Two things about drinking in Albania surprise visitors immediately. The first is the coffee: there are cafes everywhere, they are full at every hour of the day, an espresso costs less than you would think possible, and nobody is in a hurry. The second is raki, a clear fruit spirit that will be offered to you by a guesthouse owner, a restaurant, a shopkeeper or somebody’s uncle, sometimes before you have eaten anything, and which is considerably stronger than the small glass implies.
Raki
A fruit spirit, distilled from grapes, plums, mulberries or whatever the family had.
Offered rather than ordered, frequently on the house, sometimes at breakfast.
Homemade in an unlabelled bottle is the version that matters.
Stronger than it tastes, particularly the good homemade stuff.
A social gesture, so accepting one and sipping is smoother than declining.
Driving is a complete and immediately understood excuse.
Coffee
Espresso, taken seriously, everywhere, from early morning until late.
Extremely cheap, to the point that it barely registers on a budget.
An hour over one cup is a normal use of time and nobody will move you on.
Turkish style coffee in the older places and in the south.
Macchiato as the standard milk order.
Cafes as public space, which is the real point of the culture.
Beer and wine
Korca and Tirana, the two domestic lagers, cheap and everywhere.
A small craft scene in Tirana, growing.
Albanian wine, improved a great deal and almost entirely unexported.
Indigenous grape varieties worth asking about by name at a proper restaurant.
The hill regions around Berat and in the south east for the better producers.
Low prices, which make experimenting free in practice.
The rest of the glass
Mountain tea, sideritis, gathered wild and sold dried in every market.
Dhalle or ayran, salted yoghurt, which is the traditional partner to byrek.
Boza, a fermented grain drink, which is an acquired taste and worth trying once.
Tap water, which is generally fine in the cities and worth asking about in villages.
Fresh juice, particularly pomegranate in autumn, from street stands.
Water in summer, in quantity, because the coast is hot.
Where this fits in an Albania trip
Continuously, and cheaply, and mostly at somebody else’s invitation.
For what to eat alongside all of it, our Albanian food guide covers the ground.
For the breakfast that the coffee accompanies, our guide to byrek covers where to buy it.
And for the evening version of the drinking culture, our Tirana nightlife guide covers the districts.
The short version
Drink espresso constantly, because it is excellent, costs almost nothing and nobody will rush you. Accept the first raki, sip it rather than shooting it, eat something with it and slow down quietly afterwards, and remember that saying you are driving ends the offer instantly. Order the domestic beer rather than the imported one. Ask for Albanian wine by grape at a proper restaurant, because none of it is exported. And take a bag of mountain tea home.
