1.
Alcohol by volume
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Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the number of millilitres of pure ethanol present in 100 millilitres of solution at 20 °C, the number of millilitres of pure ethanol is the mass of the ethanol divided by its density at 20 °C, which is 0.78924 g/ml. The ABV standard is used worldwide, the International Organization of Legal Metrology has tables of density of water–ethanol mixtures at different concentrations and temperatures. In some countries, such as the U. K and France, alcohol by volume is referred to as degrees Gay-Lussac and this results in the slight difference in marked % noted later in this article. Mixing two solutions of alcohol of different strengths usually causes a change in volume, mixing pure water with a solution less than 24% by mass causes a slight increase in total volume, whereas the mixing of two solutions above 24% causes a decrease in volume. The phenomenon of volume due to mixing dissimilar solutions is called partial molar volume. Details about typical amounts of alcohol contained in various beverages can be found in the articles about them. Another way of specifying the amount of alcohol is alcohol proof, for example, 40% abv is 80 proof in the US and 70 proof in the UK. However, since 1980, alcohol proof in the UK has been replaced by abv as a measure of alcohol content, in the United States, a few states regulate and tax alcoholic beverages according to alcohol by weight, expressed as a percentage of total mass. Some brewers print the ABW on beer containers, particularly on low-point versions of domestic beer brands. However, because of the miscibility of alcohol and water, the factor is not constant. 100% ABW, of course, is equivalent to 100% ABV, during the production of wine and beer, yeast is added to a sugary solution. During fermentation, the yeasts consume the sugars and produce alcohol, the density of sugar in water is greater than the density of alcohol in water. A hydrometer is used to measure the change in gravity of the solution before. The volume of alcohol in the solution can then be estimated, there are a number of empirical formulae which brewers and winemakers use to estimate the alcohol content of the liquor made. The simplest method for wine has been described by English author C. J. J, the number 0.7936 is the specific gravity of a 100% ethanol solution. The difference between the starting SG and the final SG measures the specific gravity lost to CO2 release
2.
Fruit brandy
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Fruit brandy is a distilled beverage produced from mash, juice, wine or residues of culinary fruits. The term covers a class of spirits produced across the world, and typically excludes beverages made from grapes. Apples, pears, apricots, plums and cherrys are the most commonly used fruits, in British usage, fruit brandy may also refer to liqueurs obtained by maceration of whole fruits, juice or flavoring in a distilled beverage, for example cherry brandy. Such beverages are used similar to cordials, and as an ingredient in cocktails, fruit brandies obtained by distillation are referred by the French term eau de vie. Fruit brandy usually contains 40% to 45% ABV, fruit brandy is customarily drunk chilled or over ice, but is occasionally mixed. Applejack is an American apple brandy made from the distillation of hard cider and it was once made by fractional freezing which would disqualify it as a proper brandy. Brinjevec is a Slovenian brandy distilled from ground and fermented juniper berries, buchu is a South African brandy flavoured with extracts from Agathosma species. Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy, coconut brandy is actually made from the sap of borassus flowers. Damassine brandy is made with the fruit of the Damassinier tree in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland Eau de vie is a French term for colorless fruit brandy. This term is applied to grape-based brandy other than Armagnac and Cognac. Kirschwasser is a brandy made from cherries. Kukumakranka brandy is South African and flavoured with the fruit of the Kukumakranka. Obstler is a German word for brandy and often referred to as Schnapps in English. Pálenka or Pálené is a common description for Slovak brandy. It must be distilled from Slovakian wild or domestic fruits, pálinka is a traditional Hungarian fruit brandy. It can only be made with fruits from Hungary, such as plums, apricots, peaches, elderberries, pears, poire Williams is made from the Williams pear, also known as the Bartlett pear. Slivovitz is a straw to yellow-colored plum brandy produced in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Țuică, also known as horincă or turţ, is a clear Romanian plum brandy. Other Romanian fruit brandies, often distilled from apples, pears, apricots, mulberries, peaches, quinces, somerset cider brandy which dates back to 1678 obtained European protected status in 2011
3.
Distillation
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Distillation is a process of separating the component or substances from a liquid mixture by selective evaporation and condensation. Distillation may result in complete separation, or it may be a partial separation that increases the concentration of selected components of the mixture. In either case the process exploits differences in the volatility of the mixtures components, in industrial chemistry, distillation is a unit operation of practically universal importance, but it is a physical separation process and not a chemical reaction. For example, In the fossil fuel industry distillation is a class of operation in obtaining materials from crude oil for fuels. Distillation permits separation of air into its components — notably oxygen, nitrogen, Distillation of fermented products produces distilled beverages with a high alcohol content, or separates out other fermentation products of commercial value. An installation for distillation, especially of alcohol, is a distillery, the distillation equipment is a still. Distillation is an old method of artificial desalination. Aristotle wrote about the process in his Meteorologica and even that ordinary wine possesses a kind of exhalation, later evidence of distillation comes from Greek alchemists working in Alexandria in the 1st century AD. Distilled water has been known since at least c,200, when Alexander of Aphrodisias described the process. Work on distilling other liquids continued in early Byzantine Egypt under the Greek-Egyptian Zosimus of Panopolis, Distillation in China could have begun during the Eastern Han Dynasty, but archaeological evidence indicates that actual distillation of beverages began in the Jin and Southern Song dynasties. A still was found in a site in Qinglong, Hebei province dating to the 12th century. Distilled beverages were more common during the Yuan dynasty, arabs learned the process from the Alexandrians and used it extensively in their chemical experiments. Clear evidence of the distillation of alcohol comes from the School of Salerno in the 12th century, fractional distillation was developed by Tadeo Alderotti in the 13th century. In 1500, German alchemist Hieronymus Braunschweig published Liber de arte destillandi the first book dedicated to the subject of distillation. In 1651, John French published The Art of Distillation the first major English compendium of practice and this includes diagrams with people in them showing the industrial rather than bench scale of the operation. As alchemy evolved into the science of chemistry, vessels called retorts became used for distillations, riveted joints were often kept tight by using various mixtures, for instance a dough made of rye flour. These alembics often featured a system around the beak, using cold water for instance. Today, the retorts and pot stills have largely supplanted by more efficient distillation methods in most industrial processes
4.
Cultivar
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The term cultivar most commonly refers to an assemblage of plants selected for desirable characteristics that are maintained during propagation. More generally, cultivar refers to the most basic classification category of cultivated plants governed by the ICNCP, most cultivars have arisen in cultivation, but a few are special selections from the wild. Popular ornamental garden plants like roses, camellias, daffodils, rhododendrons, trees used in forestry are also special selections grown for their enhanced quality and yield of timber. Cultivars form a part of Liberty Hyde Baileys broader grouping. Cultivar was coined by Bailey and it is regarded as a portmanteau of cultivated and variety. A cultivar is not the same as a variety, a taxonomic rank below subspecies. In recent times, the naming of cultivars has been complicated by the use of statutory plant patents, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants offers legal protection of plant cultivars to people or organisations who introduce new cultivars to commerce. UPOV requires that a cultivar be distinct, uniform and stable, to be distinct, it must have characteristics that easily distinguish it from any other known cultivar. To be uniform and stable, the cultivar must retain these characteristics under repeated propagation, a cultivar is given a cultivar name, which consists of the scientific Latin botanical name followed by a cultivar epithet. The cultivar epithet is usually in a vernacular language, for example, the full cultivar name of the King Edward potato is Solanum tuberosum King Edward. The King Edward part of the name is the cultivar epithet, the origin of the term cultivar arises from the need to distinguish between wild plants and those with characteristics that have arisen in cultivation. This distinction dates back to the Greek philosopher Theophrastus, the Father of Botany, botanical historian Alan Morton notes that Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants had an inkling of the limits of culturally induced changes and of the importance of genetic constitution. In Species Plantarum, Linnaeus listed all the known to him. Most of the listed by Linnaeus were of garden origin rather than being wild plants. Over time there was an increasing need to distinguish between plants growing in the wild, and those with variations that had produced in cultivation. In the nineteenth century many garden-derived plants were given names, sometimes in Latin. In the twentieth century an improved international terminology was proposed for the classification and it is essentially the equivalent of the botanical variety except in respect to its origin. However, Bailey was never explicit about the etymology of the word, and it has suggested that it is a contraction of the words cultigen and variety
5.
