Be not deceived with its lower price, it’s just because they have not become a brand yet… the most emphasized is a coffee fragrance, mixed with vanilla and citrus notes. Barrique always grants its complexity to the Slivovitz.

Plum brandy rakija Slivovitz online fills my every day in the last 9 years. Finding new enthusiast producers of Slivovitz, despatching the parcels to the cities I’ve never heard of before, dealing with damage, customs charges, flows through my veins every day, even on Sundays and even when I sleep.

Out of  250 registered small family distilleries of various fruit brandies in Serbia, we have a close cooperation with about 70 of them. The rest of them are at least known to us. To me personally. With some of these enthusiasts (and yo do have to be a bit weird if  you make your existence out of Slivovitz in Serbia nowadays) I’v even built a close relationship during all these years, sharing joy and concerns.

EACH SLIVOVITZ BRAND IS CHEAP WHEN IT APPEARS IN THE MARKET. We’ve noticed these small family distilleries are very modest at the beginning, offering too good quality for too small prices. „Underpriced“ is the name of their beginnings. They tend to sell as much as possible, not taking the price into consideration at all. I even wondered how do they manage it, and came to the conclusion that the orchards, land and machinery are actually inherited, within the family, and there is no need for start up investments.

THEY BECOME MORE EXPENSIVE AS THEY BECOME MORE POPULAR. Every penny gained through sales is usually reinvested into public appearance. Mostly at various „rakija festivals“ throughout Serbia and Bosnia. Some of them even invest a large amount of money into entering the large supermarket chains. The slivoivtz is very poorly sold at the Serbian supermarkets, the supermaket chains pay for the brandy with months of delay, and during all that time they purchase new quantities. No end.

But as the sold quantities increase, the prices increase as well. It’s insignificant, few tens of dinars with each montly purchase, but as the years pass we’ve noticed a tendency: each of the newcommer distilleries that we started cooperating with increased their prices for about 5-7% per annum.

BEING POPULAR IN SERBIA DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE POPULAR IN THE EU. The most often reason or „excuse“ is: „You know, we are not what we used to be“. It means they’ve become popular. We are not targeting the Serbian customers in Serbia, but customers in the EU and worldwide. And wordwide customers are not very aware of the popularity gained at the local level. Moreover, most of these distilleries that become popular at the local level are complete no-names worldwide. Therefore, our customers have a full right to complain if we sell some expensive Slivovitz rakija just beacuse its producer has become popular in Serbia.

FINDING NEWCOMMERS. This made me think of finding the new ways to stay competitive. We had to make a system of introducing the new producers into the EU and worldwide market that would retain their price cometitive for at least for couple of years. One of them is The plum brandy Slivovitz Memory-Uspomena.

MEMORY SLIVOVITZ- COFFEE-LIKE BARRIQUE TASTE. The small family distillery Agro Obst is located on 10 ha of its own orchards at the Serbian south, the Toplica Valley, Blace municipality. The sunny slopes of Jastrebac mountain are giving birth to probably one of the most aromatic prunus fruit in the world.

Being redistilled at alc.  43% v/v it is aged for at least 3 years (some series even 5 years), which is the optimum for claming down the fruity ingredients of Slivovitz, on one hand, and keep its strength and alcoholic fragrance on the other.

Be not deceived with its lower price, it’s just because they have not become a brand yet. But maybe this is the time…

What made me recommend it to you is the barrique notes of Slivovitz, and the most emphasized is a coffee fragrance, mixed with vanilla and citrus notes. Barrique always grants its complexity to the Slivovitz. So this one is for contemplatation hours…

But be aware, the alcoholic strength is still very present. Some might take it as repulsive. But this is Slivovitz to all of us who are used to the home crafted brandy.

Worth trying …

Best regards,

Nenad

tastebrandy.com