Commercial Availability
One clarification before the scale below: “rakia” (also rakija, raki, rachiu) travels across the whole region, but it covers at least three genuinely different things this site follows — pomace brandy, grape brandy and fruit brandy — plus anise-flavoured spirits like Turkish rakı and Greek ouzo, which are not rakia in this sense and are made a completely different way; those are noted on the relevant country pages only to rule them out.
Every rakia and native fruit variety on this site is tagged with a letter — [A], [B], [C] or [D] — showing how realistic it is to actually find and buy a bottle. It’s a practical scale, not a quality rating: a [D] variety can be historically fascinating and a [A] variety unremarkable. It just tells you what to expect when you go looking.
| Mark | Meaning |
|---|---|
| [A] | Available — commercially bottled and exported; findable in specialist shops abroad. |
| [B] | Limited — commercially bottled but mostly domestic, or in tiny volumes; expect to hunt. |
| [C] | Local only — sold regionally, at the distillery, or in local shops; not exported. |
| [D] | Home production — essentially no commercial bottling; made in villages and households. |
Sourcing [B] rakias
Specialist importers focused on Eastern Europe and the Caucasus are the realistic route for [B]-rated rakias. General retailers will typically carry the [A] rakias and little else.