Prunus cerasus
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Prunus cerasus is a species of Prunus in the subgenus Cerasus, native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the cherry, but has a fruit that is more acidic. The nutritional differences between the sweet and the tart or sour cherries are displayed at the page for the fruit. The tree is smaller than the cherry, has twiggy branches. There are several varieties of the cherry, the dark-red morello cherry and the lighter-red varieties including the amarelle cherry. The Montmorency cherry is the most popular type of sour cherry, the reason for its popularity is its use in baking and recipe creation. Including cherry pies, cherry desserts and other cherry-based recipes, Prunus cerasus is thought to have originated as a natural hybrid between Prunus avium and Prunus fruticosa in the Iranian Plateau or Eastern Europe where the two species come into contact. Prunus fruticosa is believed to have provided its smaller size and sour tasting fruit, the hybrids then stabilised and interbred to form a new, distinct species. Cultivated sour cherries were selected from wild specimens of Prunus cerasus and the doubtfully distinct P. acida from around the Caspian and Black Seas and they were also extremely popular with Persians and the Romans who introduced them into Britain long before the 1st century AD. The fruit remains popular in modern-day Iran, in Britain, their cultivation was popularised in the 16th century in the time of Henry VIII. They became a popular crop amongst Kentish growers, and by 1640 over two dozen named cultivars were recorded, in the Americas, Massachusetts colonists planted the first sour cherry, Kentish Red, when they arrived. This is a variety, and thus misses more frosts than its sweet counterpart and is therefore a more reliable cropper. The Morello cherry ripens in mid to late summer, toward the end of August in southern England and it is self-fertile, and would be a good pollenizer for other varieties if it did not flower so late in the season. Sour cherries require similar cultivation conditions to pears, that is, they prefer a rich, well-drained, moist soil, although they demand more nitrogen, trees will do badly if waterlogged, but have greater tolerance of poor drainage than sweet varieties. During spring, flowers should be protected, and trees weeded, mulched and sprayed with natural seaweed solution and this is also the time when any required pruning should be carried out. Morello cherry trees fruit on younger wood than sweet varieties, and they are usually grown as standards, but can be fan trained, cropping well even on cold walls, or grown as low bushes. Sour cherries suffer fewer pests and diseases than sweet cherries, although they are prone to heavy losses from birds. In summer, fruit should be protected with netting, when harvesting fruit, they should be cut from the tree rather than risking damage by pulling the stalks
6.
Liqueur
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A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage made from a distilled spirit that has been flavored with fruit, cream, herbs, spices, flowers or nuts and bottled with added sugar or other sweetener. Liqueurs are typically sweet, they are usually not aged for long after the ingredients are mixed. In the United States and Canada, where spirits are often called liquor, there is confusion over liqueurs and liquors. You can distinguish them from each other because liqueurs are quite sweet and often syrupy in consistency, most liqueurs have a lower alcohol content than spirits, but some contain as much as 55% ABV. Liqueurs are historical descendants of herbal medicines, they were made in Italy as early as the 13th century and were prepared by monks. Nowadays, liqueurs are made worldwide and are served in many ways, by themselves, poured over ice, with coffee, mixed with cream or other mixers to create cocktails and they are often served with or after a dessert. Liqueurs are also used in cooking, some liqueurs are prepared by infusing certain woods, fruits, or flowers in either water or alcohol and adding sugar or other items. Others are distilled from aromatic or flavoring agents, layered drinks are made by floating different-colored liqueurs in separate layers. Each liqueur is poured slowly into a glass over the back of a spoon or down a glass rod, so that the liquids of different densities remain unmixed, the word liqueur comes from the Latin liquifacere via French. Liqueurs Liqueurs at The Cooks Thesaurus
7.
Bartending terminology
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Various unique terminology is used in bartending. In bartending, the straight up refers to an alcoholic drink that is shaken or stirred with ice. This is contrasted with a drink served neat – a single, unmixed liquor served without being chilled and without any water, ice, neat drinks are typically served in a rocks glass, shot glass, snifter, Glencairn glass, or copita. On the rocks refers to liquor poured over ice cubes, the terms straight and straight up can be ambiguous, as they are sometimes used to mean neat, up is less ambiguous. A pony is slang for one US fluid ounce of spirit, while the shot of alcohol is a 1. 5-US-fluid-ounce jigger. This method breaks down into convenient sub-measures, each count is approximately one-quarter fluid ounce, making a pony 4 counts, there is substantial confusion in the usage of neat, or straight up, straight, and up. In the context of describing ways of serving a drink, all of these mean served without ice, neat and up are relatively unambiguous. The term neat means a single, unmixed liquor at room temperature, straight is often used interchangeably with neat. However, straight is also used to refer to a spirit that is in an unmixed state in general. For example, many bourbons are identified as Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey on their bottling labels, so sometimes straight may be used to mean either straight up or neat, and clarification may be needed to determine the exact manner for serving it. With a twist signals the bartender to add a twist of lemon or lime to the cocktail, often, the bartender will hang the rind of the citrus on the glass as a garnish. Cocktails are generally served chilled, although some may be served either with or without ice, cocktails can be served frozen which is with crushed ice instead of cubes. Unmixed liquors may be served neat, up, or on the rocks. High quality whisky and other aged liquor is most often served neat, a shot of whisky, tequila, or vodka, when served neat in a shot glass, is often accompanied by a chaser or a water back. These terms commingle as well, it is common in locales to hear a beer back ordered as the chaser to a shot. A drink may specifically be ordered no chaser as well, a chaser in the UK however usually refers to a shot taken after a pint of beer or similar
8.
Cocktail
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When used to refer to any generic alcoholic mixed drink, cocktail may mean any beverage that contains two or more ingredients if at least one of those ingredients contains alcohol. When a mixed drink contains only a spirit and a mixer, such as soda or fruit juice, it is a highball. When a cocktail contains only a spirit and a liqueur, it is a duo. Additional ingredients may be sugar, honey, milk, cream, the origin of the word cocktail is disputed. S. The first definition of cocktail known to be an alcoholic beverage appeared in The Balance and Columbian Repository May 13,1806, editor Harry Croswell answered the question, What is a cocktail. It is said, also to be of use to a democratic candidate, because a person. Anatoly Liberman endorses as highly probable the theory advanced by Låftman and they were called cocktailed horses, later simply cocktails. By extension, the cocktail was applied to a vulgar, ill-bred person raised above his station, assuming the position of a gentleman. The mention of water as an ingredient, Låftman concluded that cocktail was an acceptable alcoholic drink, but diluted, not a purebred, a thing raised above its station. Hence the highly appropriate slang word used earlier about inferior horses, several authors have theorized that cocktail may be a corruption of cock ale. David Wondrich also speculates that cocktail is a reference to a practice for perking up an old horse by means of a ginger suppository so that the animal would cock its tail up, there is a lack of clarity on the origins of cocktails. Traditionally cocktails were a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, but by the 1860s, a cocktail frequently included a liqueur. The first publication of a guide which included cocktail recipes was in 1862 — How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon Vivants Companion. In addition to recipes for punches, sours, slings, cobblers, shrubs, toddies, flips, a key ingredient differentiating cocktails from other drinks in this compendium was the use of bitters. Mixed drinks popular today that conform to this meaning of cocktail include the Old Fashioned whiskey cocktail, the Sazerac cocktail. The term highball appears during the 1890s to distinguish a drink composed only of a distilled spirit, the first cocktail party ever thrown was allegedly by Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1917. Mrs. Walsh invited 50 guests to her home at noon on a Sunday, the party lasted an hour, until lunch was served at 1 pm. The site of this first cocktail party still stands, in 1924, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis bought the Walsh mansion at 4510 Lindell Boulevard, and it has served as the local archbishops residence ever since
9.
