Pálinka

Pálinka is a traditional fruit brandy in the Carpathian Basin, known under several names, and invented in the Middle Ages. Protected as a geographical indication of the European Union, only fruit spirits mashed, distilled, matured and bottled in Hungary and similar apricot spirits from four provinces of Austria can be called "pálinka". Törkölypálinka, a different product in the legal sense, is a similarly protected pomace brandy that is commonly included with pálinka. While pálinka may be made of any locally grown fruit, the most common ones are plums, apricots, apples, pears, and cherries.

Similar products exist in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia known as Pálenka as well as in Romania under the name Palincă.

The words pálinka (in Hungarian), pálenka (West Slavic) and palincă (Romanian) derive from the Slavonic stem paliti, "to burn, to distill". In Hungarian, the word Tótpálinka (literally 'Slavic pálinka') was used to refer to alcoholic drinks derived from wheat.

The production of Hungarian pálinka is regulated by local law LXXIII of 2008, often referred to as "pálinka law", which is based on the regulation of generic fruit spirits of the European Union. An alcoholic beverage may be called pálinka if:

While pálinka is traditionally made from a mash of ripe fruit, the law does not control the addition of non-concentrated fruit juice, and explicitly allows the use of fruit pulp. Dried fruits are excluded from the mash only, and may be used in the aging process.

As a consequence of this regulation, a whole family of popular Hungarian products were rebranded as szeszes ital (spirit drinks). Traditional pálinkas mixed with honey were also rebranded as szeszes ital (or liqueur if the sugar content exceeded the required limit), even if there were no unorthodox steps in the process of distillation. Most of the brands re-categorized as spirit drinks, however, are cheap mixtures of flavorings, water, and rectified spirit.

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