10 November 2008 | In the latest demonstration of the Balkans passionate commitment to home-made brandy, Romanian prisoners were caught making the drink from fruits while in a prison in Spain.

After several convicts fell into an alcohol-induced coma, authorities in a Spanish prison discovered that the Romanian inmates were secretly fermenting fruits, especially plums, which they received as dessert and making brandy out of them, the Romanian media adevarul.ro reported.

In addition to fruits, the publication noted, prisoners found that raw potatoes also made a good ingredient for home-, or rather prison-made, brandy.

Although known under different names - raki in Albanian, Greek and Turkish, rakiya in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian and rachiu in Romanian, the drink made of fermented fruits – most commonly grapes or plums, enjoys immense popularity in the entire Balkans region.

For some time after Bulgaria joined the EU in January of 2007, home-made rakiya – and the new excise duty imposed on its producers, was a chief source of Bulgarians’ negative attitudes towards the European family they were joining. The problem has since died down, however, after rakiya-makers ceased to declare their production and simply did not pay the mandatory tax.

In Romania, a similar excise duty was voted away by Parliament at the beginning of the month, allowing for the tax-free production of well-loved brandy.

Commonly served as an appetizer, accompanied by a salad or snacks, many of the middle-aged and older male inhabitants in the region seem to believe that consuming the brandy is a basic human right – probably like the Romanian inmates in the Spanish prison.

Read more about Romania on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Romania