"Rakia" is the word for a brandy made from various fruits distributed in the Balkans. All countries of the Balkan Peninsula consider distilled beverages a national drink.
Although considered as one product, it is produced differently in different regions, with different ingredients, ways of distilling, according to the legislation of each territory. Initial data on the production of brandy in Bulgaria date from the XI century, with the discovery of a fragment of a vessel used to make it. Given the antiquity of the fragment, contrary to the belief that the production of brandy started in the XVI century, some historians believe that it originated in Bulgaria.