Kinnie is the Maltese soft drink. It is amber, fizzy and made from bitter oranges and wormwood, and it has been made here since 1952.
Almost nobody likes it on the first sip. A lot of people are converted by the second.
What Kinnie tastes like
Bitter first, then sweet, with something herbal behind it.
It is closer to a bitter orange tonic than to a cola, and it is not as sweet as either.
Served very cold with ice and a slice of orange, it works in the heat in a way a sugary drink does not.
Order it once, decide you are not sure, then order it again two days later. That is how most visitors end up buying a case to take home.
It also mixes. Kinnie and gin, or Kinnie and rum, are both ordinary bar orders here.
Cisk is the lager
Cisk has been brewed here since 1929. It is a plain, cold lager and it is exactly right after a day in the sun.
Ask for a pint and you will usually be handed a bottle, which is normal rather than a mistake.
Watch the price. A bottle in a village bar costs a fraction of the same bottle on a seafront terrace, and it is the same beer.
Both Kinnie and Cisk come out of the same company, Simonds Farsons Cisk, and its brewery at Mrieħel runs tours.
Wine from grapes that grow nowhere else
Malta grows Ġellewża and Girgentina, two native varieties you will not find on a wine list anywhere else.
Ġellewża is red and light, and it is often made into a rosé. Girgentina is white and dry.
Local wineries also grow the familiar international varieties, so read the label rather than assuming.
Look for DOK on the bottle. That means the grapes were grown in Malta or Gozo rather than shipped in and bottled here.
Where to drink it
The village bar is the cheap and interesting option, and nobody minds a visitor walking in.
So is the band club bar, which is open to anyone and cheaper again.
Expect €2–€3 for a beer in a village and two or three times that on a seafront terrace in Sliema or St Julian’s.
The others worth trying
Bajtra is a prickly pear liqueur, sweet and bright pink, sold everywhere as a souvenir and drunk here as a digestif.
Anisette and the almond-flavoured ruġġata turn up at feasts and in old bars.
Tap water is safe and comes from desalination, so it tastes of the process. Most people drink bottled.
There is more on all of it, including where to find the wineries, on the Maltese drinks page.