Brandy
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Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume and is taken as an after-dinner drink. Some brandies are aged in casks, some are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of aging. In broader sense, the term also denotes liquors obtained from distillation of pomace or mash or wine of any other fruit. These products are also named eaux-de-vie, varieties of wine brandy can be found across the winemaking world. Among the most renowned are Cognac and Armagnac from Southwestern France, the origins of brandy were clearly tied to the development of distillation. While the process was known in times, it wasnt used for significant beverage production until the 15th century. Initially wine was distilled as a method and as a way to make it easier for merchants to transport. It is also thought that wine was distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption and it was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit. Non-volatile substances such as pigments, sugars, and salts remained behind in the still, as a result, the taste of the distillate was often quite unlike that of the original source. This liquor, distilled only once, was called spirit of wine or brandy, purified by another distillation, this was then called spirit of wine rectified. The second distillation was made in balneo mariae and in a glass cucurbit, and this was further rectified—as long as the operator thought necessary—to produce brandy. To shorten these several distillations, which were long and troublesome, to test the purity of the rectified spirit of wine, a portion was ignited. If the entire contents were consumed by a fire without leaving any impurities behind, another, better test involved putting a little gunpowder in the bottom of the spirit. If the gunpowder could ignite after the spirit was consumed by fire, as most brandies have been distilled from grapes, the regions of the world producing excellent brandies have roughly paralleled those areas producing grapes for viniculture. In 1884, David Sarajishvili founded his brandy factory in Tbilisi, Georgia, a crossroads for Turkish, Central Asian, and Persian trade routes and a part of the Russian Empire at the time. The storehouses of the Romanov Court in St. Petersburg were regarded as the largest collections of cognacs, the Russian market was always a huge brandy-consuming region in which home-grown varieties were common but much of it was imported
10.
Black Forest
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The Black Forest is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. It is bounded by the Rhine valley to the west and south and its highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres. The region is roughly oblong in shape with a length of 160 km, the Black Forest stretches from the High Rhine in the south to the Kraichgau in the north. In the west it is bounded by the Upper Rhine Plain, in the east it transitions to the Gäu, Baar, the Black Forest is the highest part of the South German Scarplands and much of it is densely wooded. From north to south the Black Forest extends for over 150 kilometres, attaining a width of up to 50 kilometres in the south, and up to 30 kilometres in the north. Tectonically the range forms a lifted fault block, which rises prominently in the west from the Upper Rhine Plain and it is here, in the west, where the highest mountains and the greatest local differences in height are found. The valleys are narrow and ravine-like, but rarely basin-shaped. The summits are rounded and there are also the remnants of plateaux, geologically the clearest division is also between east and west. Large areas of the eastern Black Forest, the lowest layer of the South German Scarplands composed of Bunter Sandstone, are covered by seemingly endless coniferous forest with their island clearings. The most common way of dividing the regions of the Black Forest is, however, until the 1930s, the Black Forest was divided into the Northern and Southern Black Forest, the boundary being the line of the Kinzig valley. The term High Black Forest referred to the highest areas of the South, the boundaries drawn were, however, quite varied. In 1931, Robert Gradmann called the Middle Black Forest the catchment area of the Kinzig and in the west the section up to the lower Elz, a pragmatic division, which is oriented not just on natural and cultural regions, uses the most important transverse valleys. In 1959, Rudolf Metz combined the earlier divisions and proposed a tripartite division himself. It is divided into six so-called major units and this division was refined and modified in several, successor publications up to 1967, each covering individual sections of the map. The mountain range was divided into three regions. The northern boundary of the Middle Black Forest in this classification runs south of the Rench Valley and its southern boundary varied with each edition. In 1998 the Baden-Württemberg State Department for Environmental Protection published a reworked Natural Region Division of Baden-Württemberg, to the southwest it is adjoined by the Black Forest Grinden and Enz Hills, along the upper reaches of the Enz and Murg, forming the heart of the Northern Black Forest. Their exit valleys from the range are all oriented towards the northwest
11.
Fraxinus
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Fraxinus /ˈfræksᵻnəs/, English name ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The genus is widespread across much of Europe, Asia and North America, the trees common English name, ash, traces back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name originated in Latin. Both words also mean spear in their respective languages, the leaves are opposite, and mostly pinnately compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys or helicopter seeds, are a type of known as a samara. Rowans or mountain ashes have leaves and buds superficially similar to those of true ashes, species are organized according to phylogenetic analysis. – California ash or two-petal ash Fraxinus anomala Torr, ex S. Watson – singleleaf ash Fraxinus quadrangulata Michx. – blue ash Fraxinus lowellii – Lowell ash Fraxinus trifoliata Section Melioides sensu lato Fraxinus chiisanensis Fraxinus cuspidata Torr. – fragrant ash Fraxinus platypoda Fraxinus spaethiana Lingelsh, – Späths ash Section Melioides sensu stricto Fraxinus uhdei Lingelsh. – Shamel ash or tropical ash Fraxinus latifolia Benth, – Oregon ash Fraxinus papillosa Lingelsh. – Chihuahua ash Fraxinus americana L. – white ash or American ash Fraxinus profunda Bush – pumpkin ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marshall – green ash Fraxinus velutina Torr, – velvet ash or Arizona ash Fraxinus berlandieriana DC. – Mexican ash Fraxinus caroliniana Mill, – Carolina ash Fraxinus texensis Sarg. – Texas ash Section Pauciflorae Fraxinus greggii A. ex DC, – Afghan ash Fraxinus dimorpha Section Fraxinus Fraxinus nigra Marshall – black ash Fraxinus mandschurica Rupr. – Manchurian ash Fraxinus holotricha Koehne Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl – narrow-leafed ash Fraxinus angustifolia subsp, oxycarpa – Caucasian ash Claret ash or raywood ash Fraxinus angustifolia subsp. – European ash Fraxinus pallisiae Wilmott – Pallis ash Fraxinus sogdiana Bge Section Ornus Fraxinus griffithii C. B. Clarke – Griffiths ash Fraxinus micrantha Lingelsh, – Chinese ash or Korean ash Fraxinus japonica – Japanese ash Fraxinus longicuspis Fraxinus floribunda Wall. – Himalayan manna ash Fraxinus ornus L. – manna ash or flowering ash Fraxinus bungeana DC, – Bunges ash Fraxinus paxiana Lingelsh. The emerald ash borer is a wood-boring beetle accidentally introduced to North America from eastern Asia via solid wood packing material in the late 1980s to early 1990s and it has killed tens of millions of trees in 15 states in the United States and adjacent Ontario in Canada. It threatens some seven billion ash trees in North America, the public is being cautioned not to transport unfinished wood products, such as firewood, to slow the spread of this insect pest. The disease has infected about 90% of Denmarks ash trees, in 2016, the ash tree was reported as in danger of extinction in Europe
12.
Eau de vie
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An eau de vie is a clear, colorless fruit brandy that is produced by means of fermentation and double distillation. The fruit flavor is very light. In English-speaking countries, eau de vie refers to a beverage made from fruit other than grapes. Similar terms may be local translations or may specify the fruit used to produce it, although eau de vie is a French term, similar beverages are produced in other countries. In French, however, eau de vie is a term for distilled spirits. Many eaux de vie made from fruits, wine, pomace or rye have a designation of origin within the European Union. Ripe fruit is fermented, distilled, and quickly bottled to preserve the freshness, eaux de vie are typically not aged in wooden casks, hence they are clear. Although this is the practice, some distillers age their products before bottling. When made from pomace, it is called pomace brandy or marc, while most eaux de vie from the Alpine regions of Europe only rest very briefly in glass containers, others are aged in wooden casks before bottling. Thus, calvados, a spirit from northwestern France, is required by law to spend at least two years in wood, and most producers also offer much older products to the market. Some slivovitz are also aged in casks, giving them their golden or amber color. In the Caribbean, eaux-de-vie is made from fruits such as banana, ambarella, guava, mango, pineapple. The term can refer to maple eau de vie, made from maple syrup. Here are some guidelines, Serving size, An eau de vie is usually served as a digestif. Glassware, Some connoisseurs recommend a tulip-shaped glass, others recommend a snifter, buying guide from Food & Wine
13.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
14.
