This Friday, July 10th, CTT will present a philatelic issue on Mediterranean traditional cuisine, namely on rice pudding and orange blossom liquor. The stamps were printed with a scent of orange blossom that lasts for a long time, making this a very fragrant and pleasant philatelic issue.

Citrus fruits have always been part of our history. China and Asia presented us the various hundreds of species of citrus fruits that we know. Portugal has the so called sweet orange.  It became more popular in Europe as of the XVI century. The name Portugal means orange in some distant countries, like Iran (porthegal), Turkey (portakal), Romania (portocal) and Greece, where the name portokalia is certified as the Greek orange Portokalia Maleme Chanion Kritis.

In 1996 the quality of our citrus fruits was awarded, and the Algarve region received the IGP Citrus Fruits Certification. Apart from the oranges, this certification also included  mandarins, grapefruits and lemons. The worldwide famous Arroz Doce à Estoiense (Rice pudding Estoi style) is represented in a stamp on this issue, as well as the orange blossom liquor. The liquor recipe dates back to 1727.

This philatelic issue is composed by two stamps. The one with the rice pudding is for domestic ordinary expeditions up to 20g and the one with the orange blossom liquor is for the rest of the world, also up to 20g. They both have a 100 000 edition each. The design is from Folk Design.  The first day marks will be performed at the Restauradores Post Office in Lisbon, Município II in Oporto, Antero de Quental in Ponta Delgada (Azores) and CTT Post Office at Faro.