Ukrainian nalyvka, homemade liqueur with fruit and sometimes honey, is a great pick-me-up now that those chilly, murky autumn nights are here again. Here’s where you can find the best nalyvka in Kyiv:
Samogon Bar offers 14 kinds of flavored vodka-based drinks for Hr 34-42 for a shot. The latest favorite is black-currant flavor, but other popular ones include raspberry, buckthorn and mint. The bar is located in the city’s Podil district, at 25 Naberezhno-Khreshchatytska St.
Spotykach is a restaurant named after a type of homemade liquor infused with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, saffron and vanilla. You can sample nine flavored shots here for Hr 27-35.
There is a small tasting set – nine 5 milliliter shots for Hr 40 – and a big set of full-size 50 milliliter shots for Hr 400. There are also some exotic liqueurs with passion fruit, strawberries and lime. Spotykach offers its customers a free infusion drink on entry. The bar is close to St. Sophia’s Cathedral, at 16 Volodymyrska St.
Banka bar serves all of its food and drinks in glass jars, and is famous for the variety of beverages it offers. One can find here 13 different flavored liqueur shots with natural ingredients for Hr 20-30, including some unusual ones – celery, borscht and chokeberries. There are three sets of shots to try. The smallest one, called “Bouquet,” includes 4 milliliter shots of all 13 flavors for Hr 45. The bigger sets, called “Gentle” and “Daring,” go for Hr 85. Banka bar has four venues in Kyiv, with the most central being at 8/11 Lva Tolstoho St.
For just Hr 11.5, Brasserie Podshoffe provides a 50 milliliter shot of one of their seven kinds of flavored liqueurs – made with horseradish, buckthorn, fruits and berries. One can also buy a one-liter bottle of any nalyvka to take away, for Hr 196. Podshoffe (the name is a slang word for “drunk”) is near Ploshcha Lva Tolstoho metro station at 45/2 Pushkinska St.
If you want to buy flavored nalyvka in a bottle, or bring some as a souvenir from Ukraine, you’re best off going to Nalyvky zi Lvova (Liqueurs from Lviv) at 12 Khreschatyk St. They also have shops in Lviv and Odesa, and an online store, www.nalyvky.com.
The store offers 23 kinds of nalyvka. Saleswoman Iryna Kotielieva says that the most popular flavors are blueberry, honey, berries, and 12 herbs. Women often choose the cherry-flavored Vyshnivka.
The cheapest bottle goes for Hr 48 (100 milliliter), while a 200-milliliter bottle costs Hr 68, and a 500-milliliter one costs Hr 138.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Torhan can be reached at [email protected]
