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What’s missing in this picture?
Slovenia has plenty of mysteries, some of them unsolvable, but one mystery towers above the rest: Where’s the grape juice? I happen to love grape juice. As a kid, I used to drink Welch’s until my stomach ached and I longed for death. But in Slovenia it seems to be a rarity; in fact, I haven’t seen it anywhere. Two theories could explain this mystery:
#1 (The Arrogant Westerner Theory)
Slovenia doesn’t sell grape juice because they can’t afford grape juice. It’s too much of a luxury for a post-communist country whose people were, until recently, only allowed to drink the sweat of political prisoners, whose perspiration was harvested by the kiloliter on Goli otok and elsewhere.
Why it’s wrong: First of all, Slovenes living in socialist Yugoslavia were also allowed to drink raw sewage. And what’s more: As much as they wanted. Second of all — and this time I’m being serious — the Slovenian fruit juice company Fructal (which happens to make the best juices I’ve ever tried) boasts a staggering variety of liquid goodness. They make juices (nectars, syrups, etc..) in the following flavors: banana, blueberry, apple, peach-apple, apricot-apple, black currant, pear, sour cherry, strawberry, peach-banana, lemon, grapefruit, orange, multivitamin and raspberry.
However: no grape juice. Not by itself. Grapes do appear, but in the weirdest combination imaginable: apple-grape-chokeberry. That’s right, chokeberry. I’ve never even heard of chokeberries, but Fructal is all over them.
#2 (The Proud Drunken Slovene Theory)
Supermarkets don’t sell grape juice because all grapes are needed for wine production — hell, yeah! Why waste grapes on juice? Hell, yeah! We’ve got drinking to do! Hell, yeah! Everybody together now: Kol’kor kapljic, tol’ko let, Bog nam daj na svet živet, živiooooo, oj živioooooooo… (etc)
Why it’s wrong: If all grapes went into wine production, you wouldn’t find grapes being sold at every fruit stand and in every supermarket. In fact, grapes are all over the place. They’re sold everywhere and they grow everywhere. So why aren’t they being put into juice form?
Even more bafflingly: Why are things like black currant and sour cherry liquified and sold while grapes are ignored? Is there really so much demand for those flavors? Speaking personally, I’ve never once thought: "Man, I could really use a cup of sour cherry juice right about now." Obviously people like it though, or else Fructal wouldn’t sell it. And obviously there’s no demand for grape juice or they would, no?
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I don’t think that general public demands have much influence on slovene marketing strategies yet
The lack of grape juice is probably just the concequence of some strange tradition or historical reason - the juice was never on the market, so people aren’t used to it. Or maybe the juice cannot be sold at such high prices as wine. Grapes seen at fruit stands and in supermarkets on the other hand can be quite expensive and they also aren’t the ordinary (wine) sort, but one bred especially for fruit market - the grapes on the stalk are further apart, so you can wash them properly and the stones in them are somewhat larger (the advantage of which is still a mistery to me - maybe you can spit them out easier this way??)
Grape juice? It’s Slovenia! All the grape is turned into wine. ;)
Speaking of grapes and seeds, I don’t think I’ve ever seen seedless grapes here, which is pretty much the norm on the other side of the Atlantic. Maybe I should try starting my own grape farm..BigWhale: You forgot the "hell, yeah!"
Forget the grapes. I’m still pissed Fruc stopped making the sour cherry
juice, and opted for crni ribez instead. Granted, it tastes good as
well, but not as good as the sour cherry. Revolution!
Process grapes into grape juice instead of wine ? Blashphemer !!!Hell, yeah ! :>
No seedless grapes, no seedless watermelon. What is this world coming to!?
Not to mention genetically modified frankenfood….
Oh, all our food is genetically modified - just the method of modification aren’t the same. If you want to eat really natural food, you should start considering the possibility of becoming a rabbit and eating grass
I wouldn’t mind being a rabbit, they live very interesting lives.
