Hungarian liquor

[AmbulanceDriver]

Alright, it's time once again to tap the all knowing font of wisdom that is APS.....  :D

Several years ago, a friend of a friend opened a Hungarian bar here in Portland.  I went with my friend to the opening night, and met with the owners.   Nice people, we sat back, and talked alcohol.  The owner jumps up, excuses herself, and tells us she'll be right back.   She comes back with a bottle of a Hungarian liquor, pours a tiny tiny *tiny* amount into a glass, and asks me to try it.   

Seeing as I had already consumed more than my usual limit, I very uninhibitedly tried it.   

And promptly was breathing fire, had steam shooting out my ears, and I may have taken a lap or two around the planet before plunking down into my seat.   This stuff was rocket fuel.  Turns out it's somewhere between 185-195 proof.

My question is, any of you know it alls know what the heck this stuff was?  I remember seeing the bottle, but can't for the life of me remember what the name of it was...

[lupinus]

did it have a flavor or was it straight rocket fuel? color?

[AmbulanceDriver]

If it had a flavor, I didn't taste it....   

[lupinus]

Ah.

What they gave was probably Torkolypalinka...with a funny dash here and there above some of the letters.

Hungarian moonshine, basically. They take the crap leftover after pressing the grapes from wine and make a pumace brandy from it. Since you seem to have enjoyed it so much, Italian Grappa is basically the same thing and easier to find.

ETA- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6rk%C3%B6lyp%C3%A1linka

[SADShooter]

Pretty sure lupinus nailed it. Does the name Palinka ring any bells? High test brandy to cook you from the inside or peel paint, depending on the current requirement.

[lupinus]

I do believe it will also fuel space shuttles and power nuclear reactors.

[Regolith]

My roommate in college had been an exchange student in Hungary when he was in highschool. He went back during Christmas vacation our freshman year and brought back a bottle of stuff that was made by his former host family. He had me try some, probably trying to get some kind of funny reaction out of me.* I don't recall that it was particularly strong (I guess this was the more refined kind of moonshine; it was more like gasoline than rocket fuel), but it was kind of nasty. I'd still rate it higher, taste-wise, than most wines, though. 


*easiest way to get street cred amongst your fellow freshmen in college is when offered to drink a particularly strong or nasty type of alcohol, is to down it like it was nothing; like it's something you drink every morning for breakfast, no matter how bad it is.

[Tallpine]

Thunder started crashin', lightning started flashing!
Pop-Wheeeeeeeeoooooooooooh, White Lightnin' !

[/george jones]

[AmbulanceDriver]

Pretty sure lupinus nailed it. Does the name Palinka ring any bells? High test brandy to cook you from the inside or peel paint, depending on the current requirement.

the name doesn't ring a bell, but again, this has been 6-7 years....   But the description is spot on.   

[Mannlicher]

I have a number of Hungarian friends, and have visited there.  Most of them drink commercial or home made plum brandy.  Palinka I believe is the home made stuff, Zwak Slivowitz is one of the commercial ones.
It can also be used for paint remover,lacquer thinner, diesel fuel or a commercial solvent.  :D

[zahc]

I'm 3/4 hungarian. My grandparents generation made a very strong liquor. They would pick up fruit, typically pears, from the ground beneath their trees in varying states of decay, smash it up and put it in a plastic drum with a ton of sugar and leave it sit out in the heat all summer with the bung off, stirring occasionally. They would wait until a very cold stormy winter day when they were unlikely to have company and distill it using a homemade still. I don't remember the taste well because I was pretty young when they started dying off.

[Tallpine]

I'm 3/4 hungarian. My grandparents generation made a very strong liquor. They would pick up fruit, typically pears, from the ground beneath their trees in varying states of decay, smash it up and put it in a plastic drum with a ton of sugar and leave it sit out in the heat all summer with the bung off, stirring occasionally. They would wait until a very cold stormy winter day when they were unlikely to have company and distill it using a homemade still. I don't remember the taste well because I was pretty young when they started dying off.

... of alcohol poisoning 

[Triphammer]

I have a number of Hungarian friends, and have visited there.  Most of them drink commercial or home made plum brandy.  Palinka I believe is the home made stuff, Zwak Slivowitz is one of the commercial ones.
It can also be used for paint remover,lacquer thinner, diesel fuel or a commercial solvent.  :D

THe name slivowitz brings back some happy memories. I was the tech on call when the air conditioning went down in one of the big (show)rooms in the Catskills. Seems their was something "midle european" going on & after I got the room cooling I was ushered to a table filled with row after row of shot glasses & urged to drink.  I told them I couldn't drink "brown" liquor ( scotch bourbon etc.) somebody said it was made from plums... Slivovitz!. So I drank & drank & partied & drank some more. I of the best nights I can (barley) remember.

[Scout26]

Slivowitz - Plum Brandy.  Typically clear and removes the chrome from trailer hitches.

The Germans have something similar called KirschWasser (Cherry Water) it was used as rocket fuel in WWII.

[Chuck Dye]

While bumming around Australia I read the fiction of Sven Hassel (I recommend reading it for the mind candy value, then researching Hassel's bona fides) in which slivovitz fuels much of the action.  When I finally found some slivovitz to try, I aslo found myself at a table with a bunch of elderly Yugoslavs who clearly relished the idea of introducing the stuff to a naive young Yank.  The stuff I tried was somewhere north of 120 proof.  

Harry Callahan was right, a man must know his limitations.  Of course the surest way to find a limit is to exceed it and survive.

[Perd Hapley]

I of the best nights I can (barley) remember.

Not barley, plums.

When we were about ready to leave Bosnia, I found out that everyone had been buying Plum Brandy from the workers at the furniture factory across the fence. The platoon sergeant and I were about the only two that didn't know. Shows you what a square I am.


Edited for grammar.

[grampster]

I was trying to remember some stuff I drank in the 70's or 80's.  You folks came through....Slivovitz.

"Slivovitz or Slivovitsa (/ˈslɪvəvɪts/; Serbian: шљивовица, Bulgarian: сливовица, Czech: slivovice, German: Sliwowitz, Bosnian: Å¡ljivovica, Croatian: Å¡ljivovica, Hungarian: sligovica, Italian: slivovitz, Macedonian: сливова, Polish: śliwowica, Romanian: şliboviţă, Slovak: slivovica, Slovene: slivovka, Yiddish: שליוואָוויץ, Ukrainian: слив'янка) is a distilled beverage made from Damson plums.[1] It is frequently called plum brandy,[2] and in the Balkans is part of the category of drinks called rakia. In Hungary and Slovakia it is part of the category of drinks called Pálinka (Hungary) or Pálenka (Slovakia), which are essentially the same as Rakia.
Slivovitz is produced in Slavic regions of Central and Eastern Europe, both commercially as well as homemade. Primary producers are in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria." (Wikipedia)