What to Bring Back from Armenia?
When it comes to food, Armenia is an incredibly rich country, still exotic and unfamiliar to most Europeans - and there is plenty to bring home. I traveled with nothing but a small carry-on and even so I came back with a decent stash of reminders of Armenian cooking. With a checked bag I'd have filled it easily.
So what do I recommend as the best food souvenirs from Armenia?
Armenian Brandy Ararat
Ararat brandy is the single most famous thing Armenia makes. The brand relies on careful grape selection, traditional distillation and long aging in oak barrels. A gift set of three 50 ml bottles aged 5, 7 and 10 years is perfect for a carry-on - three ages side by side are a neat demonstration of what time in the barrel does to brandy. And if you have room in your bag, throw in a bottle of the rival Noy brandy for comparison.
Price of a gift set of 3 x 50 ml Ararat brandy (aged 5, 7 and 10 years): 4,750 AMD (11.60 EUR)
Armenian Dried Fruit
Drying fruit goes back a long way in Armenia. The gift set I picked up in a supermarket held dried apricots, cherries, raisins, walnuts and almonds. A neatly packed tasting of what Armenian orchards and mountain slopes have to offer.
Price of a gift set of dried fruit: 3,590 AMD (8.60 EUR)
Armenian Dried Apricots
The apricot is one of Armenia's national symbols - botanists call it Prunus armeniaca, the Armenian plum, after all. The local climate and soil give Armenian apricots an intense flavor, and drying only concentrates it. Sadly, the dried apricots on Czech shelves are nowhere near.
Price of a 150 g pack of dried apricots: 1,390 AMD (3.40 EUR)
Armenian Dried Peaches
Of all the dried fruit, the peaches were the runaway winner 😊 They are meaty, sweet on their own rather than from added sugar, with a slightly tart finish. They vanished first.
Price of a 150 g pack of dried peaches: 1,750 AMD (4 EUR)
Armenian Dried Plums
Plums do exceptionally well in Armenia too, and they taste different from the European ones. The pack from Aregi mixes ordinary plums with wild ones, so every piece tastes a little different.
Price of a 110 g pack of dried plums from Aregi: 700 AMD (1.60 EUR)
Sujukh
Sujukh is a traditional Armenian sweet: walnuts threaded on a string, dipped in thickened fruit juice and left to dry. It even made it onto Armenia's national inventory of cultural heritage. I went for the version made with pomegranate juice. You'll see strings of sujukh hanging at the GUM market in Yerevan, for example; in neighboring Georgia you'll run into an almost identical treat called churchkhela.
Price of a pack of sujukh: 430 AMD (1 EUR)
Armenian Lavash Bread
Bringing home Armenian lavash bread is practically a must - baking it in a tonir, a clay oven, has been on the UNESCO list since 2014. I picked an unusual charcoal version that turns heads on color alone - a deep, inky black.
Price of a 290 g pack of charcoal lavash: 480 AMD (1.20 EUR)
Armenian Wild Mint Tea
Armenian herbs grow in clean mountain air and you can tell. Wild mint tea smells far stronger than the bagged mint from Czech shops. Mint helps digestion, calms you down and takes the edge off a headache - and the wild kind is said to carry a higher concentration of essential oils.
Price of a 35 g pack of loose wild mint tea: 680 AMD (1.60 EUR)
Armenian Coffee
As a coffee lover, I have to bring coffee home from practically every country. Armenians call it surch and brew it in a cezve much like Turkish coffee. This time I couldn't track down quality beans roasted in Armenia, so I took two packs of ground coffee - both 100% arabica.
Price of a 100 g pack of ground Armenian coffee: 830 AMD (2 EUR)
Price of the second pack of ground Armenian coffee: 550 AMD (1.20 EUR)
An Armenian Cookbook
Armenian cuisine differs from European cooking enough that I was glad to bring back a slim cookbook as well. It is written in English and covers the best-known Armenian recipes. It was not cheap, but I bought it at Zvartnots cathedral - so hopefully some of that money went to Armenian monuments too.
Price of an Armenian cookbook in English: 6,000 AMD (14.40 EUR)
What to Snack On During the Flight?
The journey from Yerevan to Prague is long and check-in takes longer than usual - they only issue the ticket at the desk. A decent snack comes in handy, put together from local food, of course.
Armenian Cheese
Chechil is the traditional Armenian string cheese. Salty, fibrous, pulling apart thread by thread, and a great match for Armenian beer. I bought a pack with three different kinds.
Price of a 150 g pack of chechil cheese (three kinds): 760 AMD (1.80 EUR)
Exotic Mulberries
Mulberries look vaguely like blackberries, but they are much sweeter and packed with vitamins and antioxidants. They don't travel well at all, which is why you'll hardly ever find them in Europe - all the more reason to eat your fill of them fresh before you fly.
Kumquat
Kumquat is my favorite citrus fruit. I love its bittersweet taste and the fact that you eat the whole thing, skin and all. In season you will find it in any Armenian supermarket.
Salami Sticks
In Armenia I fell for salami sticks - a lighter snack with a decent hit of protein. Besides the classic ones I tried the beef and chicken versions too.
Price of a 60 g pack of salami sticks: 550 AMD (1.20 EUR)
Price of a 30 g pack of beef salami sticks: 300 AMD (0.80 EUR)
Price of a 30 g pack of chicken salami sticks: 300 AMD (0.80 EUR)
What did you bring back from Armenia?
