🍷 Fröccs

Fröccs is a Hungarian drink made from wine and soda water. According to hungarikum.hu, the portal of the Hungarikum Committee, it is a mixture of grape wine and soda water (szikvíz), and the ratio does not matter.

In Hungary many mixes have their own names, among them kis (small), nagy (large), ház (house), hosszúlépés (long stride), polgármester (mayor), alpolgármester (deputy mayor) and Krúdy-fröccs. The harmatfröccs is a full glass of wine with soda sprayed over the top. The portal says any wine can be used: red, white, rosé, schiller or must, and it does not recommend aszú.

The portal gives this account of its origin. The first recorded fröccs was made in 1842 in András Fáy's cellar at Fót. Ányos Jedlik, whom it credits as the inventor of soda water, mixed the drink for his friends and called it spriccer in German. Mihály Vörösmarty disliked the name and renamed it fröccs; he wrote about the drink in his poem Fóti dal.

According to the same portal, the Hungarikum Committee moved fröccs into the Hungarikum Collection (Hungarikumok Gyűjteménye) in 2015. The portal lists it under agriculture and food economy (Agrár- és élelmiszergazdaság) and says that its refreshing, thirst-quenching character has kept it popular for almost 200 years.