On Sun, 23 Aug 2009, Ophelia wrote:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...

Hang on! What about Slivovitz??

You need a still) A friend in Bosnia used to make it. The still was
owned by the village and they all had a turn in using it

Here in Normandy each family used to make its own calvados. Then the
government brought in stricter laws so that one had to apply (and pay!)
for a licence but the only person allowed to continue distilling was the
then head of the family. As they died off so the supply of home-made
calvados began to dry up.

My neighbour here in Le Mesnil Villement had a friend who distilled
calvados and supplied us whenever we need more. I suspect it was not
entirely legal as we were never told who or where he was and the bottle
always came wrapped in an old newspaper. But the calvados was much, much
stronger than anything you can buy in the shops. There is a law that
states that spirits for sale for consumption must not be any stronger
than 70 degrees proof but this was even stronger than the old Polish
spirit which one used to be able to buy in half-bottles.

Not that the Normans drank it neat - that would have been impossible
unless one was a hopeless alcoholic - but they would put just a drop in
a cup of coffee to give it an aromatic flavour, which my wife loves, or
they would drink it as a "grog", a drop or two in a glass of hot water.
We used it for flambéing apple dumplings with crème fraîche.

Being so strong you didn't need so much and a bottle lasted much longer.
But Jules died about three years ago and so our supply of "local"
calvados dried up.

David

--
David Rance
writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France