Handicrafts and ceramics
Slovakia is a forest-covered country with a long tradition of woodworking. At local festivals and fairs, you'll find stalls with carved objects and numerous wooden kitchen utensils. You can impress your friends at barbecues by bringing along a pair of wooden tongs, handy for turning sausages on the grill. Or a meat tenderizer, a kind of wooden meat hammer that's very common in Slovakian kitchens and often heard around restaurant kitchens. The benchmark for handicrafts is the ÚĽUV (Ústredie L'udovej Umeleckej Výroby) - Folk Arts and Crafts Production Centre. Founded in 1945, this organization, supported by the Ministry of Culture, sells handicrafts and organizes numerous workshops to pass on these skills to new generations. There are three ÚĽUV gallery-shops: two in Bratislava, one in the High Tatras at Tatranská Lomnica. There are also two Regional Crafts Centers: one in Banská Bystrica in the center of the country, and one to the east in Košice. In these stores, you'll find all the latest local crafts, whether in wood, leather, terracotta, wool, fabric or animal horns.
For those who love color, Modra, a small town north of Bratislava, is the capital of ceramics. After a visit to the Ceramics Factory (Slovenská Ľudová Majolika Modra), where you can learn about the various production methods that perpetuate a tradition that goes back over a hundred years, you can buy a ceramic object. The decoration is often based on floral motifs, with blue being the dominant color.
A bottle as a souvenir
When making a list of potential souvenirs, it's impossible to miss a bottle of alcohol. It's always a pleasure, it's convivial and when it's local, it's even better. Let's start our tour gradually. Beer is Slovakia's favorite drink. Sold in 50 cl bottles or cans, most of them are lagers. Don't be frightened when you see the degree of alcohol on the bottle: usually 10° or 12°. This is a calculation based on the percentage of hops and sugar. In reality, a 10° contains between 3.5 and 4.3% alcohol, and a 12° between 4.5 and 5%. The last thing you need to know about Slovak beer is that all the companies have been taken over by the multinationals in the field, with only the irreducible Urpiner from Banská Bystrica retaining its independence. Some, whether curious or connoisseurs, will set their sights on a bottle of wine. Slovakia's biggest wine producer, Chateau Topoľčianky, offers good-value wines, with devin in white and frankovka modra in red being good choices. For a more specific and rare wine, turn to tokaj, this sweet wine made from noble rot is a highly prized specialty among wine lovers. Last but not least, if you're looking for a local wine and attach importance to the production process, we recommend víno od Francúza ("the Frenchman's wine"), the perfect alchemy between Slovak terroir and French know-how. Conceived with a natural approach, they are the work of a young Frenchman based in Devičie, south of Banská Bystrica.
Moving up the degrees, we arrive at the brandy(palenka), 52°, still widely consumed in Slovak taverns. The most common is undoubtedly plum slivovica. The most Slovak of them all is borovička, made with juniper berries and tasting a little like gin. In addition to these two bar stalwarts, there's a wider range of brandies based on pear(hruškovica), raspberry(malinovica), apricot(marhuľovica), strawberry(jahodovica) - there's something for every taste. Nestville whisky, distilled at Hniezdne near Stará Ľubovňa, is a good opportunity to take home a souvenir of your visit to Nestville Park. To complete this collection, you can't miss Tatra Tea (Tatranský čaj in Slovak or Tatra Tea in English), produced by Karloff since 2003. This distilled tea is distributed in designer bottles in six colors according to alcohol content, from 10 in 10 between 22° and 72°, the most classic being the black bottle at 52°. Like it or not, there's only one alternative: taste in moderation before you buy.
Culinary specialties
Gourmets in search of new flavors will taste and perhaps bring home some Slovak cheese.Oštiepok is a pressed sheep's milk cheese. Smoky and slightly salty, it tastes of caramel from the milk. Korbáčik( pluralkorbáčiky ) is a smoked or plain braided cheese made from cow's milk. Bryndza is a fresh cheese made from sheep's milk. It is used in the Slovak national dish, bryndzové halušky. Those staying at a spa can buy oplatky, or thermal wafers. This crunchy, round specialty can be found in a variety of flavors in all the country's spas, and all locals offer them to their loved ones. Finally, Slovakia produces high-quality natural honey and beehive products. The propolis mother tincture(propolisová tinktúra) sold in pharmacies is much less expensive than in France. Mead, medovina in Slovak, is a beverage made from the natural fermentation of selected honeys. Slovaks put it on the stove to warm up on long winter evenings.
Original gifts
A nice, useful, space-saving gift: patterned socks from Slovakian brand Fusakle. This brand has become popular in the country, offering modern, high-quality products. Lyra brand chocolates made in Nitra are also very popular, and very good too. For T-shirts and other clothing created by local designers, visit the Kompot store. In the nostalgia series, Czechoslovakian brand Botas sports shoes will delight those in search of originality. You'll find colorful shoes and unique designs that you won't find on our shelves. Finally, always in the "Soviet" vintage spirit, a small packet of Chrumky, puffed aperitif cakes made with peanuts, Tyčinky Dru, pretzels, or a Horalky Sedita chocolate bar will always please, original packaging and recipes, a trip back in time guaranteed.
