Churchkhela

Churchkhela (ჩურჩხელა) is a Georgian sweet made by repeatedly dipping nuts threaded on a string into fruit juice thickened with flour, then hanging it to dry. Inside its stick-like exterior, walnuts or hazelnuts are lined up lengthwise. The outer layer of juice is soft and springy, and when you bite into it, the sweet-tart juice combines with the crunch of the nuts.

Most of the sweetness comes from the reduced juice. Unlike confections coated in chocolate, it is made by concentrating the juice and adding flour to bring it to a consistency that can be built up in layers. It is a sweet made in autumn, when grapes and nuts are harvested.

Hanging churchkhela. Inside the long, slender shape is a core of nuts lined up in a row. Photo: Georgi1, 2013, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, unaltered.

Boiling down the juice and thickening it with flour

Production begins by threading the nuts onto a string rather than a skewer. Walnut halves or hazelnuts are joined with a needle, and the string is adjusted to a length that can be dipped in juice and lifted out. The string core keeps its shape even after being dipped into the hot liquid and serves as a support for hanging during drying.

For the outside, badagi, a concentrated grape juice, is used; wheat flour is added and the mixture is heated. The thick liquid combined with wheat flour is called tatara. Simply reducing the juice makes it hard to build up the necessary thickness around the nuts. Liquid that has been thoroughly heated with flour is viscous and clings to the nuts when the string is lifted out.

The dipped strings are hung, dried and, as needed, dipped again. Rather than piling on a thick layer of juice all at once, the process of dipping and drying is repeated. The number of dips and the intervals between them vary by region and maker; a Georgian cuisine introduction gives an example of dipping two or three times. A traditional method is to dry them in a breezy place and store the finished churchkhela wrapped in cloth in a dark, dry place.

At home, a drying spot is sometimes made by laying a pole across two chairs. When confectioner Shusaku Hayashi learned how it is made at a homestay in Georgia, the churchkhela was hung on just such a pole. At markets, sellers thread the nuts themselves, and items at different stages of dryness are displayed side by side. Hayashi’s account includes an example of drying for two to three days, but the drying period and the firmness of the finished sweet are not fixed.

Wheat in the east, corn in the west

The well-known Kakheti style uses walnut halves as the core and builds up layers of juice thickened with wheat flour. In western regions such as Guria, Samegrelo and Imereti, there is a closely related sweet called janjukha, which often uses hazelnuts and cornmeal. In the west, the thick liquid of juice and cornmeal is also called pelamushi.

However, not all janjukha has a hazelnut core. A Slow Food profile documenting home production in Guria describes a method in which walnuts are softened in water before being threaded. Even within the west, there are differences in the choice of ingredients and the order of the work.

In Racha, there are also styles with a core of dried fruit, apricots or pumpkin seeds. In Samtskhe-Javakheti, versions made with mulberry juice and wheat flour are recorded. The differences among styles of churchkhela are not limited to the color of the outside. The texture of the core, the acidity and aroma of the juice, and the grain used for thickening are combined differently in each style.

From the harvest to winter celebrations

Churchkhela is made after rtveli, when grapes are harvested and pressed. This coincides with the season when nuts ripen, and churchkhela turns liquid juice and whole nuts into a portable food. There is also a tradition that soldiers carried it on journeys and into battle. These stick-shaped sweets with a dried coating of juice can be carried in bundles without removing the strings.

Dried churchkhela also appears on the table at Christmas and New Year in winter. Home production in Guria has been recorded as a skill carried on by women. The whole sequence of threading, judging the thickness of the liquid and drying involves experience that cannot be conveyed by the names of the ingredients alone.

Churchkhela is also registered as a geographical indication; Georgia’s registration record shows December 13, 2011, registration number 2. The published specification defines the growing areas for the grapes used for the juice and the area of origin of the mulberry juice, and also notes the difference between wheat flour in the east and cornmeal in the west. It is a system that treats regional agricultural products and production techniques together.

Separately, by an order of the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia dated October 30, 2015, the technique of making churchkhela in Kakheti was granted the status of national intangible cultural heritage. This status covers the Kakheti production technique and recognizes the work and knowledge handed down by local people as cultural heritage.

Glossary