If you’ve at least heard of the legendary Mother Teresa, the sandy Ksamil beaches, or the infamous bunkers known as “bunkerizimi” scattered across its landscape, then you’ve heard about Albania.
Albania is a Southeast European country, located on the Adriatic and Ionian coasts. The country has a rich tradition of storing pickles (turshi), preserved fruits, and homemade raki (fruit brandy) in glass jars and bottles, which is a practice that runs through grandmothers all the way to modern urban kitchens.
What makes Albania particularly interesting is how this deep-rooted culture of preserving in glass jars now sits alongside a growing encouragement for eco-friendly glass packaging and recycling.
If you are curious about Albanian food traditions or looking for the right glass jars and bottles for preserving food at home, this article is written for you.
What do the Albanians Store in Jars and Bottles?
When you walk into almost any Albanian home, be it in the village like Tirana, city, or in the Albanian diaspora communities, you will find jars, not as decoration, but as storage containers in the kitchen.
Albanian households have a history of relying on glass jars to store:
●Pickled vegetables (Turshi)
●Jams and Marmalades (Reçel)
●Rose Petal Jam (reçel trëndafili)
●Quince Jam (reçel ftoi)
●Cherry and Strawberry Jam
●Honey
●Spoon Sweets (fruit preserves in syrup)
●Ajvar (savoury red pepper condiment)
●Dry/cured meats
These are stored to preserve the flavours of each season for the months ahead. Albanians also store some items in glass bottles, such as:
●Raki (Rakia)
●Olive oil
●Local wines
●Vinegar (Uthull)
●Çaj Mali (Albanian mountain tea/shepherd's tea)
●Konopica (water mint), etc
Glass bottles are widely loved due to:
●Glass maintains the flavours of the content without absorbing odours the way plastic does
●It does not react with acidic pickling liquids, vinegar, or brine.
●It can be sterilised and reused season after season without degrading.
Albanian use of preserving jars is not a hobby; it is an everyday part of how families manage their food across the seasons, particularly in rural areas, where a well-stocked pantry of jars is a genuine household pride.
The Famous Grandmothers' Turshi in Glass Jars
The word turshi comes from the Turkish turşu, which means pickled vegetables, but Albania has made it entirely its own. The tradition of making turshi has been passed down through generations.
Traditionally, grandmothers would take whatever the garden gave them, like green tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cauliflowers, even whole chillies, and pack them tightly into large glass jars. To preserve them, they would add a simple brine of salt, vinegar, and sometimes garlic or dill, then process the jars in a water bath, and leave the jars in a cool corner for some weeks.
Back then, some families still used ceramic pots and containers for fermenting and storage. But the evolution of glass changed everything. As glass allows them to see and spot a bubble of fermentation, check the brine level, or notice if any mould is forming.
The transparency of glass containers gave families more control and fewer surprises, and now, Albanian families still make turshi in the same way, but with better containers with lids and safer storage.
Here is a simple, traditional Albanian turshi recipe you can make at home and store in a pickle glass jar:
Ingredients
●200g green tomatoes, chopped
●200g cucumbers, cut into spears
●150g carrots, sliced into rounds
●150g cauliflower florets
●4 cloves garlic, peeled
●2 fresh chillies (optional)
●350ml of water
●1.5 tbsp sea salt
●50ml white vinegar
●1 tsp black peppercorns
●1 tsp dill seeds
Method of Preparing Turshi
●Sterilise your wide-mouth glass jar with boiling water.
●Pack all vegetables, garlic, and chillies tightly into the jar.
●In a pan, heat water, salt, vinegar, peppercorns, and dill seeds until the salt dissolves, then cool completely.
●Pour the brine over the vegetables, ensuring everything is submerged.
●Seal the jar loosely (the gas needs to escape) and leave at room temperature for 5–7 days.
●Taste daily. When tangy enough, tighten the lid and place it in the fridge.
Albanian Hardiç, Fruits and Other Drinks in Glass Containers
Hardiç Drink in Glass Bottles
Hardiç (also spelt ardiç) is an Albanian fermented drink made from lemons, juniper berries, sugar, and water. In families, this drink is prepared by mixing the ingredients in large glass bottles, sealing them, and leaving them in direct sunlight for forty to forty-five days. The sun does the work, a slow, gentle fermentation that results in a slightly tart, mildly herbal, and refreshing beverage.
Glass is more convenient and essential for hardiç because plastic can leach chemicals when heated by the sun, and metal caps can corrode from the acidic lemon juice.
Glass bottles also allow them to watch the fermentation progress, check for bubbles or sediment without opening the seal. It also allows the sun’s light to reach the liquid evenly, which seems to help the process. For Albanian families, a row of hardiç bottles on a sunny windowsill is common.
