Guindametlla

Guindametlla - for all those significant events
- marketing poster put in shop windows

In Akorros, if you're sealing a deal, celebrating a birthday, meeting old friends...or making new, a glass or three of Guindametlla is essential. It is the focus of the Cirera festival, no wedding would be considered complete without the Guindametlla toast, and no funeral without a final glass to wish them on their way.

The drink

Guindamentlla is the local brandy which is brewed from sour cherries and almonds, and it is arguable that it is the lubricant that greases every significant social interaction. Of course you will find people having a pint of beer or a glass of wine, but male, female or other, rich or poor, copper, silver or gold, boatworker, animal handler, blacksmith, cordwainer, tailor, guard, soldier, merchant - if it's an occasion, every one will reach for the Guindametlla. Even children are given Guindetlla to drink - a non-alcholic mixture of watered-down cherry juice and almond essence.
Official distillers brew it in bulk in large stills in factories in the south east of the city, and the heady smells do their bit to mask the less pleasant emanations of the tanners and knackers and animal yards in the quarter, but a true Akorran would be embarrassed if they didn't have a bottle of their own distilling to offer friends and family who come round. (Some enterprising merchants have started selling it in unmarked bottles for people to add their own labels and pretend it's their own brew.)

The Guindametlla ritual

There is also a ritual to drinking the Guindametlla. It is served in small hexagonal glasses of clear glass, and everyone waits until there is a glass in front of everyone. Then each person picks up their glass, bangs it on the table three times, chinks it in the centre of the table (or at least reachers toward the centre), bangs it on the table once more, chugs the drink back in one gulp then slams the glass down upside-down on the table, raises their drinking hand high in a salute to their companions and shouts "'Metlla!". They then cheer and slap each other affectionately on the back or grasp hands around the table.
Not every glass is drunk this way - that would end the evening rather quickly and spectacularly given the high alcohol content - but in any pub each group will go through the ceremony several times in an evening, getting louder each time, and with different groups at different timings it is a very common sound in the pubs and restaurants across the city.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Sour Cherry and Almond Brandy - speciality of Akorros

Type

Organic

Taste

Sour cherry with a hint of almond

Color

Deep ruby red