Mulberry oghi (clear fruit vodka) is a strong alcoholic drink mainly produced in Azerbaijan and Armenia. It has the delicate and unique aroma of mulberries and herbs and a pleasant, slightly oily taste. It is on a level with such premium drinks as tequila, rum, calvados and brandy. Let’s visit one Armenian village and see the process of its production.
The process begins with the collection of mulberries. A large piece of cellophane is put under a mulberry tree. A man climbs the tree and starts actively shaking its branches… Mulberries fall down on the cellophane. Then they are cleaned of garbage and processed into juice which is poured into tanks for fermentation. After that it is distilled in a special copper apparatus like that which you can see in the first picture.
Then the juice is boiled in a vat.
A special funnel with a narrow bottom is put on the top of the vat and joined to the apparatus. The junction is carefully smeared with paste or manure in order to provide airtightness. Many, by the way, prefer the latter one as it’s cheaper.
The juice is boiled for a few hours until steam starts actively evaporating moving inside a horizontal tube. The most part of it is hidden inside a cylindrical vessel which contains cold water. Throughout the whole process of making mulberry vodka water is poured into the cylinder from one side and poured out from the other.
Cold water converts steam in the tube into the very alcoholic product.
Mulberry vodka is distilled several times, usually twice. Still some people prefer it to be very strong and that’s why distill it three times.
For this, the vat is cleaned and filled with mulberry vodka produced after the first distillation. Then it’s distilled once more so that to make it purer and stronger. In this way, one can produce the drink stronger than 60 percent alcohol.
Once having tasted it, one will probably never drink usual vodka anymore. Cheers!
via leprosorium.ru
Nice!
The process, as described, will result in production of distilled water. The most important part (fermentation) was omitted. BTW, calvados not exactly tasty booze, plum or apricot brandies made in SE Europe taste much better.
Read the caption for photo number two.
“and processed into juice which is poured into tanks for fermentation.”
They just don’t have a photo of the process. (which is basically the juice doing nothing but sitting in a pot, boring)
Plum brandy it’s the best … known as palinka or tzuika… flavored and not so strong.
Proof that excessive drinking causes blindness. Re-read the post. The fermentations are described.
CZenda, the article says “Then they are cleaned of garbage and processed into juice which is poured into tanks for fermentation. After that it is distilled in a special copper apparatus like that which you can see in the first picture.”
As fermentation is a boring process to watch (akin to watching paint dry or, perhaps more appropriately, watching grass grow) I guess they felt it was okay to omit photographs.
The process, as described, will result in the distillation of EtOH.
You have to watch out for monkeys and weasels when you pick mulberries.
Q: How do elephants hide in the jungle?
A: They paint their nuts red and hide in apple trees.
Q: How did Tarzan die….?
Weasels Ripped My Flesh!
Sounds delicious, except for the manure.
I want some! Jencha, thanks for sharing, but I want some.
I’d really like to taste it. My grandparents use to make mulberry wine, actually they made all kinds of wine. I grew up drinking them, of course mixed with water when I was younger and later not so deluted.
It is nice to see that people remember their old traditions despite the advent of the free market economy and abundance of all flavors of vodka at Russian supermarkets.
Gross, that is like American moonshine.
Have you ever really had American Moonshine?
I applaud the Russian people for their creativity.I wish this stuff would have been around when I was a dedicated alcoholic.Now I can’t drink at all or will suffer too many horrible consequences.I wonder how bad the hangovers are from this stuff.
Russian people? Read: this is an Armenian village. This stuff has been around since the beginning of time and everywhere, too. What do you think moonshine is? The government obviously wants people to buy from the store to both pay tax and, to a lesser degree, to avoid killing themselves.
Rakia – Correcting people.
Bulgarians make good Rakia