Effect of raw spirit in Borovička beverage on the quality of the product

“Borovička” is a distilled spirit made from juniper berries, produced by special fermentation of the Juniperus communis fruit. Distillate of juniper raw-material occurs after special fermentation by using a neutral alcohol and drinking water. Species of Juniperus communis L. are considered a main raw material in the production of Borovička. The Slovak distillation industry declares a need of approximately 500 t of fresh fruits year^‑1. Many companies do not have their own facility to collect juniper berries and to cultivate the shrubs and trees. Therefore they purchase plant raw material either from small local companies, which are organized in a juniper fruit collection in all Slovak territory, or import the berries from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, and Bulgaria where different species of the genus Juniper are very common. This is the main reason for the difficulties in controlling the raw spirit industry at every stage. Low-quality raw spirit results in low-quality alcohol product. Usually, raw spirits contain by-products such as carbonyl compounds, esters, sulfur compounds, aldehydes, and organic acids. These types of compounds always appear in beverage produced by alcoholic fermentation. Their presence in the alcoholic beverage has a high influence on the quality. Results presented in the article show differences in the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Borovička made from two different juniper species: raw materials harvested from Slovakia and Albania, which mostly influence the taste of the Borovička alcoholic beverage.