As I travel a lot, I always bring home something from the country I spent some time. It always depends on where I am and how much space in the luggage I have. Usually I bring small presents and other souvenirs for my friends and family, sometimes even typical food to try or a bottle of national drink.

Let me present you the drinks I have already brought home. I am sure you know some of them!

In 2012 I spent a month on Cyprus. I attended a Greek language course there. I remember being at the airport in the duty free shop checking the local alcohol. My friend and I had actually no idea which alcoholic drink is typical for Cyprus. When we saw zivania, we decided to take it home for our parents.

Zivania is a distillate produced only from grapes. It’s characterized by its typical taste and aroma. It is colourless and it has a pleasant alcoholic content with light aroma of raisins. It’s a pure drink that contains no sugar and has no acidity.

Alcohol: 45%

As you know, I have been to Greece many times and the most typical drink there is ouzo. I think I brought it home just once or twice. The bottle on the picture is definitely not from Greece because you can buy it even in Lidl during the Greek week ?.Ouzo is a dry anise-flavoured aperitif. It’s not widely consumed just in Greece, but also in Cyprus and Lebanon. Its taste is similar to the Italian sambuca. When it’s mixed with water or when you just put the ice cubes inside, it becomes cloudy white.

Alcohol: 37,5 – 50%

I brought hierbas home this year in March when I was travelling in Spain. You might remember my post about that travel. That time Mallorca was my last destination so on the way back I could finally buy hierbas to bring it home for my parents to taste it.Hierbas is a herbal liqueur made from anise and other aromatic plants such as camomile, fennel, lemon, lemon verbena, marjoram, mint, orange and rosemary. It’s usually served as a digestif, after meal. Its colour is green or amber. There are three varieties – dry, sweet and mixed.

Alcohol: dry 38%, mixed 30%, sweet 25%

When I was working in Mallorca last year, I tried mesclat and I liked it. I knew that I am limited by the weight of the luggage so I brought home just a small bottle of it. My family didn’t really like it, I don’t know why, but at least I have more for myself!Mesclat is a mixture of dry anise and palo. To explain what palo is, it’s a made of Quina and Gentiana plant. Over the years, people tried to sweeten the extremely bitter flavour by adding concentrated sugars made from grapes, dry figs and carob beans.

Alcohol: 32%

I have actually never been to Sevilla but I literally fell in love with this strawberry gin called Puerto de Indias. I was recommended this drink last year in Mallorca and it became my favourite drink. I was always drinking it with sprite, some people prefer to drink it with tonic. In the bar they always put strawberries into the glass and it enhances the taste. I was very happy that I could bring it this year from Spain! Like I said, Puerto de Indias is a pink strawberry-flavoured gin. It’s made from the strawberries from the Andalusian province Huelva. It was born from a mistake of a master distiller after a failed attempt at making a strawberry liqueur. He took his fresh mashed strawberries and added them to a new recipe for a gin he was working on.

Alcohol: 37,5%

This year in February I went for a weekend to Düsseldorf. You might remembermy post about it. It was a great weekend and my friends recommended me to buy Killepitsch – typical alcoholic drink of Düsseldorf.Killepitsch is a herb liqueur. Its colour is bloody red. It consists of over 98 organic herbs, berries and fruits from all over the world. It’s truly a complex burst of flavours.

Alcohol: 42%

My last animation season in Menorca, I discovered a drink called “pomada”. My friends who visited me there, managed to bring me this big bottle of pomada so I was glad that my family will be able to taste it. In Menorca I tried pomada with crushed ice and that’s a great refreshing summer version.Pomada is a mixture of Menorquin Gin Xoriguer and lemonade. This drink became popular during the celebrations with horses such as Sant Joan in Ciutadella. You can actually buy it already mixed (like on the picture) or you can buy separately the Menorquin gin and lemonade and mix it by yourself.

Alcohol: 13,5 %