Tkemali: read the fruit and colour

Illustration: conceptual travel artwork, not a photograph or map of this place or service.

Tkemali is a sour plum sauce with more variation than one green bottle on a shelf suggests. Georgia Travel describes red, yellow and green cherry-plum versions, with fruit colour changing as it ripens. The same page notes that cooks sometimes use damson, cornel cherry or apple and still call the result tkemali. The label alone may not identify the fruit.

Season and method change the result

The tourism authority places the start of tkemali season in May and describes fresh fruit being cooked with coriander and pennyroyal. Household methods vary by region. Sauce prepared for keeping may receive more attention than a quick fresh batch, so colour and thickness are clues to ask about, not a dependable standard.

Choose it by the dish

Georgia Travel lists tkemali alongside barbecue, boiled meat, potatoes, fresh cabbage, kharcho, beet salad, fried chicken and boiled eggs. If you are deciding whether to add it, ask which fruit was used and whether the sauce is sharply sour, sweetened or hot. Those details help you match a particular bowl to your food.

• Green or red cherry-plum sauce: ask whether the kitchen serves it with potatoes or grilled food.
• A sauce described simply as tkemali: ask which fruit and colour the current batch uses.
• A different fruit sauce: ask for its name rather than assuming every sour sauce is plum-based.

The source also lists tomato, feijoa, cherry, blackberry and cornel-cherry sauces. A menu may therefore offer several tart condiments with different fruit bases. Order a small amount first if the kitchen offers it by the side.