There are people who claim that Krautinger is more of a ‘medicine’ than a beverage. Everyone has their own opinion about the taste of the liquor, which has a hint of vegetables in its flavour. In any case, it is unbeaten when it comes to the number of stories that proliferate around it and its what gives it its uniqueness. What other foodstuff or beverage can claim to have received a royal warrant personally from the Empress Maria Theresa in the 18th century? This granted the farmers of the high mountain valley Wildschönau, the sole right to distil this liquor from the autumn turnip.
This tradition is still followed today by just 15 families in Wildschönau, an Austrian community in the Kufstein district of Tyrol and it has become a hallmark of the region.