Fondue
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Fondue is a Swiss dish of melted cheese served in a communal pot over a portable stove heated with a candle or spirit lamp, and eaten by dipping bread into the cheese using long-stemmed forks. It was promoted as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union in the 1930s, the word fondue is the feminine passive past participle of the French verb fondre used as a noun. It is first attested in French in 1735, in Vincent la Chapelles Cuisinier moderne, the earliest known recipe for cheese fondue as we know it today comes from a 1699 book published in Zurich, under the name Käss mit Wein zu kochen, to cook cheese with wine. It calls for grated or cut-up cheese to be melted with wine, brillat-Savarin wrote in 1834 that it is nothing other than scrambled eggs with cheese. Variations included cream and truffles in addition to eggs, as well as what is now called raclette. The first known recipe for the modern cheese fondue under that name, with cheese and wine but no eggs, was published in 1875, and was already presented as a Swiss national dish. The introduction of cornstarch to Switzerland in 1905 made it easier to make a smooth and stable emulsion of the wine and cheese, Fondue was popularized as a Swiss national dish by the Swiss Cheese Union in the 1930s as a way of increasing cheese consumption. The Swiss Cheese Union also created pseudo-regional recipes as part of the defense of Switzerland. After World War II rationing ended, the Swiss Cheese Union continued its campaign, sending fondue sets to military regiments. Fondue is now a symbol of Swiss unity, Fondue was promoted to Americans at the Swiss Pavilions Alpine restaurant at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair. The extension of the name fondue to other dishes served in a hot pot dates to 1950s New York. Konrad Egli, a Swiss restaurateur, introduced fondue bourguignonne at his Chalet Suisse restaurant in 1956, in the mid 1960s, he invented chocolate fondue as part of a promotion for Toblerone chocolate. A sort of chocolate mousse or chocolate cake had also sometimes called chocolate fondue starting in the 1930s. Cheese fondue consists of a blend of cheeses, wine and seasoning, to prepare the caquelon it is first rubbed with a cut garlic clove. White wine is heated with cornstarch, and then grated cheese is added and stirred until melted. It is often topped off with a bit of kirsch, the cornstarch or other starch is added to prevent separation. The mixture is stirred continuously as it heats in the caquelon, when it is ready, diners dip cubes of bread speared on a fondue fork into the mixture. A cheese fondue mixture should be warm enough to keep the fondue smooth and liquid
15.
Zuger Kirschtorte
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Zuger Kirschtorte is a layer cake from Switzerland that consists of layers of nut-meringue, sponge cake and butter cream, and is flavoured with cherry brandy kirschwasser. Pastry chef Heinrich Höhn invented the cake 1921 in the city Zug and it won gold medals in pastry exhibitions in Lucerne in 1923 and 1928 and in London in 1930. In peak times Heinrich Höhn and his successor Jacques Treichler manufactured up to 100,000 of these cakes per year, the Conditorei Treichler has continued manufacturing and shipping the cakes up to the present day. The name is, however, not protected, so variations of the cake are also manufactured by other shops in the region. Firstly the chef creates two thin rounds of Japonaise meringue containing ground almonds and hazelnuts, baked to a brown colour. For the filling butter cream is prepared, flavoured with kirschwasser, to build the layer cake the buttercream is spread on one round of meringue, which is then covered with the sponge-cake. The sponge is soaked with a mixture of sugar syrup. Black Forest cake Cuisine of Switzerland Website with original recipe Zuger Kirschtorte in the databank of culinary heritage of Switzerland Article in the German Wikipedia
16.
Cherries jubilee
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Cherries jubilee is a dessert dish made with cherries and liqueur, which is subsequently flambéed, and commonly served as a sauce over vanilla ice cream. The recipe is generally credited to Auguste Escoffier, who prepared the dish for one of Queen Victorias Jubilee celebrations, other flambéed fruit dishes include bananas Foster, mangos diablo and pêches Louis. List of desserts List of fruit dishes Cherries Jubilee, original Escoffier receipt
17.
Black Forest gateau
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Black Forest gâteau and Black Forest cake are the English names for the German dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, literally Black Forest cherry-torte, where it originated. Typically, Black Forest gateau consists of layers of chocolate sponge cake sandwiched with whipped cream. It is decorated with whipped cream, maraschino cherries. In some European traditions, sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top, traditionally, kirschwasser, a clear spirit made from sour cherries, is added to the cake. Other spirits are used, such as rum, which is common in Austrian recipes. In India, Black Forest cake is prepared without alcohol. German law mandates that kirschwasser must be present in the cake for it to be labelled a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, true Black Forest gâteaus are decorated with black cherries. This is the ingredient, with its distinctive cherry pit flavor and alcoholic content and this claim, however, has never been substantiated. Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte was first mentioned in writing in 1934, at the time it was particularly associated with Berlin but was also available from high-class confectioners in other German, Austrian, and Swiss cities. In 1949 it took 13th place in a list of best-known German cakes, the record for the worlds largest authentic Black Forest gâteau was set at Europa Park, Germany on 16 July 2006, by K&U Bakery. Measuring nearly 80 m² and weighing 3,000 kg, the cake, which was 10 m in diameter, used up 700 L of cream,5,600 eggs,800 kg of cherries,40 kg of chocolate shavings, and 120 l of Kirsch. On 9 December 2012, a team led by chefs Jörg Mink, the 500-kg cake was made from 165 L of cream,1,500 eggs,68 kg of cherries,60 kg of chocolate shavings, and 10 L of Kirsch. A Swedish cake called Schwarzwaldtårta is related to the traditional Black Forest gâteau only by name and it consists of layers of meringue with whipped cream in between. The whole cake is covered with whipped cream and decorated with chocolate. List of cakes List of German desserts Zuger Kirschtorte Media related to Black Forest gateau at Wikimedia Commons Black Forest Torte at Wikibook Cookbooks
18.
Gugelhupf
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A Gugelhupf is a light, yeasted marble cake, traditionally baked in a distinctive circular Bundt mold. It is popular in a region of Europe, including southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland. In late Medieval Austria, a Gugelhupf was served at major community events such as weddings, and was decorated with flowers, leaves, candles, and seasonal fruits. The name persisted through the Austro-Hungarian Empire, eventually becoming standardized in Viennese cookbooks as a refined, rich cake, flavored with rosewater, many regional variations exist, testifying to the widespread popularity of the Gugelhupf tradition. The Gugelhupf was the chosen to represent Austria in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006. The old South German name combines the Middle High German words Gugel derived from Latin cucullus, meaning hood or bonnet, and Hupf, which literally means to hop or to jump. The Brothers Grimm wrote that the hupf may be a reference to the jumping of the caused by the yeast. It is spelled kuglóf in Hungarian, kuglof in Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian, Kugelhopf in Alsatian, kouglof in French, in Western Slovenia, it is also known as kuglof, and in Central and Eastern Slovenia, kugluh. In Upper Austria it is known as Wacker or Wacka and it is called bábovka in Czech and Slovak, and babka in Polish. In Slovenia, the word is šarkelj. The American Pennsylvania Dutch preserve the Gugelhupf tradition, referring to it as Dietscher Kuche, Gugelhupf is made with a soft yeast dough, baked in a high, creased, toroidal pan. It is sometimes made with dark chocolate dough to create an interior, or accented with raisins, almonds. Some regional varieties are filled with a layer of sweetened ground poppy seeds, the special circular pan with a central tube was originally made of enameled pottery. Similar pans are used for making Bundt cakes, a baking pan shape in the US derived from the Gugelhupf. Coffee cake Nut roll List of almond dishes Media related to Gugelhupf at Wikimedia Commons Kouglof at Wikibooks Sample recipe Picture of a Marmorgugelhupf
19.
