Medronho
The Aguardente de Medronho is a traditional fruit schnapps from Portugal, which is made from the fruit of the western strawberry tree ( Medronho ), a shrub-like plant from the heather family ( Ericaceae ). Medronho trees grow wild on the sometimes barren soils of rural regions such as the Alentejo or the inner Algarve .
There was no commercial cultivation ( plantations ) of Medronho until recently, most of the fruits are laboriously collected by hand in December and January and processed in private stills. Good Aguardente de Medronho are therefore hardly available in supermarkets, but only locally, e.g. B. in restaurants or artesanato shops in the Serra algarviana. The manufacturers now have a license to distill schnapps and sell numbered bottles. You no longer have to buy Medronho in unlabeled bottles to get to know this Portuguese specialty.
A lot of information about the strawberry tree, its distribution in the western Mediterranean and its use in local cultures is available in the "Museo de Medronho" in the village of Alqueva on the reservoir of the same name in the Alentejo. The aguardente from there is distilled with scientific support from fruits from genetically identical strawberry tree plantations.
Web links
literature
- Andreas Drouve: DuMont BILDATLAS Algarve: Perfect beach mix Mair Dumont 2016, ISBN 3-770-1977-39 .