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Harvest Market · Grape Syrup

Petmez (Grape Molasses)

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It's made with nothing but boiled-down grape juice — no added sugar, just hours of reduction until the fruit's own sweetness concentrates into syrup.

Fresh-pressed grape juice from the Thracian valley's vineyards is simmered for hours until it thickens into a dark, sweet syrup, sold by the jar at Plovdiv's autumn harvest markets and drizzled over bread or pastry.

Why it's made this way: The Thracian plain around Plovdiv has been vineyard country since antiquity, and petmez is the region's old, sugar-free way of preserving a grape harvest before refrigeration existed.
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