Chocolate
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Chocolate /ˈtʃɒklᵻt, -kəlᵻt/ is a typically sweet, usually brown food preparation of Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Mokaya, with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BCE, the seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and must be fermented to develop the flavor. After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, unadulterated chocolate in rough form. Once the cocoa mass is liquefied by heating, it is called chocolate liquor, the liquor also may be cooled and processed into its two components, cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Baking chocolate, also called chocolate, contains cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or added vegetable oils. Milk chocolate is chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, Cocoa solids are a source of flavonoids and alkaloids, such as theobromine, phenethylamine and caffeine. Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened chocolate, and bars of solid chocolate, Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain Western holidays, such as Easter and Valentines Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages such as milk and hot chocolate and in some alcoholic drinks. Although cocoa originated in the Americas, recent years have seen African nations assuming a role in producing cocoa. Since the 2000s, Western Africa produces almost two-thirds of the worlds cocoa, in 2009, the Salvation Army International Development Department stated that child labor and the human trafficking and slavery of child laborers are used in African cocoa cultivation. The word chocolate entered the English language from Spanish in about 1600, how the word came into Spanish is less certain, and there are competing explanations. The word chocolatl does not occur in central Mexican colonial sources, another derivation comes from the Yucatec Mayan word chokol meaning hot, and the Nahuatl atl meaning water. The Nahuatl term, chicolatl, meaning beaten drink, may derive from the word for the frothing stick, the term chocolate chip was first used in 1940. The term chocolatier, for a chocolate maker, is attested from 1888. Chocolate has been prepared as a drink for all of its history
20.
Litre
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The litre or liter is an SI accepted metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre,1,000 cubic centimetres or 1/1,000 cubic metre. A cubic decimetre occupies a volume of 10×10×10 centimetres and is equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre. The original French metric system used the litre as a base unit. The word litre is derived from an older French unit, the litron, whose name came from Greek — where it was a unit of weight, not volume — via Latin, and which equalled approximately 0.831 litres. The litre was also used in subsequent versions of the metric system and is accepted for use with the SI. The spelling used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures is litre, the less common spelling of liter is more predominantly used in American English. One litre of water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram. Subsequent redefinitions of the metre and kilogram mean that this relationship is no longer exact, a litre is defined as a special name for a cubic decimetre or 10 centimetres ×10 centimetres ×10 centimetres. Hence 1 L ≡0.001 m3 ≡1000 cm3, from 1901 to 1964, the litre was defined as the volume of one kilogram of pure water at maximum density and standard pressure. The kilogram was in turn specified as the mass of a platinum/iridium cylinder held at Sèvres in France and was intended to be of the mass as the 1 litre of water referred to above. It was subsequently discovered that the cylinder was around 28 parts per million too large and thus, during this time, additionally, the mass-volume relationship of water depends on temperature, pressure, purity and isotopic uniformity. In 1964, the definition relating the litre to mass was abandoned in favour of the current one, although the litre is not an official SI unit, it is accepted by the CGPM for use with the SI. CGPM defines the litre and its acceptable symbols, a litre is equal in volume to the millistere, an obsolete non-SI metric unit customarily used for dry measure. The litre is often used in some calculated measurements, such as density. One litre of water has a mass of almost exactly one kilogram when measured at its maximal density, similarly,1 millilitre of water has a mass of about 1 g,1,000 litres of water has a mass of about 1,000 kg. It is now known that density of water depends on the isotopic ratios of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in a particular sample. The litre, though not an official SI unit, may be used with SI prefixes, the most commonly used derived unit is the millilitre, defined as one-thousandth of a litre, and also often referred to by the SI derived unit name cubic centimetre. It is a commonly used measure, especially in medicine and cooking, Other units may be found in the table below, where the more often used terms are in bold
21.
Chocolatier
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A chocolatier is a person or company who makes confectionery from chocolate. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans, Chocolatiers generally start out as pastry or confectionery chefs. Being a master chocolatier involves perfecting the art of working with chocolate to create not only delicious desserts, generally it takes years of experience and a good background of confections and pastries to master the art of working with chocolate. There are a variety of schools and even specialty chocolate schools, such as the Ecole Chocolate school in Canada. The French Culinary Institute also offers pastry and confectionery courses that are said to help a chocolatier learn the trade, to become a chocolatier one must learn how to make and work with chocolate on different levels to create handcrafted pieces of art that also must taste sensational. Generally schooling consists of learning how to make chocolate from a variety of different origins, once students learn how to make chocolate and begin to understand the physical and chemical aspects of chocolates they can learn to work with chocolate in many different applications. Chocolate is a versatile food thus different courses offer learning about different techniques when working with chocolate, once someone becomes well-educated about all of chocolates applications, or specializes in specific applications of chocolate they may be considered a chocolatier. Often perfecting technical techniques of design and the art of flavor takes many years of practice, advanced studies can lead to a better understanding of the components of chocolate and how to make chocolates along with sculpting and creating beautiful masterpieces from chocolate. Once a chocolatier has mastered the artistry of chocolate they may be considered a Master Chocolatier, the best of the best can be found competing in The World Chocolate Masters, a chocolate competition that started in 2005. These master chocolatiers are some of the best in the world when it comes to designing and sculpting using chocolate and these master chocolatiers also craft pieces of chocolate with outstanding flavor and texture, said to be the best in the world by some. Chocolatiers must be able to work with chocolate in different applications tempering, molding, sculpting. Chocolate can be made into pieces, incorporated into pastries, or simply designed as a piece of art,2007 World Chocolate Masters Winner, Naomi Mizuno Mizuno, from Japan, took home the title to the World Chocolate Masters competition in 2007. The competition was judged in four different categories, including, molded pralines, hand-dipped pralines, gastronomic chocolate dessert, small chocolate showpiece, Mizuno,28 years old, was the youngest competitor ever from his nation. He is employed at a school, Futaba Pastry. A chocolatier must know how to temper chocolate properly for different applications or temper for chocolate for desired characteristics, Chocolate contains cocoa butter which crystallizes during the heat treatment of melting and tempering chocolate. The crystal formation in chocolate can affect many different attributes to the chocolate - mouthfeel, snap of the chocolate, the color, dull or shiny. Heating the chocolate at certain temperatures, around 86-90 °F, for periods of time and then cooling the chocolate and working with. There are machines that can temper chocolate for you, but many chocolatiers use marble slabs and hand-tools to cool the chocolate and work with it
22.
Gaucho (album)
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Gaucho is the seventh studio album by the American jazz rock band Steely Dan, released on November 21,1980 by MCA Records. The sessions for Gaucho represent the bands penchant for studio perfectionism. To record the album, the used at least 42 different musicians, spent over a year in the studio. During the two-year span in which the album was recorded, the band was plagued by a number of creative, MCA, Warner Bros. and Steely Dan had a three-way legal battle over the rights to release the album. After it was released, jazz musician Keith Jarrett threatened the band with legal action for writing credit on the title song Gaucho, Gaucho marked a significant stylistic change for Steely Dan, introducing a more minimal, groove and atmosphere-based format. The harmonically complex chord changes that were a mark of earlier Steely Dan songs are less prominent on Gaucho. Gaucho proved to be Steely Dans final studio album before a 20-year absence from the recording industry, exceptional difficulties plagued the albums production. However, the working relationship began to strain, largely because of Beckers increasing drug use. During the course of the Gaucho sessions, Becker was hit by a car while walking late one Saturday night to his apartment on the Upper West Side. Becker managed to push the woman he was out of harms way, but sustained multiple fractures in one leg. During his six-month recovery, he suffered from secondary infections, while Becker was in the hospital, he and Fagen continued their musical collaborations via telephone. Beckers personal problems continued to mount when his girlfriend, Karen Roberta Stanley and her family attempted to sue him for $17.5 million in January 1981, claiming that he had introduced the woman to cocaine, morphine, barbiturates, and heroin. The court later ruled in Beckers favor, hal Leonards Best of Steely Dan explains that Gaucho is a concept album of seven interrelated tales about would-be hipsters. The lyrics of Hey Nineteen are about an aging hipster attempting to pick up a girl who is so young that she does not recognize Retha Franklin playing on the stereo. A. Years later, the line living hard will take its toll would almost seem to have been prescient after the players HIV announcement, sessions for Gaucho began in New York City during 1978. Fagen and Becker hired Mark Knopfler to play the solo on Time Out of Mind after hearing him play on Dire Straits hit single Sultans of Swing. Several hours of Knopflers playing were recorded at the session, the albums mixing sessions proved to be just as difficult as the recording sessions, it took Becker, Fagen, Nichols and Katz over 55 tries to properly mix the 50-second fade out of Babylon Sisters. Nichols replied I can do that and this was back in 1978 or something, so we said You can do that
23.
