A visit to the Hungarian sanctuary of Pálinka

Pálinka is a traditional Hungarian fruit distillate alcoholic drink. The most common fruit pálinka is distilled from plum, pear, apple, apricot, sour cherry, cherry, grape marc, or strawberries, but they can be made from any fruit grown in Hungary.

Do you know how to prepare pálinka?
Well, our international students that attended the event of the Hungarian House of Pálinka already knows the basics! In order to make a good pálinka, a good quality ingredient, in this case, fruit, is needed. It has to be ripened in order for the process to work properly. For one, ripened fruits have a higher sugar content, which is important when fermenting, but two, ripened fruits have more aroma which would translate to the drink. The harvested fruits are washed, (peaches, plums, and cherries are pitted, apples are ground) then placed in barrels. The fructose or fruit sugar in the barrels is converted into alcohol. The fermented mash is then heated, and this would start the next step: distilling. As a result of the heat, steam rises from the mash, which condenses to become liquid again and is then collected. The so-called distillate formed has 8-15 degrees of alcohol. The distillate is then further processed and refined.
This description may sound boring but our palinka tasting event was far from being that!

3 Apr 2023