Juice time
This is the wonderful time of year when you see people on street corners, markets, and shops pop up with the tiniest tables to sell water-like bottles everywhere. Sometimes the bottles might look shady and secondhand, fancier, and their price will look higher than your average water price. You might think, "What are they selling?"
Well, this is the time of year - spring is here and the leaves have not bloomed yet, so people all over Latvia are taking out their drills and drilling into maple and birch trees to make maple and birch juice. This is only a short few-week window you can do it during the year, as the juices stop flowing once the leaves are out.
In the countryside, almost everybody does that for their use, and of course, some farmers do it on a more industrial level. There are several things produced from this juice, including fresh drinks and even cosmetics.
Source: Birzī
Some Latvians might tell you the story that birches are put in blenders to produce this juice, which of course is not true, but as a joke, this story has been around for ages. In reality, all that is needed is a drill, a tap, and either a bucket or bag to let the juice flow in.
Source: nra.lv
If you do it yourself, you can be pretty sure about where the juice comes from, but what to do if you want to buy it in the market? Well, I suggest following a few pieces of advice:
- First, check if the bottles are clean and well-sealed. Sometimes unfair sellers mix the juice with water.
- Find a trusted seller, and don’t be shy to ask for locals' advice; they probably have the best advice.
- Check whether you have information about the seller available - is it a registered farm?
- Also, check for markers indicating how the juice was produced because we have to pay respect to the tree it comes from.
- If a seller provides a tasting of the juice, check if he or she provides one-time usable cups for safety reasons.
They taste refreshing, and locals believe that it’s the best way to bring minerals and vitamins to your body after the long wintertime. You will taste the sweetness of the juice. My suggestion is to drink them fresh, if not straight from the tree, then no later than the next day, as it has to be stored in cold, and it goes bad really quickly. Of course, there are ways to preserve it, but it’s just not the same anymore.
Vita, OLS Community Manager - Latvian