Plants in alcoholic beverages on the Croatian islands, with special reference to rakija travarica
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(2019) 15:51
RESEARCH
Open Access
Plants in alcoholic beverages on the Croatian islands, with special reference to rakija travarica Łukasz Łuczaj1* , Marija Jug-Dujaković2, Katija Dolina3 and Ivana Vitasović-Kosić4 Abstract Background: This paper aims to record the species used for flavouring and making alcoholic drinks, mainly rakija, on the islands of the Adriatic (Croatia). Methods: Our data comes from 295 interviews performed on 36 islands, in both the Dalmatian and Kvarner areas of the Adriatic. Results: Altogether, 114 species are used—46% from wild locations only, 15% both wild and cultivated, 38% only cultivated and two species are imported. The most common local alcohol is wine, made without spices, but grape pomace distillate is often flavoured with single or mixed species. The mix is called travarica. The most commonly used species are Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Myrtus communis L., Salvia officinalis L., Ruta graveolens L., Juniperus oxycedrus L., Ceratonia siliqua L., Juglans regia L., Citrus spp., Ficus carica L., Laurus nobilis L., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Artemisia absinthium L., Rosa centifolia L., Mentha × piperita L. and M. spicata L. Unfortunately, the widespread phenomenon of distilling Arbutus unedo L. fruits and fermenting Juniperus ‘wine’ is now extinct. Apart from grapes, the only commonly distilled fruit now is Ficus carica. Conclusions: It is striking that nearly all the plants are either wild or cultivated locally, which, in addition to the fact that the alcohol is made locally, shows the incredible local culinary self-sufficiency of the area. The number of species used is also very impressive. Keywords: Travarica, Ethnobotany, Culinary independence, Alcohol, Grappa, Mediterranean cuisine
Background Regional alcoholic drinks are an important part of local culinary identity, not only in Europe [1–15]. In some parts of Europe, this identity is associated with local wines; in others, it is beer or high-percentage alcohol. Plants used for flavouring alcoholic drinks in some parts of Europe have been hardly documented, a rare example being Tuscany, Italy [1, 2]. It is worth mentioning that alcoholic drinks should not only be seen as intoxicating beverages or gourmet products, but also as components of local food security strategies, as pointed out by Madej et al. [9]. Excess fruit, when turned into an alcoholic drink, can be stored for a * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Institute of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Rzeszów, ul. Pigonia 1, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
long period of time in its new form. Additionally, the drink preserves some of the caloric value or other nutritional qualities of the original product from which it derives. Moreover, flavoured alcoholic drinks are strongly embedded in the tradition of herbalism. Alcohol is a very good material for the chemical extraction of medicinally active chemicals; hence, its use for making tinctures has been widespread since antiquity [14–17]. The coa
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