Saturday, February 5, 2011

Burcak - healing, refreshing and delicious



If you happen to come to Czech int the time of grape harvesting (end of September, beginning of October) you will get a unique chance to taste something of truly greater powers. Burcak i sfreshly fermented juice from pressed grapes that is not a wine yet, but can give you a kick and supposedly is very healthy...

It is commonly sold in plastic bottles at roads all over Moravia and even other regions and practically can be bought in most wine shops in the country, at least for a week or so. Don't be fooled by burcak in first half of September - that's usually some apple juice for naive tourists.

Now as for taste, when chilled and good quality, it can be really refreshing version of lemonade with alcoholic bonus (ca. 5-8%). Quite sweet, though pleasantly, balanced with pungent acidity, refreshing and very... cleaning through it bears legend of miraculous health potion and there are still Moravians up there who think that by drinking a liter per each liter of blood in the body will make you practically immune to all the sickness. I would say that a glass or two per day are enough, but then I'm not really a local. As for scientific facts it is really rich in vitamins, especially B 12 and contains some essential minerals as well.

Official burcak season is from 1st August till 30th November, but I wouldn't trust those dates really. Also, it is a registered regional product in EU and according to the law can be produced only form Czech or Slovak grapes. And that's why you really need to come yourself and try...

1 comment:

  1. Do you know how to make burcak? possibly a recipe that we can make

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