Pacharan

One of our local drinks, and when I mean local I do not mean Spanish, I mean from the region of Navarre, is the Pacharan. You can write it pacharan or patxaran if you say it in Basque.

If you come to San Fermin, in Pamplona, have a drink.

This spirit is made of 9/10 of anis liquor and 1/10 of blackthorn (sloe berries). Sometimes it might have a few roasted coffee beans or a small piece of cinnamon.

All this macerates for 4 months preserved from the dark light at a constant, cool temperature. It should be served very cold. Some people (like me) prefere to drink it on the rocks. The reason is that it softens a little bit.

Normally we drink pacharan after a large meal as a digestive. Sometimes, specially when you are young, you drink it all night long but it will give you the worst hang over of your life.

It has about 25-30% alcohol content and it is extremely sweet so you can drink it easily. You will not realize how drunk you are until the morning after. Use my personal experience as yours, and don´t drink more that 2 in one night, you will regret it.

To me, pacharán ZOCO is one of the best ones. You will be able to find it in all the supermarkets in town. And you will also find it in “El Corte Inglés” all around Spain. El corte Inglés is Spain´s MACY¨S or HARRODS, there is one in every city.

I personally love it after a big dinner,

Endrinas are the berries we use to produce the Pacharan