You know, I don’t think they have grape juice here in Sweden, either: pear, orange, apple, raspberry, strawberry and black currant are the favorites, but they also sell a couple of unusual "saft" (which is probably more of a drink than a juice) such as rhubarb and elderflower. Blueberry is used for soup, not for juice. And there’s rosehip soup, too.
I get your point, Michael
Cranberry juice is very popular in the UK but I’ve yet to find any in a Slovenian supermarket. Am I just looking in the wrong place?
As far as "frankenfood", there is an interesting disparity in Europe.
Genetically modified food, which has not been proven to affect health,
is banned, while smoking is running wild.
Forget grape juice, what about CRANBERRY juice, people? And don’t tell me there’s the Sola cranberry flavoured ice-tea - it’s gross, it tastes of chemicals and it ain’t nothing like the real thing. That said, who needs any other flavour when you have Fructal’s delish strawberry nectar.
There used to be a grape juice like 15 years ago (still in former
Yugoslavia). It came in 1 liter bottles. I just vaguely remember that,
since I was still a small kid back then… Don’t remember when did it
disappear.
There was also cranberry juice, I don’t remember who produced
it, it came a little later, about 10 years ago. I loved its sour taste.
Don’t remember when that got off of the market either.And I totally agree on sour cherry Fruc!
There used to be a grape juice like 15 years ago (still in former
Yugoslavia). It came in 1 liter bottles. I just vaguely remember that,
since I was still a small kid back then… Don’t remember when did it
disappear.
There was also cranberry juice, I don’t remember who produced
it, it came a little later, about 10 years ago. I loved its sour taste.
Don’t remember when that got off of the market either.
And I totally agree on sour cherry Fruc!
I think i saw grape juice being sold in Har-di . Try there.
I never missed grape juice, but when I came to live in Slovenia I was disappointed that ginger ale was nowhere to be found anywhere in the country. Perhaps this has changed recently? Or is it a case of the Slovenes just not developing a taste for something they never had? (See ‘marketing strategies’ below…)
Chokeberries? At Fructal website I saw just apple-grape-strawberry juice.
Mmmmmmm… ginger ale. I think I’ve forgotten what it tastes like…For chokeberries: Look under "wellness products." They translate it as "aronia."
Grape juice, tomato juice: who drinks this stuff anyway?
Where the hell is cranberry juice?? How am I supposed to mix a Cosmopolitan without it? And where can you find Sloe Gin? For those nice sloe comfortable screw cocktails…
I think it’s just one of those things… people in the States were at awe, as I introduced them to the mighty apple-flavoured Orbit chewing gum.
Personally, I wonder why you can’t find strawberry juice in America. First, we have plenty of strawberries. They grow wild all over the place. Second, strawberry juice is AWESOME!!!! But … I had to go to Slovenia to find that out.
Oh yeah, strawberry juice is the thing! I love strawberry juice! *drool* I’d love to drink it everytime we go out for dinner, but I rather take a Coke (Light, even!) or Ice Tea, even tho strawberry juice tastes better. About grape juice, I used to drink on our ski trips to Austria, but sadly that phase in my life is gone (the grape juice, not the ski trips; aren’t I just the most stereotypical Slovene :P). Oh, almost forgot, Pfanner made the juice, don’t know if they still do. But since they’re also sold at some places in Slovenia, you might wanna check there.Also, I never knew people had such a positive opinion about Fructal’s drinks.. I find them nice too..
Well I have to say I missed being able to put together a proper curry in BiH, I tried but it came out wrong. the other thing I missed terribly was tacos! When I came back, I to the States, I smelled the lovely smell of carne de res tacos and followed my nose. I ate as many as I could! In general though I liked the local food enough not to get too upset over what I couldn’t have. Prscut made up for many things as did the local form of bacon which is so delicious.Things just are different in different countries, think of all the things people from Slovenia or Croatia or BiH or Serbia can’t get here, or only at great expense!