Biadina or sometimes known as “biadino” is one of those drinks which were invented generations ago, reached a peak of popularity and then kind of disappeared as tastes changed and people moved away from highly alcoholic beverages, aperitif and digestivi. It can still be found in bars in Garfagnana and the Barga area but these days it is mainly a drink for the cognoscenti – those in the know. Deceptively simple .. a small glass of Sambuca with a small spoonful of pine nuts sitting in the bottom of the glass ready to be eaten as the last of the Sambuca is drained.
Aristo’s bar in Barga Vecchia is where the real connoisseurs gather of an afternoon to enjoy the delights of a Biadina made from a bottle of Sambuca which probably dates back to the early 60s or 70s.
Sambuca is an Italian anise-flavoured, usually colourless liqueur. Sambuca contains essential oils obtained from star anise, Illicium verum, which give the liquor a strong anise flavor. The oils are added to pure alcohol, a concentrated solution of sugar, and other flavouring. It is commonly bottled at 42% alcohol by volume (84 proof*). – source
Aristodemo’s famed bottle collection (which can be seen here) going back right through to the 1940’s contains (at least for the moment) examples of local Sambuca distilled and bottled by companies long since disbanded but their wares live on. These are the bottles that the Biadina connoisseurs jealously guard and watch over. This does not stop them drinking the precious liquor, these were made to enjoy after all, but opening and drinking them is not something that is highly publicised.
Nobody is shouting in the Piazza that Marino has just opened another 1970 Sambuca but there is a certain intensity in the eyes of his customers whenever the pine nuts are brought out that could almost be said to have a fanatical edge to them.
Further down the valley they have their own version of a biadina which for the Luccesse is a speciality of Lucca but that has very little to do the local version in this area.
La storia narra che il nome biadina derivi dalla biada per i cavalli. In particolare era rinomato a Lucca un negozio in Piazza San Michele nel quale il padrone Tista offriva ai viandanti venuti a Lucca per il mercato “un po’ di biada per il cavallo”.
*It has to be said that it’s not a drink which can be drunk every day and for every occasion – for that there is nothing better than a glass of wine …. and maybe some music to help the atmosphere along.
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My gosh!!!! Ask Marino to please save a drop for me!!!!! Tell him the promised post card is in the mail… honest it is!!!
I thought I had it all figured out with Toquino’s!!!! How little I really know…. how little I really know…..