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0Cervejas, vinhos & espíritos de Creta

Cervejas, vinhos, and spi­rits are all pro­du­ced on Cre­te and are widely avai­la­ble along­si­de other Gre­ek drinks and some well recog­ni­sed glo­bal brands. Se você quer saber o que procurar, não precisa mais procurar

Cerveja

Cre­tan Brewery near Cha­nia whi­ch pro­du­ces local beer, and is also open to the public for visits. Other Gre­ek beers inclu­de the ubi­qui­tous Mythos but sin­ce it beca­me more glo­bal I don’t think it is as good as it used to be and would now recom­mend alter­na­ti­ves e.g. Alfa ou Fix. Sadly all of the­se are pro­du­ced by brewe­ri­es that are now owned by mul­ti­na­ti­o­nals (Hei­ne­ken and Carls­berg). If you can find it Ver­gi­na is a Gre­ek beer that isn’t owned by a mul­ti­na­ti­o­nal. The most com­mon glo­bal brands of beer you’ll find are Hei­ne­ken e Ams­tel. A few pla­ces do have draught beer (ask for vare­lí­sia) and when avai­la­ble I always recom­mend this regar­dless of the label. Wiki­pe­dia has a fairly up-to-date list of the micro­brewe­ri­es in Gre­e­ce, altho you are only likely to find beers from the­se local to whe­re they are. In all cases the beers are bet­ter than the typi­cal lagers avai­la­ble in most UK pubs so wha­te­ver you cho­o­se you wont be disappointed.

Vinho

Wine is widely avai­la­ble and often locally made, whi­ch isn’t sur­pri­sing given the pre­va­len­ce of gra­pe vines in Cre­te. Gre­e­ce is also famed for Ret­si­na whi­ch is a a ‘resi­na­ted wine’, isto é. wine with added tree resin, whi­ch has been pro­du­ced sin­ce the time of the anci­ent Gre­eks. Ret­si­na is an acqui­red tas­te, so whilst I recom­mend trying it, be pre­pa­red for it not being to your tas­te. Gre­e­ce as a who­le has a repu­ta­ti­on for pro­du­cing wine in quan­tity rather than qua­lity, but this is rather out-dated as the 21st cen­tury has seen a big incre­a­se in the avai­la­bi­lity of gre­at Gre­ek (and Cre­tan) vinhos. The wine ser­ved in most res­tau­rants is very ple­a­sant, and local wines can be found easily in the super­mar­kets, but locally pro­du­ced ones and more for­mal bran­ded wines from around Gre­e­ce. The web­si­te CretanWines.gr has lots of infor­ma­ti­on about the many wine­ri­es that cab be found on Crete.

Spirits

By far the most popu­lar local spi­rit is known to locals as raki, although it is more pro­perly known as tsi­kou­dia. Don’t be con­fu­sed with other drinks cal­led Raki found elsewhe­re whi­ch often have an ani­se fla­vour — Cre­tan raki is not ani­se fla­vou­red. It is a cle­an whi­te spi­rit in a simi­lar sty­le to vod­ka although due to being made with lef­to­ver gra­pe mash it has a very dif­fe­rent fla­vour to vod­ka. It is most simi­lar to Ita­li­an gra­pa, but is still dis­tinct. Many locals pro­du­ce their own so in some moun­tain vil­la­ges and cafes Raki can be very che­ap com­pa­red with impor­ted beers. I recom­mend orde­ring a kara­fa­ki whi­ch is a 100–150ml open glass ‘flask’, along­si­de a litre of water. You will get a shot-size glass for the raki and a typi­cal small glass for the water. I drink the 2 unmi­xed, but to stay healthy finish the water befo­re orde­ring more raki! Raki is also often brought out at the end of a meal along­si­de fruit in some taver­nas. You can also find ouzo (whi­ch is ani­se fla­vou­red) in Cre­te although it is more popu­lar on the main­land. Last but cer­tainly not least you will find the swe­et Gre­ek brandy Meta­xa whi­ch comes in a ran­ge of qua­li­ti­es. O 3* is a very rea­so­na­ble brandy but I pre­fer the 5* myself. O 7* is dif­fe­rent to the 5* but not neces­sa­rily bet­ter. No entanto, if you are going to drink Brandy, I recom­mend get­ting some of the 12* and drin­king it with a lit­tle ice but no mixer. O 12* can be har­der to find and is often more expen­si­ve in Cre­te than it is in the UK. It is typi­cally avai­la­ble for only £25-£30 on ama­zon in the UK. I did one find some spe­ci­al 12* chamado grand olym­pi­an reser­ve whi­ch was even bet­ter than the nor­mal 12* and very rea­so­na­bly pri­ced, but sadly I haven’t been able to find this for qui­te a num­ber of years now. If you find some for under €50 I can recom­mend it.

Cocktails

Cock­tails in Cre­te are gene­rally qui­te expen­si­ve as they are only ser­ved in bars and res­tau­rants tar­get­ting afflu­ent young peo­ple and tou­rists — they are no something you see older locals drin­king. No entanto, if you do want to make cock­tails it is qui­te che­ap to do so if you make you own, thanks to the wide ran­ge and low pri­ce of spi­rits and mixers. Impor­ted things like bran­ded ‘Red Bull’ or Scot­ch whisky are expen­si­ve, but many fruit jui­ces, sch­napps, vod­ka, etc are che­ap and widely available.

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