In 1997 Marija hosted me at Marija and Ljubica’s home in Croatia. It was awesome. This is their brother-in-law who made this car from 4-5 other cars. He also made sljivovica from the plums growing in the garden trees.
SO delicious. Every time I entered any home, morning, noon, or night, the family would appear with a tray of these small glasses and a beautiful decanter of sljivovica.
From 1997 almost every year I would get a share of the homemade sljivovica sent over to M&L. (Ljubica saved some for me this time. Marija drank her entire bottle!) The brother-in-law passed many years ago and now his son is carrying on the tradition. Good job my boy!
BTW, it’s Sljivovica in Croatia and Sljivovic in Serbia, and the ‘c’ has a ‘z’ sound.
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I don’t know that I’ve ever done this before, tasted them side by side. Homemade is SO smooth although I totally enjoy the one from the store too and try to keep a spare bottle so I don’t run out.
Here’s a fun write-up from Wiki: “Slivovitz, slivovitza, slivovitsa, sliboviță, šljivovica, śliwowica, Schlivowitz, slivovice, slivovica or slivovka is a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). Slivovitz is produced in Central and Eastern Europe, both commercially and privately. Primary producers include Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. In the Balkans, slivovitz is considered a kind of rakia. In Central Europe it is considered a kind of pálinka (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia—pálenka, or Romania-pălincă), and similar to Romanian țuică, corresponding to the distilled spirits category.”