Food and drink

Rakija: What You Are Actually Being Handed

Somebody will pour you one. It will be at eleven in the morning, or on arrival at an apartment, or before a meal, and it will be stronger than it looks.

Updated · 2 min read

The varieties

Made fromNotes
Loza / lozovačaGrape pomaceThe default on the coast. Closest to grappa.
KruškaPearsAromatic, softer, the one visitors usually prefer
DunjaQuincePerfumed, harder to make well
ŠljivovicaPlumsMore a Serbian and Bosnian staple, common inland
TravaricaGrape rakija steeped with herbsBitter, medicinal, often homemade
Medovina / medicaRakija with honeySweet, served warm in winter

The strength

Commercial rakija is 40 per cent. Homemade is not measured and routinely runs 45 to 55, occasionally higher. The person pouring it knows this and considers it a feature.

When it appears

  • On arrival at an apartment or a guesthouse, as a welcome, with coffee and something sweet
  • Before a meal, as an aperitif — never after, which is where it differs from Italian grappa
  • At a cellar or a katun, with the ham and cheese
  • At any celebration, and at funerals
  • When something has been agreed — a deal, a price, a favour

How to drink it

Small glass, room temperature — chilling it is regarded as hiding something. Sipped rather than downed. Živjeli as the toast, and eye contact while you say it, which matters more than the word.

One is polite. Two is normal. Three is a decision.

How to decline

This is the useful part, because refusing outright reads as refusing hospitality rather than refusing a drink.

  • "Vozim" — I'm driving. Universally accepted, ends the conversation, and is the reason most locals give.
  • Take it and sip it slowly. A glass held is a glass accepted, and nobody counts what is left in it.
  • Accept the first, decline the second. The offer is the gesture; the second is optional.

Buying it

Homemade is sold at roadside stalls, at cellars around Lake Skadar and in the north, usually in reused plastic bottles for €8 to €15 a litre. Bottled commercial rakija in a shop is €10 to €25.

The plastic bottle version is generally better and completely unregulated. Buying it from somebody who made it and will still be there next year is the informal quality control.

The medicinal claims

You will be told rakija cures a cold, settles a stomach, disinfects a wound and helps you sleep. Three of those are broadly true in the sense that ethanol does things. It is offered in this spirit and refusing on health grounds is the one argument that will not be accepted.

Book locally

Run by a licensed operator in Žabljak. Send a request, pay the operator on the day.

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