Dealing with grape distillate in Greece began in about 1900. From 1900 to 1988 when the bill for the making of distillery and bottling was voted in Greece, the name that prevailed was Raki and Rakomelo when combined with the honey.
With a resolution in the EEC in 1989 (No 1576/89) on alcoholic beverages, the following names were registered by Greece and Turkey. Turkey has named raki and Greece the name of tsikoudia of Crete, tsipouro Tirnavos, tsipouro Macedonia and tsipouro Thessaly.
In 2013, Erdogan argued that Turkey’s national drink is not raki but the araban.
In Greece we use the Cretan bottled distillate on the official label “Tsikoudia Crete”. In everyday life, consumers also mention the word Raki.
ByRaki flavor team