A Story of Persistence

Went into our local to see if one of the landlords could go with us to our 4pm carol service, but there were too many customers - disappointed, but maybe next week...

Which is when I took this - loved all the colours - realised the colourful ones were all Luxardo Sambucas, so looked it up, and found an amazing story about the Luxardo family, who were sent to Zara, a city on the Dalmatian coast (now Croatia), in 1821, as the consular representative of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The man's wife, Maria Canevari, developed this amazing liqueur, which eventually gained an exclusive "PRIVILEGIATA DITTA MARASCHINO EXCELSIOR" from the Austrian Emperor.

When Tito's communist partisans took over, most of the family were killed - forcibly drowned - but the only surviving brother of the fourth generation rebuilt the distillery in the Veneto region, which is where these bottles across the road from my house come from.

Apparently, the way to drink the original liqueur is to float 3 coffee beans (as a symbol of romance) on the top, and then set fire to them and drink the thus warmed liqueur. Might try that sometime...

Today's advent window: Glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. (that's the shepherds) Luke 2:20