Zahar is sugar. Bilberries are like blueberries.

According to Miekal And and Anon, "zahar" is sugar.

Miekal And also pointed out that I've been confusing afinata & tzuica. Afiniata is what I had, and is made with bilberries (and sugar) and tzuica (double distilled is called horinca or palinka) is plum brandy.

So I had a home brew version of afinata, and it was good.

Someone send me to Romania again, and soon! Better yet, send Mark and I there together.

Afinata and Zahar, again

I received an anonymous comment on a post from way back when about my trip to Romania. At the end of this post, I included a recipe for afinata, a very strong fruit liquor that has a taste of blueberries and plumbs. The recipe is in Romanian, and calls for a fruit called zahar. I've never managed to find out what a zahar is. It's been over a year since I searched around, so I did.

According to Romer!can, there is a plum-like fruit that grows in the trees in Bucharest and other cities like Braşov (where I've never been). According to the comment box on that post, the fruit is known by several names--zarzane, zarzăre, corcoduşe, zarzărele (which are maybe more like apricots), and zahar--depending on the region, and can be several colors--green, deep red, peach, apricot.

These fruits are used in a variety of home brews that sound similar to the afinata I drank, although they're variously referred to as tuica (good warm with a bit of nutmeg) or palinca. The fruits are also used in various soups, or ciorba.