On the evening of on July 10, we were celebrating Nadya's Bat Mitzvah, after dinner it was time to get down to business. Like I said before, the place is running by the nicest family. A young couple with their kids, that help around with all the chores and the grandparents. The grandfather Mr. Banciu is making his own alcohol and he built an underground cellar.
Mr. Banciu and his son took us down to tour his cellar. It was such a fascinating room. The cellar was located in the back yard, we went down stairs There were barrels of liquors everywhere. It was pitch dark so we all used our phones flashlights and Mr. Banciu had his own flashlight. We tasted so many drinks, they were varying from 40%- 70% alcohol, he had drinks made out of cherries, plums, apricots, beets and so much more. Even my mom was tasting it all :) after awhile I felt that I probably should stop tasting if I want to feel good the next day.
Of course if we are in Romania, we MUST buy a home made Țuică/Palinca which is traditional Romanian spirit that contains ~ 40%–70% alcohol by volume (usually 40%–55%), prepared from plums and of course Vișinată is a Romanian alcoholic beverage produced from sour cherries (vișine in Romanian), sugar and alcohol.It is very flavorful and sweet, and most often home-made. As a consequence, there is no "official" recipe for it. Everybody tunes quantities and preparation methods to suit their own taste.
I personally bought a drink called Afinata – which is a blueberry Romanian liqueur. Afinata is a soul of Romania, as it is composed of two iconic features – home-made brandy and blueberries from the Carpathian Mountains. It is made by leaving blueberries to ferment with sugar and then blend in brandy. The result will be a complete surprise in terms of flavor – an enjoyable soothing drink that can warm up even the coldest winter evening. The healing effects of afinata are countless and as the story goes, one shot a day will ensure that your eyesight will remain sharp as eagle eye.
I was worried how Im going to travel with the drinks, so they won't open and spill all over my suitcase, Mr.Banciu assured me that it will make it home safely, and it did. He packed it in a couple of plastic bottles and he was absolutely right.
My brother Avi ended up getting the Țuică/Palinca thats made out of beets and it contains 70% alcohol and also if I'm not mistaken he also got the Afinata.
Mr. Banciu explained to us that he uses wood in the making of some of the drinks for a natural flavor and color effect, Just brilliant!
Mr.Banciu was such a great character! He had a very calm persona about him, super chill guy and extremely hospitable, sweet and friendly. He had a very cool voice, very deep and rusty voice with a heavy Romanian accent. Felt like I was in some sort of a dream.
When we came out of the cellar, much to our surprise it was close to 10:00 pm but it was still a little light outside.
Thank you so much Mr. Banciu for the great cellar tour, for your great hospitality, for being so sweet and of course for the exceptional drinks! I can see all the love you put into your work and drinks! Multumesc frumos!!!!!!
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