in my dorm room for all of fall term…), you are ready to distill it. That’s where I came in today. My friend Spaz, Gergana and their two sons Mario and Simion brought the buckets of moldy fruit to the distiller and poured them into the big cistern. Spaz attached the right pipes, started the fire under the cistern to boil the moldy fruit, and started the hose that would bring cold water to change the steam back into liquid and, like magic, into rakia.

And unfortunately that’s it. You boil the moldy fruit juice, it turns to steam, travels through a long spiraled tube that is emerged in cold water. When the hot steam hits the cold pipe, it turns into liquid and drips out in a pot. You then take the pot and pour it into a huge bottle (note: “bottle” can be translated into three words in Bulgarian. The same with “nail.”). And Zazaam! You got rakia. So if you thought it was gonna be some amazing, life changing event, I’m sorry. It’s just dripping water. But oh man, the fun that magic water brings…

Check out my pictures!