Real Georgian chacha is a high quality homemade vodka. For its preparation, use grape cake or grated berries. In addition to grapes, other fruits are also used: apricots, cherry plums, figs.
To make real Georgian chacha at home, it is advisable to take grape cake left over after making wine as a basis. It must be placed in a volumetric bowl or bottle with a wide neck, filled with boiled water, covered with sugar. For 7.5 kg of cake, you need 2.5 liters of water at room temperature, 2.5 kg of sugar. The resulting mixture must be covered with cling film or a tight lid, left in a warm place for a week. The mixture will ferment, it must be stirred once or twice a day. Whole berries (not cake) must first be grated, and then carry out all the above actions.
If grapes are used for cooking, and not cake, then it is recommended to take dark varieties. Chacha turns out to be strong and rich if the berries are selected slightly unripe.
After the time has elapsed, the floating pulp is first removed with a slotted spoon, then the wash is filtered through clean cheesecloth. Already cleaned future chacha must be left to reach for another day in a warm place. It is not necessary to cover with a tight lid, but it is advisable so as not to spoil the workpiece.
Already prepared mash must be distilled through a special moonshine still. Strong homemade alcoholic drinks can rarely be made without it. The Georgian recipe for cooking involves double distillation of the mash, since this way the chacha turns out to be really high-quality and strong (up to 80 degrees).
But the preparation does not end there. After distillation, the pure drink is bottled, closed and removed to ripen for another 1, 5-2 months. Only after this time the Georgian chacha is considered ready. When uncorking the bottle, the drink should have a rich grape aroma. Despite its strength, chacha also has a pleasant, not harsh flavor of berries.
The quality of chacha is checked in the following way: they moisten a finger in it, then bring a burning match. If the flame does not burn the skin when it burns out, then the drink is prepared correctly, and its quality is high.
Industrial chacha is produced with a strength of no more than 60-70 degrees, rarely has a strong grape aroma. Homemade, prepared according to a traditional Georgian recipe, can be very strong (80 degrees), and medium - 50-70.
Properly prepared and aged, chacha does not cause a hangover in the morning, if consumed in moderation, of course. In addition, in small quantities, the drink has a healing effect: it calms the nervous system, stimulates and accelerates the digestive process, and stops the aging process of cells.
Chacha from apricots and cherry plums is made in a similar way, but the berries are pre-soaked in warm water (1-2 days), then crushed. Only after that they are covered with sugar, left for 5 days for the appearance of juice, and only then they are only poured with water and left to ferment. All other cooking steps are similar to those described above. Berry chacha must necessarily have a rich aroma of the berries from which it was made. Otherwise, the drink is considered to be of poor quality.
