Ginjinha

Ginjinha is made by steeping ginja, a sour morello cherry, in aguardente with sugar and usually a cinnamon stick for months, producing a dark red liqueur of around twenty per cent that is sweet at the front and sour underneath. A Ginjinha on Largo de São Domingos has sold it since 1840 from a bar about two metres wide with no seating - you order at the hatch, take the glass, drink it on the pavement and hand the glass back, and the crowd outside is the establishment. The one question is com or sem elas, with or without them: whether a couple of the steeped cherries go in the glass, which they should. Óbidos makes its own and serves it in a small cup of dark chocolate that is eaten afterwards, which is now the town's principal souvenir trade. Alcobaça and other towns have their own versions.

What to look for

• The standing bars - counters a couple of metres wide with the drinking done outside.
• Com elas - the steeped cherries dropped into the glass, which is the correct order.
• The 1840 shop - A Ginjinha on Largo de São Domingos, selling continuously since.
• The Óbidos version - served in an edible dark chocolate cup.

When to go

Year-round, at any hour the bars are open. A few minutes standing. Evenings are busiest at São Domingos.

What to expect

Around twenty per cent alcohol and sweet enough to disguise it. The Largo de São Domingos crowd is dense and the square attracts pickpockets. Chocolate cups in Óbidos are a tourist trade, sold at every shop. Cherry stones in the glass.

Nearby

Rossio is a minute from the São Domingos bars; Óbidos is an hour north of Lisbon.

Key facts