Most people think that the only way to drink Rakia is to pour it down your throat as fast as possible, bottoms up, as the saying goes. But that’s not really the case, not with good quality Rakia at least.
Believe it or not Rakia can be drank even from a wine glass, of course we are talking about the better quality ones. Its highly likely that the use of smaller glasses and the “ bottoms up” technique originated from a period where only lower quality Rakia was produced and available since a bigger glass would quickly reveal its true quality just be the intensity of the smell.
Made from fruit, a good Rakia should always have the aroma of the fruit that it’s made from, and the intensity of that scent shouldn’t be much stronger than that of a natural fruit, if it is then that’s a good indicator that the aroma is actually an artificial one.
Rakia, just like Whiskey or Cognac, should be drank slowly, experiencing it with all your senses. It shouldn’t be served too cold like it usually is, since that’s just another way of masking the true flavor of the drink.
A good trick to use to try to determine if Rakia is of a good quality or not is to pour it in a bigger glass and spin it around a little, just like you would do with a glass of wine. If it’s good and old it should leave little droplets on the side of the glass, frequently referred to as tears.
This happens only with older Rakia that aged well because it’s thicker than usual, and if you ever have the chance to drink one of these real quality ones then you might want to make the most out of it.
Pour it in a bigger glass, don’t make it too cold, take a good whiff of it and take your first sip, hold it for a moment before swallowing to really taste the aroma and then just enjoy the drink.