In collaboration with musician and Setomaa cultural heritage ambassador Jalmar Vabarna, we are launching a new range of meat products under the brand Treski. Inspired by Setomaa’s culinary traditions and Vabarna’s personal taste preferences, the product line was born in the smoke sauna of the Treski Music and Inspiration Centre.
To support and preserve the traditional meat-smoking methods characteristic of the Setomaa region, which are included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, the company has developed a series of new products in collaboration with Vabarna, bringing authentic flavours and heritage techniques to a wider audience.
“In Setomaa, it’s customary to bake bread ourselves and enjoy it with smoked sauna ham and fresh pickled cucumbers. This is often accompanied by a shot of local ‘handsa’,” Vabarna described local food traditions.
According to the musician, a new grill house was built in Treski last year, which inspired the development of summer grilling products. As a result, four new products were created in collaboration with Nõo Lihatööstus: the delicately smoky Treski Hüä Smoked Ham, the more intense Treski Terräv Smoked Sausage, as well as Treski Väkkev Fresh Sausage and Treski Kimmäs Grill Sausage.
The Treski smoked ham and smoked sausage introduce new flavour profiles to Nõo Lihatööstus’ existing range of smoked pork collar, smoked and country-style hams, salamis, and hot-smoked sausages. “Together with Jalmar, we have captured the authentic Seto flavours and emotions,” said Simmo Kruustük, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Nõo Lihatööstus.
He added that the Treski range is produced using as much locally sourced chilled raw material as possible, along with simple and transparent ingredients. The meat is traditionally smoked using alder wood, following time-honoured methods.
Kruustük emphasised that Nõo Lihatööstus uses exclusively natural alder wood chips for smoking all of its hams, meats, and sausages. In the case of smoked sausages, achieving the right flavour, texture, and appearance also depends on a long drying process carried out in specialised maturation chambers. “Over the years, we have invested more in these chambers than any other Estonian meat producer. Each year, we remove approximately 50,000 litres of water from sausages during the drying process – equivalent to 333 bathtubs,” he explained.
All Nõo sausages are produced according to the principle that they must be rich in meat and made exclusively from high-quality pork and beef. The company does not use low-value mechanically deboned meat mass in any of its products. Treski is a music and inspiration centre located in Setomaa, founded by Jalmar Vabarna more than a decade ago on the site of a former farm. Today, it has become a well-known concert venue across Estonia and hosts the popular Treski Festival every summer.
