The Catalan Jäggermeister was born before the Jäggermeister

Green walnuts, cloves, Maria Luisa, nutmeg and cinnamon. These are the 5 elements that a herbal liqueur must contain in order to be marketed as Ratafia. 

Herbal liqueurs were already known in Greek and Roman times but it was not until the Middle Ages that monasteries worked and perfected the formulas to make spirits with fruits and aromatic plants, many of them with healing functions. 

These formulas soon reached homes. Each peasant made his own ratafía and each gave his special touch to liquor, a well-kept secret that was passed down from father to son. 

With the abandonment of rural activities and the displacement of the population towards the cities, the family and homemade production of ratafía declined and consumption declined. However, in Catalonia ratafía has been developed without interruption and in recent years it has undergone a recovery. Currently around 500.000 liters are produced per year.

Brand protection

In 1985 the Catalan Ratafía was recognized as a Denomination of Quality. To manage the Protected Geographical Identification (PGI), a Regulatory Council was created. The latter is responsible for representing, defending, guaranteeing and promoting the IDG and has its own governing body.

The web

In September 2019, seeing the great growth in the consumption of ratafia, the regulatory council went to Indian Webs to create a web page about the PGI Ratafia Catalana from scratch. We immediately agreed when defining the objectives of the page: