Boozapest

Hungary has some long standing traditions in their liquors. One of them, Unicum by Zwack, is on sale literally on every corner - I think it's as much a tourist thing as it is tradition. The formula that goes into it is very secret and I read somewhere that only a few members of the immediate Zwack family have access to it, in addition to a bishop somewhere who is sworn to secrecy. The taste is intense -- think herbal cough drop mixed with Jagermeister. Try their website. It's all in Hungarian which makes eventually getting some message popup with a cartoon bottle of Unicum next to a revolver all the more interesting.

The next one is Pálinka, a traditional type of Hungarian lighter fluid, er, I mean, brandy. At a small grocer, the wife and I were treated to a taste test of several flavors of the stuff. I tried plum, apple, and what the serving lady called 'gypsy cherry'. They all burn on the way down and the flavor is the after-taste. I bought a bottle of the cherry flavor, but plum was very good as well. My lady friend thinks they all taste like fire.

Cheers!