Boilers of Paros

The ones last days of October are made in Paros the famous boilers of Paros, where the Parians make their favorite drink, the sum, the local raki.

Raki is made in other parts of Greece, more or less in the same way, but with a different name, such as tsipouro or tsikoudia.

For the production of suma The cranberries are collected, the remnants of the pressing of the grapes - which since August are covered, so that, thanks to the yeasts, they can turn the sugar into alcohol - in order to be used for distillation. Distillation is done at rakidia, the specially organized spaces. The rakokazano is placed in a fire and covered by the ambush, which is connected to the lumen, a metal pipe that passes through two tanks of cold water. When the fire is lit, the herbs and the water cisterns are placed in the cauldron. As the boiling begins, the generated vapors fill the ambush and from there are directed to the tube. The vapors, rich in alcohol, as they come in contact with the cold walls of the tube, liquefy and drip drop by drop at the outlet of the tube, where the precious liquid is collected.

What is important in boiler process It is not only the preparation of suma, the drink that accompanies the delicacies of the whole year, but that it is a social activity that unites people, as it is the occasion for the first feasts and the first drunks of winter, indoors around from the fire burning for distillation. On the coals of the fire, the mushrooms, which appeared with the first rains, will be cooked, and together with the sausages and steaks, they will accompany the other delicious appetizers, the octopuses and the fresh squid that will brown in the pan, or the fresh pudding that just came out of the sea.

If you find yourself in the middle of autumn in Paros and see columns of smoke from a chimney, let it approach and it will not fall. Definitely some cauldron will be in progress!