Distilled beverage
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This process purifies it and removes diluting components like water, for the purpose of increasing its proportion of alcohol content. As distilled beverages contain more alcohol, they are considered harder – in North America, as examples, this term does not include beverages such as beer, wine, sake, and cider, as they are fermented but not distilled. These all have relatively low alcohol content, typically less than 15%, brandy is a spirit produced by the distillation of wine, and has an ABV of over 35%. Other examples of distilled beverages include bourbon, vodka, gin, rum, tequila, mezcal, whisky, scotch, the term spirit refers to a distilled beverage that contains no added sugar and has at least 20% alcohol by volume. Distilled beverages bottled with added sugar and added flavorings, such as Grand Marnier, Frangelico, Distilled beverages generally have an alcohol concentration higher than 30%. The origin of liquor and its close relative liquid was the Latin verb liquere, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an early use of the word in the English language, meaning simply a liquid, can be dated to 1225. The first use the OED mentions of its meaning a liquid for drinking occurred in the 14th century and its use as a term for an intoxicating alcoholic drink appeared in the 16th century. The term spirit in reference to alcohol stems from Middle Eastern alchemy and these alchemists were more concerned with medical elixirs than with transmuting lead into gold. The vapor given off and collected during a process was called a spirit of the original material. Distilled water was described in the 2nd century AD by Alexander of Aphrodisias, the Alexandrians were using a distillation alembic or still device in the 3rd century AD. The medieval Arabs learned the process from the Alexandrians and used it extensively. Freeze distillation involves freezing the alcoholic beverage and then removing the ice, the freezing technique had limitations in geography and implementation limiting how widely this method was put to use. The earliest evidence of distillation of alcohol comes from the School of Salerno in southern Italy during the 12th century. Again, the Chinese may not have been far behind, with evidence indicating the practice of distillation began during the 12th century Jin or Southern Song dynasties. A still has been found at a site in Qinglong, Hebei. Fractional distillation was developed by Taddeo Alderotti in the 13th century, the production method was written in code, suggesting that it was being kept secret. In 1437, burned water was mentioned in the records of the County of Katzenelnbogen in Germany and it was served in a tall, narrow glass called a Goderulffe. Claims upon the origin of specific beverages are controversial, often invoking national pride, but they are plausible after the 12th century AD and these spirits would have had a much lower alcohol content than the alchemists pure distillations, and they were likely first thought of as medicinal elixirs
24.
Himbeergeist
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Himbeergeist is a fruit-based Schnaps produced mainly in Germany and the Alsace region of France. Rather than being distilled into liquor from a mash of fresh fruit like a fruit brandy. Because raspberries low sugar content can produce only an amount of alcohol. The mixture is then steeped for several weeks to draw out the essence, distilled, diluted with purified water. Brandy Eau-de-vie German Schnaps Liquor portal
25.
Schnapps
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The English loanword schnapps is derived from the colloquial German term Schnaps which is used in reference to spirit drinks. In British-English often the term dram is spoken, the German term Schnaps refers to any kind of strong alcoholic drink, similar to how eau de vie is used in French, or aguardiente in Spanish. In Austria, Switzerland, southern Germany, and the French region of Alsace, Obstler, which are fruit brandies, are mainly associated with the southern part of the German-language area. In northern Germany, almost all distilled beverages are grain-based. The main kinds of used for German schnapps are apples, pears, plums, cherries. Fruits other than five are rarely used. A raspberry-flavored spirit called Himbeergeist is also referred to as schnapps, instead, it is an infusion of fresh berries in neutral spirits, which steeped for several weeks before being distilled. The different kinds of Obstler are similar to the varieties of Rakija found in the Balkans, slivovitz is a popular schnapps made from Damson plums found throughout the region. Kräuterlikör is another form of schnapps, often sweetened. Well known brands include Jägermeister, Underberg, Kuemmerling, Killepitsch, an inexpensive heavily sweetened form of liqueur is made in America by mixing neutral grain spirit with fruit syrup, spices, or other flavors. Referred to as schnapps, these are bottled with an alcohol content typically between 15% and 20% ABV, though some may be much higher, brandy Korn Pálinka Snaps Liquor portal
26.
Alcoholic drink
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Long-term use can lead to alcohol abuse, physical dependence, and alcoholism. Drinking alcohol plays an important social role in many cultures, most countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption, some countries ban such activities entirely. However, alcoholic drinks are legal in most parts of the world, the global alcoholic drink industry exceeded $1 trillion in 2014. Alcohol is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. For instance, in 2015, among Americans, 89% of adults had consumed alcohol at point, 70% had drunk it in the last year. Alcoholic drinks are divided into three classes—beers, wines, and spirits—and typically contain between 3% and 40% alcohol by volume. Discovery of late Stone Age jugs suggest that intentionally fermented drinks existed at least as early as the Neolithic period, wine is a fermented beverage produced from grapes. Wine involves a longer process than beer and also a long aging process. Sparkling wine can be made by means of a secondary fermentation, fruit wines are made from fruits other than grapes, such as plums, cherries, or apples. Sake is an example of rice wine. Beer is a beverage fermented from grain mash and it is made from barley or a blend of several grains. If the fermented mash is distilled, then the drink is a spirit, beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. Cider or cyder is an alcoholic drink made from any fruit juice, apple juice, peaches. Cider alcohol content varies from 1. 2% ABV to 8. 5% or more in traditional English ciders, in some regions, cider may be called apple wine. Mead is a drink created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains. The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% ABV to more than 20%, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the drinks fermentable sugar is derived from honey. A distilled drink or liquor is a drink produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit. Unsweetened, distilled, alcoholic drinks that have a content of at least 20% ABV are called spirits
27.
History of alcoholic drinks
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Purposeful production of alcoholic drinks is common and often reflects cultural and religious peculiarities as much as geographical and sociological conditions. Discovery of late Stone Age jugs suggest that intentionally fermented beverages existed at least as early as the Neolithic period, chemical analysis of jars from the neolithic village Jiahu in the Henan province of northern China revealed traces of alcohol that were absorbed and preserved. The results of analysis were published in December 2004. This is approximately the time when barley beer and grape wine were beginning to be made in the Middle East, wines first appearance is thought to date from 6000 BC in Georgia. The earliest firm evidence of production dates back to 5400 BC in Iran. Evidence of alcoholic beverages has also found dating from 3150 BC in ancient Egypt,3000 BC in Babylon,2000 BC in pre-Hispanic Mexico. The medicinal use of alcohol was mentioned in Sumerian and Egyptian texts dating from about 2100 BC, the Hebrew Bible recommends giving alcoholic drinks to those who are dying or depressed, so that they can forget their misery. Wine was consumed in Classical Greece at breakfast or at symposia, both the Greeks and the Romans generally drank diluted wine. In Europe during the Middle Ages, beer, often of very low strength, was a drink for all classes and ages of people. A document from that time mentions nuns having an allowance of six pints of ale each day, cider and pomace wine were also widely available, grape wine was the prerogative of the higher classes. By the time the Europeans reached the Americas in the 15th century, according to a post-conquest Aztec document, consumption of the local wine was generally restricted to religious ceremonies but was freely allowed to those who were older than 70 years. The natives of South America produced a beer-like beverage from cassava or maize and this chewing technique was also used in ancient Japan to make sake from rice and other starchy crops. The ability to metabolize alcohol likely predates humanity with primates eating fermenting fruit, beer was the major beverage among the Babylonians, and as early as 2700 BC they worshiped a wine goddess and other wine deities. Babylonians regularly used both beer and wine as offerings to their gods, around 1750 BC, the famous Code of Hammurabi devoted attention to alcohol. However, there were no penalties for drunkenness, in fact, the concern was fair commerce in alcohol. Although it was not a crime, the Babylonians were critical of drunkenness, the earliest evidence of alcohol in what is now China are jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000 BC. This early rice mead was produced by fermenting rice, honey, what later developed into Chinese civilization grew up along the more northerly Yellow River and fermented a kind of huangjiu from millet. The Zhou attached great importance to alcohol and ascribed the loss of the mandate of Heaven by the earlier Xia and Shang as largely due to their dissolute and alcoholic emperors
28.
