🥃 Țuică Zetea de Medieșu Aurit

Țuică Zetea de Medieșu Aurit is an EU protected name for plum țuică from the commune of Medieșu Aurit, in the east of Satu Mare county in north-west Romania. It is made from local plums, distilled three times in pot stills over open fire and aged at least six months in oak casks. Strength is from 37.5% ABV.

Protected name. Țuică was entered in the EU register on 21 June 2005 as a fruit spirit, and in 2018 Romania submitted its technical file under the newer rules. The applicant was a family company: Zetea is the surname of a local family that has distilled fermented fruit for more than a century. The name therefore combines the village and a family method, which the technical file calls the «Zetea method».

Plums and fermentation. Fruit of local varieties (Stanley, d'Agen, Tuleu gras and others) is harvested fully ripe. It ferments whole or crushed, without breaking the stones, for 10 to 30 days in wooden vats and casks of 1,000–6,000 l. The end of fermentation is judged by taste and in the laboratory.

Three distillations. The first gives a distillate of 15–35% ABV, the second about 50%, and the third, with a simple dephlegmator of the producer's own design, separates heads and tails. The țuică then matures for at least six months in small oak casks, preferably of 300–700 l. Colour ranges from colourless to golden with a ruby tint; bottles carry marks of three, five and seven stars.

Why this matters to you. The name guarantees the place, the plums and the triple distillation, but it does not make the drink milder: strength is from 37.5% ABV, and methanol is allowed up to 1,200 g per hectolitre of pure alcohol, as for any țuică. It is produced and bottled in the commune itself. WHO reminds us: there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.