Rakija — Croatia’s traditional fruit brandy — is not a drink for forgetting but for remembering, for conversation, for laughter and for moments that smell of home yet carry a world-class touch, the third International Festival of Rakija and Liqueurs, ZGrappa, showed this past weekend at Stil Event at the Zagreb Fair. The organisers managed to blend celebration and education, those who make rakija and those who simply love it, but without the drunkenness-and-tamburica cliché: people drank in moderation, yet with great cheer. After all, who can stay serious when greeted by rows of little glasses carrying the fine aromas of plum, pear, fig, honey, walnut… 
ZGrappa offered visitors unlimited tasting of more than 500 distillates from around 80 producers from Croatia, Europe and beyond. It was lovely to see how borders do not hinder the culture of drinking, how their grappa and our rakija sit at the same table and speak the same language. The language of tradition, fire and love. ZGrappa also showed that rakija is no longer merely homemade. It is modern, elegant; it can be premium, it can be a dessert, a digestif, a souvenir, and it can be a beautiful story too. One can only hope it will soon get its sommelier moment, the kind wine has long enjoyed. The people who stand behind these bottles deserve it — the masters who have turned rakija into an art.
Written by: Ivana Pranjić/Cork Croatia
Photographs: Ivana Pranjić and ZGrappa Festival
10 November 2025
