The drinking cult in Trentino has very ancient origins.
The distillation of grappa in particular, has always been important to the people’s culture and it has been improved during the centuries until it became a real art. The cycle starts with the harvest of the Trentino grapes and the wine-making and ends with the distillation of the fermented peels (marc), that produce a colourless alcoholic liquid, with an already rich fragrance, ready to be drunk after some months of improving that serve to harmonize fragrances and tastes.
Distilling separately the marc of every single grape variety, you obtain a grappa of a one species vine. From the aromatic Moscato Giallo grapes is made grappa with intense and captivating fragrances; more delicate are those obtained from the marc of the Nosiala, Schiava, Teroldego, Marzemino and other grape varieties.
Some producers age their best grappa for years in small oak wood barrels, where the grappa becomes amber with varied fragrances and its taste becomes less aggressive. Very popular is the grappa flavoured with herbs, berries and dried roots, sweet or delicately bitter; the traditional one with rue, gentian, juniper, cleavers;  perfect as aperitif, tonic and digestive.
Energizing and tonic liquors are obtained by macerating small wild berries like blueberries, raspberries and wild strawberries in the grappa. Not to be forgotten are the distillates that capture the delicate fragrances of the Dro plums, apricots, pears and other small fruit in your glass.
In Trentino the grappa is also used as a therapeutic function, and also for preparing numerous traditional sweets and meat dishes.

Producers

Salada meat is a real speciality in the area including Arco, Tenno and Varone. It is lean rump beef and it is prepared in a very special way, to flavour it and to prepare it to be eaten raw and also cooked.

Producers

The noble and long-lived Vino Santo Trentino is obtained by withering the Nosiola grapes on wooden grating until the winepressing, that takes place during the Holy Week. The obtained juice is fermented and refined for several years, until obtaining a unique and rare wine of complex and delicious fragrances, sweet as the grape itself. It is a precious wine to be savoured unaccompanied, but it can also give pleasant surprises if you match it with dried fruit desserts like the “zelten” or the fregoloti cake, or also tasty marbled cheese.

Producers

The famous Valeggio tortellini are made by hand only and can be purchased in many pasta shops in Valeggio and Borghetto. These thinly rolled pasta rings, filled with meat, are delicious with melted butter and sage or melted butter and Parmesan and also tasty in soup.

They are linked to an ancient legend and honoured in a grand festivity.

Producers

This product, together with pollen, royal jelly, propolis, is one of the principal natural foods. Its peculiar features depend on the flora variety and therefore on the territory of origin. The most important Lake Garda Trentino varieties of honey are: millefiori, acacia, chestnut, dandelion and fir honeydew.

Production
The honey is obtained from the beekeeping in a permanent or nomadic form. Currently  the beekeeping is practised using modern technology. The honey extraction generally takes place three times a year even if, depending on the climatic conditions and the beekeeping method, more extractions can be done, or just one.

Producers

The mild Lake Garda Trentino climate favours an abundant cultivation of fruit and vegetables during almost the entire year. Among the typical products, that you can find as well in the restaurants as in the specialized shops, we indicate the Dro plums, apples and pears with a unique taste, the figs mentioned by Goethe himself, the late summer peaches, eating grapes and even wild strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.
Among the vegetables you find the spring Belgian endive, lettuces, radicchio, tomatoes, sweet peppers, marrows, cucumbers and lots of other varieties from the Mediterranean area. They can be eaten freshly made, cooked or as ingredients for other dishes.
We remind you also the Torbole broccoli, to taste in the winter months, or the tasty, locally prepared, vegetables in oil and in vinegar enriching starters or cold dishes.

Producers

The secular tradition of fishing is kept alive by a few professionals who supplì the shops and restaurants along the coast. The fish patrimony of Garda in these last few years has been constantly increasing, thanks to well-aimed interventions to inseminate the whitefish, pike and perch. Among the numerous species which populate the waters of Garda, there is one, rare and sought-after by gourmets, which only lives here: the trout. It is a salmonoid with soft and very tasty white or pink flesh.

Producers

The ancient tradition of dairy products continues in the production of the “Formaggella di Tremosine”, with its soft consistency, and from “Garda”, a medium –fat cheese with its hard medium-cooked consistency which depending on the seasoning, can be eaten as a meal or grated. In the mountain grazing season at Cima Rest in Valvestino, a bunch of dairyman produce the “Tombea”, a mountain cheese with incomparable characteristics. It is greatly appreciated for its gastronomic qualities and its genuineness.

Last but not least is Grana Padano, one of the most popular cheeses of Italy.

Selected cold meats and cheeses are produced from special pigs and romagnola cattle, bred on the luscious pastures of the Morenici hills. This cattle was awarded a prize for the best breed of meat at an International exhibition in Paris in 1900. Worth noting are the  Morenico De.C.O (doc) salami and the salami of Pozzolengo which is produced from beef of romagnola cattle.

Tourists who choose Lake Garda and its inland, find hospitality, friendliness and the pleasures of ancient tradition. Originating from the simple cuisine of the past, the recipes of typical sweets such as the spelt flour biscuit and the saffron biscuit, of Pozzolengo and the fried Saltarelle of Padenghe are typical farmers’ sweets which have been handed down from generation to generation.