Nordic alcohol gigant Altia has subsidiaries in all Baltic countries. Their Latvian unit has produced a series of berry liqueurs. These can be found in the bottom shelfs in some Latvian alcohol or food stores. The product looks just like it was made by a small village grandmothers association for the local rural market. It is bottled in a cheap juice bottle and the label printed on cheap paper is also very home-made. It reads “raspberry liqueur” only in Latvian language and has hastily photographed a picture of raspberries. It is therefore not at all what the Latvian subsidiary of the Nordic alcohol giant would be expected to make.
Since the product is on sale at a very low price, just over € 7 per liter, I wonder why the largest alcohol group in northern Europe is wasting its time doing such things. When I don’t think such sugar liqueurs could be sold in large volumes. Perhaps they have wanted to prevent small producers from entering the market, because they can produce such liqueurs on a small scale, even without profit at all.
On the Altia Latvia website, the company states that low-cost berry liqueurs always have their own market and that is why they have developed this special liqueur, which is suitable to enjoy with ice cream or crushed ice. The price for a 50cl bottle was 3.85€ so it is the cheapest liqueur I have ever bought.
It’s very light and sweet raspberry liqueur. The aroma has berry aromas, but I can’t really recognize whether it is from strawberry, raspberry or any other berry. The taste is light, soft, sweet and has light raspberry aroma. The sugar content is at an appropriate level, it does not have a syrupy feeling. Of course, you don’t feel alcohol at all in such lean liqueur. The aftertaste has a slight dry bitterness, which is naturally presented in raspberry seeds. The 16% alcohol content makes the liqueur somehow juicy and it lacks the body that also berry liqueurs should have.
Juiciness and the lack of body is the biggest problem, the taste of the product is just fine. The price is very affordable and then you can’t expect to get anything special.
74/100
