Nalewka

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A variety of nalewkas in various stages of preparation.

Nalewka (literally Polish for "assemblage") is a traditional Polish category of alcoholic tincture. The alcoholic beverage is usually 40 to 45% alcohol by volume and is made by maceration of various ingredients in alcohol, usually vodka or spirit. Among the ingredients often used are fruits, herbs, spice, sugar or molasses. The name is also misleadingly used for a variety of alcoholic cocktails sold in Poland, usually of low quality and low content of alcohol (not greater than 18%). Often methods of making nalewka involve mixing macerates with other macerates and with syrup (this particular method concerns fruit nalewka), nalewka very rarely is an assemblage of two distillates.

The name nalewka is currently being registered for national apellation within the European Union. Contrary to ordinary liqueurs, nalewkas are usually aged.

Most of the nalewkas have their proper names derived either from the main ingredient or the name of the traditional place of manufacture. The recipes for nalewkas were at times kept in secret by some of the szlachta families and were only given away to the senior children upon the death of the father.

The colour of coffee-made nalewka after 3 years of aging, half of the time in a wooden barrel.

Among the common main ingredients are haw (głogówka), lily-of-the-valley (konwaliówka), Cornus alba (dereniówka), juniper (jałowcówka)^[1]^[2], ginger (imbirówka), green Persian walnut (orzechówka), cherries (wiśniówka), wormwood (piołunówka), anise (anyżówka), apricots (morelówka) and many more. Among the nalewkas are also mixtures of alcohol with other liquids, such as honey-based krupnik, coffee-based kawówka, and porterówka made of Porter beer.

[edit] Notes and references

In-line:

^ Technically gin is also a nalewka
^ (Polish) Grzegorz Russak. Nalewki staropolskie – chluba przeszlosci, nadzieja przyszlosci (Old-Polish nalewkas: pride of the past, hope for the future). Polonia.org. Polonia Swiata, Krefeld. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.

General:

(Polish) Zdzisław T. Nowicki (2002). Domowe piwa, cydry, wina, nalewki, likiery i kremy. Gdynia, Galion, 324. ISBN 83-909329-3-8.
(Polish) Jan Rogala (2003). Nalewki: Stare i nowe przepisy, czyli jak mocny alkohol uczynić szlachetnym. Warsaw, Ex Libris, 104. ISBN 83-89351-86-2.
(Polish) Jan Makosiński (1911). Przepisy do przyrządzania wódek, rozolisów, rumów, araków, likierów, cognaców, esencyi ponczowych, krupników i grogu. Kraków-Kielce, Avis, 43.
(Polish) Jan Rogala (2003). Nalewki zdrowotne, czyli 102 przepisy na alkohol który wspomaga organizm. Warsaw, Baobab, 108. ISBN 83-89642-00-X.
(Polish) Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa (1858). Jedyne praktyczne przepisy.... Warsaw, Gebethner i Wolff, 264. ISBN 83-7386-071-1 (reed.).