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Soft drinks from Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia

Smreka (Bosnian juniper-berry drink)smreka

Smreka is a Bosnian drink of juniper berries left to ferment in water, 10 to 15 days in the recipe read. Lemon or citric acid is often added to help it sour, and the strained juice is tangy, bittersweet and pale minty-yellow. In some Balkan regions kleka is also the name of a homemade juniper-berry rakija (brandy). The only accounts found are home recipes; no study we found measured it.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Smreka itself.

Short entrySoft drinks10 days – 15 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne home recipe (Balkan Lunchbox), which also says berries and water alone will do.
Juniper berries, fresh or dried12–14 ounces[s1]
Lemon or citric acid2–3 lemons, the juice of 2–3 lemons, or 3 tsp citric acidOptional, to help the souring[s1]
Filtered or boiled waterEnough to fill a 1-gallon (3 L) jar[s1]

Total time across the recorded steps: 10 days – 15 days

Start
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What changes: Juniper berries and lemon are covered with water in a jar

Step 1 of 3
Cover the berries with water in a jar
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: jar of berries.

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

Smreka is a Bosnian drink of juniper berries left to ferment in water, 10 to 15 days in the recipe read. Lemon or citric acid is often added to help it sour, and the strained juice is tangy, bittersweet and pale minty-yellow. In some Balkan regions kleka is also the name of a homemade juniper-berry rakija (brandy). The only accounts found are home recipes; no study we found measured it. Made in 3 steps over 10 days – 15 days. The longest step, ferment, stirring every couple of days, takes 10–15 days (Balkan Lunchbox 2026).

Key numbers
Main step10–15 daysReported[s1]Ferment, stirring every couple of days

What makes this one different

Smreka ferments whole juniper berries in water, with no sugar, grain or added yeast in the recipe read. Polish piwo kozicowe boils the berries and adds hops, sugar and yeast.

Related ferments

Variants

  • With lemon or citric acidLemon slices, lemon juice or citric acid added to help it sour (Balkan Lunchbox).
  • With sloesA handful of blackthorn berries turns it reddish.

Safety

The European Medicines Agency's herbal committee does not recommend juniper berries (Juniperus communis) in severe kidney disease, or in pregnancy or breastfeeding, where safety is not established, and says use under 18 is not established. Its traditional herbal tea uses at most 10 g of berries a day. This recipe uses 12–14 ounces per gallon, and no source we read measures how much of the berries passes into the drink. The agency also notes that berries of other junipers, such as savine (J. sabina), are sometimes mixed in, so use only berries you know are J. communis.

History and sources

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

  1. [ema-juniper] European Medicines Agency, HMPC, European Union herbal monograph on Juniperus communis L., galbulus (pseudo-fructus), revision 1gov
  2. [ema-juniper-report] European Medicines Agency, HMPC, Assessment report on Juniperus communis L., galbulus (pseudo-fructus), revision 1gov
  3. [s1] Balkan Lunchbox, Fermented juniper berry juice (smreka) recipe (read 2026-10-23)web