Traditional Hardiç Recipe
Ingredients:
●4 organic lemons, washed and sliced into rounds
●2 tbsp juniper berries
●500g granulated sugar
●2 litres of filtered water
Method
●Sterilise a large glass bottle with a tight-fitting lid.
●Layer lemon slices and juniper berries inside.
●Dissolve sugar in warm water, cool completely, then pour into the bottle.
●Seal/cover the bottle with a breathable cloth (like muslin) secured with a rubber band, or burp the bottle daily by opening the lid to release the gas.
●Leave for 40–45 days. You will see bubbles forming after two weeks.
●Strain into clean glass bottles and refrigerate. Serve chilled over ice.
Albanian Fruits Preserved in Glass Jars for Winter
Albanian fruits are always in abundance in the summer. You will find fruits like plums, grapes, figs, and sour cherries. Families are often quick to preserve them before they spoil.
One of the simplest methods is to pack peeled or sliced fruit into sterilised glass jars, cover with a light sugar syrup or even a very mild brine, then process the jars in a water bath. The jars are then kept on shelves. These fruits are enjoyed with yoghurt, placed into cakes, or eaten straight from the jar.
Quick Albanian Plum Preserve Recipe
Ingredients:
●1kg firm plums, halved and stoned
●500g granulated sugar
●1 cinnamon stick
●Juice of 1 lemon
Method
●Sterilise two glass jam jars.
●Layer plums and sugar in a bowl, cover, and leave overnight.
●Transfer to a pan with cinnamon and lemon juice. Simmer gently for 20 minutes.
●Spoon into jars, seal immediately, and turn upside down for 5 minutes to create a vacuum or submerge the sealed jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
●Store in a cool, dark cupboard for up to one year.
Raki (The Albanian Spirit)
You can’t completely discuss Albanian drinks without mentioning raki (or rakia). This is a grape or fruit brandy, which is one of the country’s unofficial national drinks, and is available in different varieties, including:
●Raki and shefit (herta) (honey/cherry)
●Aged raki (kalmetti)
●Georges aged raki (Kinolli) (3 years in oak)
●Raki moskat
It is argued that while commercial raki exists, the best versions are still homemade. Most families make their raki using grapes, plums, or mulberries, then store the clear, potent spirit in glass bottles. Those bottles go into cellars, under stairs, or in any cool, dark corner away from sunlight.
Glass bottles are preferred for raki because raki ages, and plastic ruins that process, leaching chemicals and allowing oxygen to seep in slowly. Glass, especially when paired with a good cork or screw cap, creates a neutral, stable environment where the spirit can mature without interference.
Many Albanian households reuse wine bottles or dedicated raki bottles year after year, washing them thoroughly between batches, which is sustainable.
Best Glass Bottles for Raki
●Amber glass bottles, which protect against UV interference that causes damage when storing for a long period
●250ml, or 500ml to 700ml sizes (based on your quantity)
●Screw cap or cork seal
●Thick-walled bottles
Modern Glass Packaging and Recycling in Albania
What makes Albania's way of using glass containers particularly relevant today is that it doesn’t stop at storage in the kitchen. Albania has been developing its glass recycling infrastructure in recent years, with the country's first national glass-recycling line established in Krujë.
In Albania, waste glass is collected and processed into raw material used in construction and design, which keeps glass in circulation rather than in landfills. Beyond storage, glass jars and bottles are modern, recyclable packaging that support a more sustainable approach to food and drink production. The same jar that families filled with turshi can, at the end of its life, be recycled into something entirely new.
Glass Jars and Bottles for Storing Albanian Food and Drinks in the UK
In the UK, there are many Albanian households that continue to make turshi, fruit preserves, and homemade raki just as they would back home. Beyond these Albanian natives, there is growing interest among UK families in Balkan/Albanian foods like pickled vegetables, fermented drinks, and fruit preserves, which are all almost the same as broader trends in home fermentation and preservation.
If you want to try preparing and preserving Albanian preserves and drinks at home, here is a simple guide on matching the right container to the job:
●Use wide-mouth pickle jars for turshi and mixed pickled vegetables, where a wide opening makes it easy to fill or fetch.
●Use standard jam jars with solid screw-top lids for fruit preserves, plum compotes, and chutneys.
●Use large glass bottles for hardiç and other fermented drinks that need room to ferment and expand.
●Use amber glass bottles for raki, fruit spirits, and any light-sensitive fermented liquids where UV protection matters.
If you want to explore more jars and bottles suitable for Albanian turshi and preserves, explore our collection of pickle jars and jam jars.
For bottles, you can also find a collection of spirit bottles, alcohol bottles, and wine bottles for different types of drinks.