Polish Pear Wine and Cider - is it popular in Poland?

I have been searching for a Polish Pear Wine. I was told by my mom and dad that the church we attend uses Polish pear wine for communion. Whatever it is, is extremely delicious. If there is such a thing, does anyone know where I can find it? I figured it would be an awesome gift for my babcia and dzia dzia for christmas.

Sabrina

Good pear wine belongs rather to the homemade products. It's probably hard to find a Polish pear wine in the a shop. It's more popular in the form of recipes - one example here (site in Polish):

winiarze.pl/artykuly/wina/przepis-na-domowe-wino-z-gruszek

Unlikely to the extreme if it is a Catholic church. Only grape wine can be used, and wine made from other fruits is specifically forbidden. If it's not a Catholic or Orthodox parish, though, it might be pear wine.

If it is, about the only way you would be able to purchase it is to contact the pastor and ask for contact information to his supplier. Otherwise, it would be nigh impossible, unless you make it yourself.

I've never heard about it. Also, there's no tradition of cider in Poland. Maybe some grandma's recipe.

Strange. Must have been hallucinating, because the shops are full of cider now.

There certainly is. My grandfather-in-law made it all his life. In a country so full of apples it would be odd in the extreme not to make booze with it.

Yes, recently a lot of cider in Polish stores but since new thing, not a tradition (logical ;)). I have tried several brands, and they were all disgusting. Coming from also cider producing/drinking culture (Brittany and Normandy, although I only drink Normandy cider), Polish socalled cider tastes awful at least the one sold in normal stores. Maybe, some small farmers can make good cider but I don't know any. The only decent cider I have found in Poland was some cider from England at Mark's & Spencer.

I know 2 Poles who make .... wine in their Warsaw kitchens but I would not say that wine producing is part of Polish culture and same thing applies to cider, which is no Polish tradition.

@Roger: maybe your father in law or your grandfather did but it does not mean it's a national tradition ;). It's purely a family tradition.

Just because it's small scale doesn't mean it's not a tradition. Gloucester cheese-rolling is a tradition in one place, but still a tradition. Borsuk said "no tradition", not "no national tradition".

I've been interested in cider recently, mostly due to the russian embargo. While there are plenty of apples, other alcohols have always been vastly more popular. Wódka on the heavyweight / more expensive side and piwo (beer) on the lighter side. Long story short Poles don't know how a good cider should taste like, and breweries are trying to capitalize on this by selling crap.

When a tradition is on a very small scale and in some specific regions only, I call it marginal. When you ask a Pole about "cydr" outside of a bar, I estimate about 90% doesn't have a clue what it is. And perry doesn't even have a polish name.

It is possible to find good polish cider in shops, but it's very rare. The keywords are: "niefiltrowany" (non-filtered) and "niepasteryzowany" (non-pasteurized). These don't stay edible for long.