While everyone was looking forward to Christmas Eve, the Bavarian bloodroot has been officially ennobled. Not by a queen, of course, as the British would do, with kneeling down, swords and the like pomp, but at least by a message from the EU Commission in Brussels published last week. It has given the Bavarian bloodroot a geographical seal of protection.
From now on, only Bavarian bloodroot can be called who is actually Bavarian bloodroot. The distillate, which sometimes brings tears from the eyes and rattles from the throat, has arrived in an illustrious group and can be on par with such fine things as champagne from Champagne, buffalo mozarella from Campania or Serrano ham from Spain to imagine. Well get it!
If one trusts the – rather sober – letter from the EU Commission, it was above all the tradition that has been cherished in the Bavarian Forest for centuries that swung the pendulum in favor of the herbal liqueur: It finds “use both as a luxury food and as a medical product”. In future, its production must therefore “take place in all essential production steps in the Free State of Bavaria and meet clearly regulated criteria”.
In simple terms: If the whole thing does not come from Bavaria, does not revolve at least 35 percent, does not taste tart and bitter and does not lie red-brown in the glass – yes, then it is, sorry, vinegar with the bloodroot.
The noble drop is now protected from panic from the German and international countries by its ennoblement. In the Bavarian Forest, the jubilation triggered the kind you rarely hear or read about decisions made in Brussels in this country.
The Penninger distillery from Waldkirchen, for example, said that the EU had brought a “wonderful, pre-Christmas Christkindl”. And the Lower Bavarian CSU European Manfred Weber saw another “evidence of the numerous traditional specialties in Bavaria and Germany” on Facebook.
But maybe it was high time for the bloodroot to finally move into the digital EU register called “eAmbrosia”. His partner, Bavarian Bärwurz, has been in there since June.