History of beer
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Chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date, in Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6, 000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe. In China, residue on pottery dating from between 5400 and 4900 years ago shows beer was brewed using barley and other grains, the invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanitys ability to develop technology and build civilization. Beer may have known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago. Women brewers dominated alcohol production on every occupied continent until commercialization and industrialization of brewing occurred, Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a domestic scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced and sold by European monasteries. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. More than 133 billion liters are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion in 2006, approximately 5000 years ago, workers in the city of Uruk were paid by their employers in beer. Ninkasi, you are the one who pours out the beer of the collector vat It is the onrush of Tigris. Beer is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the wild man Enkidu is given beer to drink and he ate until he was full, drank seven pitchers of beer, his heart grew light, his face glowed and he sang out with joy. These beers were often thick, more of a gruel than a beverage, though beer was drunk in Ancient Rome, it was replaced in popularity by wine. Tacitus wrote disparagingly of the beer brewed by the Germanic peoples of his day, thracians were also known to consume beer made from rye, even since the 5th century BC, as the ancient Greek logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos says. Their name for beer was brutos, or brytos, the Romans called their brew cerevisia, from the Celtic word for it. Beer was apparently enjoyed by some Roman legionaries, for instance, among the Vindolanda tablets, the cavalry decurion Masculus wrote a letter to prefect Flavius Cerialis inquiring about the exact instructions for his men for the following day. This included a polite request for beer to be sent to the garrison, Ancient Nubians had used beer as an antibiotic medicine. Mesopotamian brewing appears to have incorporated the usage of a twice-baked barley bread called bappir and it was discovered early that reusing the same container for fermenting the mash would produce more reliable results, brewers on the move carried their tubs with them. The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria, early traces of beer and the brewing process have been found in ancient Babylonia as well
29.
History of wine
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The earliest archaeological evidence of wine consumption yet found has been at sites in China, Georgia, Iran, and Greece. The oldest evidence of production has been found in Armenia. The altered consciousness produced by wine has been considered religious since its origin, the Greeks worshiped Dionysus or Bacchus and the Romans carried on his cult. Consumption of ritual wine was part of Jewish practice since Biblical times and, as part of the eucharist commemorating Jesuss Last Supper, Wine production and consumption increased, burgeoning from the 15th century onwards as part of European expansion. Despite the devastating 1887 phylloxera louse infestation, modern science and technology adapted and industrial wine production, the origins of wine predate written records, and modern archaeology is still uncertain about the details of the first cultivation of wild grapevines. It has been hypothesized that early humans climbed trees to pick berries, liked their sugary flavor, after a few days with fermentation setting in, juice at the bottom of any container would begin producing low-alcohol wine. According to this theory, things changed around 10. 000-8000 BC with the transition from a nomadic to a style of living. Wild grapes grow in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the northern Levant, coastal and southeastern Turkey, the fermenting of strains of this wild Vitis vinifera subsp. Sylvestris would have become easier following the development of pottery during the later Neolithic, however, the earliest evidence so far discovered dates from millennia afterwards. The earliest archaeological evidence of wine production yet found has been at sites in China, Georgia, Iran, Greece, the Iranian jars contained a form of retsina, using turpentine pine resin to more effectively seal and preserve the wine. Production spread to sites in Greater Iran and Grecian Macedonia by c. 4500 BC. The Greek site is notable for the recovery at the site of the remnants of crushed grapes, the oldest-known winery was discovered in the Areni-1 cave in Vayots Dzor, Armenia. Dated to c. 4100 BC, the site contained a press, fermentation vats, jars. Archaeologists also found V. vinifera seeds and vines, commenting on the importance of the find, McGovern said, The fact that winemaking was already so well developed in 4000 BC suggests that the technology probably goes back much earlier. The seeds were from Vitis vinifera vinifera, a still used to make wine. The cave remains date to about 4000 BC -900 years before the earliest comparable wine remains and this is what CNN wrote, Forget France. It turns out, the birthplace of wine may be in a cave in Armenia. Wine found in Armenia is considered to be at least 6100 years old, the fame of Persian wine has been well known in Ancient times
30.
History of Bordeaux wine
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The history of Bordeaux wine spans almost 2000 years to Roman times when the first vineyards were planted. In the Middle Ages, the marriage of Henry Plantagenet and Eleanor of Aquitaine opened the Bordeaux region to the English market and eventually to the worlds stage. Bordeaux wine production seems to have begun sometime after 43 AD, during the Roman occupation of Gaul, however, it is only in 71 AD that Pliny the Elder recorded the first real evidence of vineyards in Bordeaux. The areas location along the Gironde estuary provided a trade route with the British Isles. Wine historian, Roger Dion, has theorized that the first vine cuttings that the Romans brought to Bordeaux originated in the Rioja region of Spain, the early budding of the Bordeaux wine industry suffered a number of disruptions following the fall of Rome. The area was occupied by Vandals in AD408, Goths in 406, the area was also subjected to repeated encounters with Saxon longboats along the coast. These disruptions continued into the 5th century to the period of Frankish rule, although domestically popular, French wine was seldom exported, as the areas covered by vineyards and the volume of wine produced was low. In the 12th century however, the popularity of Bordeaux wines increased dramatically following the marriage of Henry Plantagenet, the marriage made the province of Aquitaine English territory, and thenceforth the majority of Bordeaux claret was exported in exchange for other goods. Upon the ascension of their son, Richard, to the English throne Bordeaux became the base for Richards French operations, as the popularity of Bordeaux wine increased, the vineyards expanded to accommodate the demands from abroad. Henry and Aliénor youngest son, John was in favor of promoting the wine industry, in the 13th and 14th century, a code of business practices called the police des vins emerged to give Bordeaux wine a distinct trade advantage over its neighboring regions. The citizenry of Bordeaux worked diligently to promote and foster their relationship with the English market, in 1205, King Alfonso VIII of Castile laid claim to Aquitaine and put Bordeaux under siege. The village was able to withstand the attack and King John rewarded the Bourgeois with orders for wine in excess of 120 tons, in 1224, King Louis VIII of France attempted to purge the English from French soil and was halted in his advance in the town of Bordeaux. In the aftermath Bordeaux received an access to the English market through London. During the 13th century, the Graves was the wine region of Bordeaux. While there were some vines growing in the Entre-Deux-Mers, Saint-Émilion and Blaye, at the turn of the 14th century, the town of Libourne was vying for dominance in the area, exporting 11,000 tons of wine to London from the 1308 vintage. A year earlier, this fulfilled a order for 1,152,000 bottles to be used for the celebration of Edward IIs wedding. The wine of this period was highly alcoholic and fruity but did not age well. The export of Bordeaux was effectively halted by the outbreak of The Hundred Years War between France and England in 1337 followed by the outbreak of the Black Death which ravaged the area
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History of Champagne
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The history of Champagne has seen the wine evolve from being a pale, pinkish still wine to the sparkling wine now associated with the region. The Romans were the first to plant vineyards in this area of northeast France, with the region being cultivated by at least the 5th century, the early wine of the Champagne region was a pale, pinkish wine made from Pinot noir. The Champenois were envious of the reputation of the wines made from their Burgundian neighbours to the south, however the northerly climate of the region gave the Champenois a unique set of challenges in making red wine. At the far extremes of sustainable viticulture, the grapes would struggle to fully and often would have bracing levels of acidity. The wines were lighter bodied and thinner than the Burgundies, furthermore, the cold winter temperatures prematurely halted fermentation in the cellars, leaving dormant yeast cells that would awaken in the warmth of spring and start fermenting again. One of the byproducts of fermentation is the release of carbon dioxide gas, the pressure inside the weak, early French wine bottles often caused the bottles to explode, creating havoc in the cellars. If the bottle survived, the wine was found to contain bubbles, something that the early Champenois were horrified to see, considering it a fault. As late as the 17th century, Champenois wine makers, most notably the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon, were trying to rid their wines of the bubbles. While the Champenois and their French clients preferred their Champagne to be pale and still, the sparkling version of Champagne continued to grow in popularity, especially among the wealthy and royal. Following the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715, the court of Philippe II, in the 19th century these obstacles were overcome, and the modern Champagne wine industry took form. The fortunes of the Champenois and the popularity of Champagne grew until a series of setbacks in the early 20th century. The modern era, however, has seen a resurgence of the popularity of Champagne, the Romans were the first known inhabitants to plant vineyards in the Champagne region. The name Champagne comes from the Latin campania and referred to the similarities between the hills of the province and the Italian countryside of Campania located south of Rome. While vineyards were planted earlier, the first recorded vineyard belonged to St. Remi in the 5th century. For most of the early history, the wines from Champagne were not known as Champagne or even vin de Champagne. Rather they were known as vins de Reims and vins de la rivère in reference to the Marne river which provided a trade route via the Seine with Paris. In 987, Hugh Capet was crowned King of France at the cathedral Reims, at the coronation banquet, the local wines of the regions were served. The city became known as the capital of France and for the next eight centuries, monarchs would follow the tradition of Capet
