"We started from a personal need of believing in our grasses, native recipes and medicine and this proved to be justified. It all started from Srcanik, beer, and Prutaš, on the Piva side," Dragan says, who is almost from Piva because his wife and relatives are from there. Turčinović wanted to have a completed story, to promote Montenegro, and not only their farm. That's why they chose colorful stickers with the beauties of Montenegro and every liqueur and rakija tell a story.
These vivid labels were used to demonstrate the beauty of our country, to tell the story of Montenegro in the form of a horseshoe. To start from Ulcinj and finish with Kotor. The story begins with a tangerine liqueur and a photograph of Ulcinj and the old fortress, going over the vineyard and the bridge on Rijeka Crnojevića, Barrique apples and the Carev bridge in Niksic. Then it continues through the cornel liqueur and Lukavica with Mali and Veliki Zurim, the blueberry liqueur and the Savnik-Zabljak region, and Ali Pasha's springs in Plav. Again, there is Piva, from where everything started - this time the canyon of Susica and the liqueur from rosehip, all ending with Boka bay and the aromatic liqueur of anise and cinnamon. Some liqueurs are embelished with a picture of beautiful blondes in Montenegrin folklore costume. She is Dragan's niece, Andjela Lakićević
PHOTO: Svetlana Mandić
"We did not start right away. We learned, read the books, and translated the literature. Only when we had studied it all did we start with this story. We do this for our own soul. Now, when we found ourselves “on our feet”, we thought of expanding, acquiring additional equipment, making new products, offering everything to the market and making this a Montenegrin brand," said Turčinović of his plans. They connected traditional with the modern and are pleased with the result. Venera makes cremes from rosehip, and Dragan dives into her waters – he knows the Latin names, knows all the healing characteristics and making the recipes comes easy for him. He leaves the final touches to his better half.
"We are the only ones in Montenegro to have achieved the successful technology of liqueur production. It requires work that asks for a lot of renunciations, but also gives us satisfaction, because it is creative. Our desire is to use all the fruits of nature, completely. You do not have the right to throw anything away, but you also need to keep up to date with current trends, technology. We have no other way than to introduce modern technology and apply it to what we already have."
This year, Turčinović decided to test their products at a fair. They decided it would be the fair in Novi Sad, one of the largest trade fairs in Southeastern Europe. More than 1,500 exhibitors from 30 countries participated in the fair, and Turčinović showed proved to be successful.
PHOTO: Private archive
They presented with four liqueurs and two rakijas and returned with one gold and five silver medals and a Cup for quality products in the category of liqueurs, fruit and grapa rakija. The blueberry liqueur received gold, while the silver was obtained for the anise and cinnamon liqueurs, tangerine and rosehip, as well as the grape and apple barrique rakija.
Text by Svetlana Mandic, on June 11th 2018, read more at Vijesti
