Distillery at Home

An international hierarchy that doesn’t count Russia due to its authoritarian domination shows that Romania is ranked 11th in the world, when it comes to the alcohol consumption. Even if the Romanian tradition doesn’t necessarily include the drinking of it, the "tuica" (Romanian traditional fuddle also known as plum brandy) is still made in the distillers at home, which is not met in many other states of the European Union.

An international hierarchy that doesn’t count Russia due to its authoritarian domination shows that Romania is ranked 11th in the world, when it comes to the alcohol consumption. Even if the Romanian tradition doesn’t necessarily include the drinking of it, the "tuica" (Romanian traditional fuddle also known as plum brandy) is still made in the distillers at home, which is not met in many other states of the European Union.

Euro-myth: the Romanians will not be able to drink their homemade "tuica" after the integration in the EU.
Reality: the Romanians will be able to prepare their fuddle, but they won’t have to be legally registered or to follow the European hygiene and consumer protection standards. These are measures that the EU applies in order to avoid the appearance of alcohol on the black markets. T

his is the answer of the Ministry for European Integration to the Romanians that worried they wouldn’t be allowed to prepare the fuddle in their "distilleries at home", as they have been used to do during the past years.

HABITS VS. RULES. There is an extremely serious Romanian problem as far as the distiller and the alembic are concerned. Here, in Romania, the people are used to prepare themselves the glass of fuddle. However, the European authorities say the consumer protection is much more important than the habit of offering your wedding guests a "hot" drink to remember it always and to wish you the best. Moreover, the tax rules that say that any fuddle has to be taxed, are more important than the competition between Mr. Gheorghe, who prepares an extraordinary plum brandy, and Mr. Stanica, the village’s best owner of fruit brandy with pear flavor.

TAXATIONS. According to the European legislation, any liter of alcohol, no matter if it is made in distilleries, in cauldrons, in alembics or in any other kinds of machineries, has to be taxed, say the available documents on www.infoeuropa.ro.

The tax appears even if the fuddle is made for personal use, not only for commercial purposes. The conditions and the value of the tax differ, depending on these two factors. Due to the financial level in Romania, the people go for cheap alcohol. This is why the taxation of each little glass of alcohol was seen as a way to stop the development of the low-quality-alcohol black market. The statistics show that, in 2003, there were 147 distilleries and 1,500 fuddle bottlers in the country. Only 90 distilleries and 150 bottlers could say they had an authorization from the Ministry of Agriculture.

MERCY FOR THE NATIONAL TRADITION. Because the preparation of "tuica" (which is called "product obtained from the distillation of fruits" in the EU) is part of the Romanian tradition, and its consumption is also an old tradition for the Romanians, the negotiations between the EU and Romania ended up in a derogation for Romania and its "tuica" drinkers.

This way, the small farmers can prepare, by themselves, 50 liters of "tuica" per year without having to pay any taxes. The fuddle has to have an alcohol concentration of 40%.

"We have to mention the fact that the small producers are forced to register legally and to follow the sanitarian rules of the law", the Delegation of the European Commission in Romania says.

The good part is that the Romanians will be allowed to prepare "tuica" in their homes after the adherence to the EU as well. The more…complicated part is that they will have to limit themselves to 50 litters per year in order not to be forced to pay for it.

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST’S VERDICT. The Romanians consider the "tuica" as important as the winter supplies. Due to a sudden transformation that brought them all in the urban environment, the Romanians have found methods to adapt to this situation during the communist regime as well. This is rather a home ritual than production. The Romanians that made "tuica" in distillers for themselves didn’t think of commercializing the fuddle, but to prepare it for themselves because this is what they are used to. Forbidding them from this is the same as not allowing them to cook in their kitchens. The situation is similar to the one of all the other traditional groceries that the contemporary man doesn’t have time to prepare, even though he feels the need for them. (Anca Scarlat, cultural anthropologist)

FALSE WAR. "The EU started a war against the distillery at home" was the headline that worried a lot of Romanians a few years ago. The Europeans’ war doesn’t target the people’s pleasure of preparing the fuddle according to its preferences. Bruxelles fights against the Romanian distiller as long as it is made of brass or copper, which could lead to heavy metals intoxication. As a consequence, the "tuica" that will be commercialized will have to be produced under certain conditions. If a small producer will want to continue the production and commercialization of this kind of fuddle, he will have to be registered. The registration procedures refer to the sanitarian rules, the producer will have to chose the class of fuddles that he will want to produce and to keep the production standards constant. (The source: the Delegation of the European Commission)