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Soft drinks from Kırklareli, Thrace, Turkey

Hardaliyehardaliye

Hardaliye is a red, lightly pungent grape drink from Thrace. Crushed red grapes with their skins and seeds are layered in a vat with sour cherry leaves and crushed mustard seed, fermented by lactic bacteria for several weeks, then settled and drawn off clear.

Fully documentedSoft drinks42 days – 56 daysKırklareli Hardaliyesi, Turkish geographical indication (mahreç işareti) no. 278, registered 2017

Recipe

Hardaliye, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Basak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe GI specification gives mustard at 0.5–1 % and sour cherry leaf at 0.02–0.05 % (the basis of the percentage is not stated), pomace layers of 5–10 cm and preservative limits, but no grape quantities. Atmaca et al. (2023) note that mustard is used at different concentrations, fresh or roasted, whole or ground.
Ripe, aromatic red or black grapes, crushed with skins and seedsGrown in Kırklareli for the GI product[gi278]
Sour cherry leavesScattered between layers of grape pomace; fresh leaves in Atmaca et al. (2023)[gi278][atmaca2023]
Crushed mustard seedFresh or roasted, whole or ground, at various amounts[gi278][atmaca2023]
Sorbic acid or sorbates and/or benzoic acid or benzoatesPreservatives scattered with the leaves and mustard in the GI method[gi278]
SugarOptional, when the grapes are low in sugar[atmaca2023]

Total time across the recorded steps: 42 days – 56 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: ripe red grapes, crushed with their skins and seeds

Step 1 of 5
Pick ripe red grapes at vintage and crush them
Time
Made at the grape harvest, in September, October and November
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
L. paracasei
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacilli
Yeasts

Output: crushed grapes with skins and seeds (pomace and must).

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Hardaliye is a red, lightly pungent grape drink from Thrace. Crushed red grapes with their skins and seeds are layered in a vat with sour cherry leaves and crushed mustard seed, fermented by lactic bacteria for several weeks, then settled and drawn off clear. Made in 5 steps over 42 days – 56 days. The longest step, ferment, pumping juice over daily at first, takes 28–35 days (Turkish Patent and Trademark Office 2017) and runs at 20–22 °C (Turkish Patent and Trademark Office 2017). Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei and Lactobacillus casei subsp. pseudoplantarum, which dominate a succession of lactobacilli does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step28–35 daysSet[gi278]Ferment, pumping juice over daily at first
Temperature20–22 °CSet[gi278]Ferment, pumping juice over daily at first
AciditypH 3.2–4Measured[arici2001]Bottle and keep cold

What makes this one different

Hardaliye is grape juice fermented by lactic bacteria rather than yeast. Crushed mustard seed and sour cherry leaves layered through the pomace set it apart from wine and from plain grape şıra.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Household hardaliyeFermented 7–10 days at room temperature, or up to 20 days at 10–15 °C, and drunk fresh.
  • Wine-pomace hardaliyeMade from the red grape pomace left over from wine making, such as Cabernet pomace.
  • High-pressure-processed hardaliyePressure treatment at 490 MPa extended shelf life to 228 days at 4 °C in a study.

Safety

Fresh hardaliye is perishable. Keep it cold (the GI specification gives 5–10 °C storage and at most one year at 4–5 °C). No coliforms or E. coli were found in 26 market samples at pH 3.21–3.97.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The GI record says hardaliye was made in Kırklareli at the grape harvest as a traditional way to preserve grape must. Kırklareli Hardaliyesi was registered as a Turkish geographical indication in 2017, with protection from 2013.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [gi278] Turkish Patent and Trademark Office 2017, Kırklareli Hardaliyesi, geographical indication no. 278 (mahreç işareti), registered by Kırklareli Chamber of Commerce and Industryspec
  2. [arici2001] Arici M., Coskun F. 2001, Hardaliye, fermented grape juice as a traditional Turkish beverage, Food Microbiology 18(4):417–421, doi:10.1006/fmic.2001.0413 (abstract)paper
  3. [atmaca2023] Atmaca B., Demiray M., Akdemir Evrendilek G., Bulut N., Uzuner S. 2023, High-pressure processing of traditional hardaliye drink, effect on quality and shelf-life extension, Foods 12(15):2876, doi:10.3390/foods12152876paper