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History of Chianti
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The history of Chianti dates back to at least the 13th century with the earliest incarnations of Chianti as a white wine. Today this Tuscan wine is one of Italys most well known, as the wines of Chianti grew in popularity other villages in Tuscany wanted their lands to be called Chianti. The boundaries of the region have seen many expansions and sub-divisions over the centuries, in addition to changing boundaries, the grape composition for Chianti has changed dramatically over the years. The earliest examples of Chianti were a white wine but gradually evolved into a red, baron Bettino Ricasoli, the future Prime Minister in the Kingdom of Italy created the first known Chianti recipe in 1872, recommending 70% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo and 15% Malvasia bianca. In 1967, the Denominazione di origine controllata regulation set by the Italian government firmly established the Ricasoli formula of a Sangiovese-based blend with 10-30% Malvasia and Trebbiano. A few producers went ahead and made their chianti as they desired but, prohibited from labeling, despite their low level classifications, these super Chiantis became internationally recognized by critics and consumers and were coined as Super Tuscans. The success of these wines encouraged government officials to reconsider the DOCG regulations with many changes made to some of these vino da tavola to be labeled as Chiantis. In the early Middle Ages, the area between Baliaccia and Monte Luco in the hills between the cities of Florence and Siena was known as the Chianti Mountain and this area was noted for its winemaking with the villages of Castellina, Gaiole and Radda gaining particular renown. These three villages formed a Lega del Chianti that the Florentine merchants would market as wines of distinction, some of these areas, such as Robbiano, included large swaths of hillside near Florence that produced lighter bodied wines that were not suitable for aging or improving in quality. The 1932 expansion was canonized into DOC regulations in 1966, in 1984 the Chianti Classico and the greater Chianti region were separated and each given their own DOCG ranking. The boundaries were to cover an area of approximate 100 square miles between Florence to the north and Siena to the south, the early history of Chianti is very much intertwined with the history of the entire Tuscany region. The history of viticulture in the dates back to its settlements by the Etruscans in the eighth century BC. From the fall of the Roman Empire and throughout the Middle Ages, monasteries were the main purveyors of wines in the region, as the aristocratic and merchant classes emerged, they inherited the sharecropping system of agriculture known as mezzadria. This system took its name from the arrangement whereby the landowner provides the land, many landowners in the Chianti region would turn their half of the grape harvest into wine that would be sold to merchants in Florence. The earliest reference of Florentine wine retailers dates to 1079 with a guild for wine merchants being created in 1282, unlike France or Spain, Italy did not have a robust export market for its wines during the Middle Ages. Its closest trading partners, France and Austria, were separated from Italy by the massive Alps Mountains, the English had little interest in Italian wines at this point, finding plenty of sources in France, Spain and later Portugal to quench their thirst. While the sweet Lacryma Christi from Campania had some presence on the international market, even then this market was mostly limited to the aristocracy since outside of the major cities of Rome and Naples, there was not yet a strong middle class. During the Renaissance, the city of Florence experienced a period of growth that brought with it a middle class of guilded craftsman
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History of French wine
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The history of French wine, spans a period of at least 2600 years dating to the founding of Massalia in the 6th century BC by Phocaeans with the possibility that viticulture existed much earlier. Over the course of its history, the French wine industry would be influenced and driven by the interests of the lucrative English market. There is archaeological evidence to suggest that the Celts first cultivated the vine, Vitis vinifera. Grape pips have been found throughout France, pre-dating Greek and Roman cultural influences, a major turning-point in the wine history of Gaul came with the founding of Massalia in the 6th century BC by Greek immigrants from Phocae in Asia Minor. By the 2nd century BC, Massalia came under Roman influence as a port on the trade route linking Rome to Roman settlements at Saguntum. Roman presence and influence in Massilia grew as the settlement came under attack from a succession of forces including the Ligurians, Allobroges, eventually the area became a Roman province first known as Provincia and later Gallia Narbonensis. The early Greek settlers brought a distinctly Mediterranean outlook to viticulture in Gaul. In 7 BC, the Greek geographer Strabo noted that the areas around Massilia and Narbo could produce the same fruits as Italy but the rest of Gaul further north could not support the olive, fig or vine. It wasnt till the first century AD that there was record of Gauls wine being of any note or renown. In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder noted that in the region near Vienna, the high demand for wine and the cost of transport from Rome or Massilia were likely motivators for this spread. Archaeological evidence dating to the reign of Augustus suggests that large numbers of amphorae were being produced near Bézier in the Narbonensis and in the Gaillac region of Southwest France. But even with the risk of an occasional lost harvest, the demand for wine among the Roman. By the 6th century AD, vines were planted throughout Gaul including the Loire Valley, the invaders set up kingdoms in Aquitaine, Burgundy and Île-de-France. During the Carolingian era, a new system of development emerged that was intimately tied with the spread of viticulture in Medieval France. Under this system of complant, a farmer could approach a land owner with uncultivated land with an offer to plant, under this system, many areas of France were enthusiastically and efficiently planted with little cost to the land owner, such as the Poitou region near La Rochelle. In the Middle Ages, transportation of heavy wooden barrels of wine over land was a costly, port cities like Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Rouen emerged as formidable centers of commerce with the wines of Gascony, Haut Pays, Poitou and the Île-de-France. During this period, political climates and alliances played a role in the trade of French wines to other European countries. The 1152 marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Henry Plantagenet, the future Henry II of England, was the beginning of a long, the 1295 Auld Alliance between France and Scotland against England gave the Scots ample access to French wines for themselves
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History of Portuguese wine
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The history of Portuguese wine has been influenced by Portugals relative isolationism in the worlds wine market, with the one notable exception of its relationship with the British. Wine has been made in Portugal since at least 2000 BC when the Tartessians planted vines in the Sado, by the 10th century BC, the Phoenicians had arrived and introduced new grape varieties and winemaking techniques to the area. Up until this point, viticulture was mostly centered on the coastal areas of Portugal. In later centuries, the Ancient Greeks, Celts and Romans would do much to spread viticulture, Portuguese wines were first shipped to England in the 12th century from the Entre Douro e Minho region. In 1386, Portugal and England signed the Treaty of Windsor which fostered close relations between the two countries and opened the door for extensive trade opportunities. The 1703 Methuen Treaty furthered advanced English economic interest in Portugal by reducing tariffs, around this time, the fortified wine known as Port was increasing in popularity in Britain. In the mid-1980s, Portugals introduction to the European Union brought a flood of financing and these new investments paved the way for upgrades in winemaking technology and facilities. Viticulture has existed on the Iberian Peninsula for thousands of years, the Tartessians are believed to have cultivated the first vineyards in the Tagus vineyards around 2000 BC. When the Phoenicians reached the area in the 10th century BC, they brought with them grape varieties and winemaking techniques from the Middle East, the Ancient Greeks settlers of the 7th century BC, furthered the advance of viticulture in Portugal and left evidence of their influence. When the Romans reached Portugal, they named the area Lusitania after Lusus, as they did before in Italy, France, Germany and Spain, the Romans did much to expand and promote viticulture in their settlements in Portugal. Wines were produced across the territory for both local consumption as well as export to Rome, vineyards extended further north and inland, being firmly established in places such as Douro by the end of Roman rule. Following the Fall of the Roman Empire, local barbarian tribes sustained the tradition, in the mid-9th century AD, Ordoño the Gothic king of Asturias granted vineyards and landowning privileges around Coimbra to a monastic Christian order in the area. At times the supply was threatened by political and military conflicts between the English and French crowns, New sources had to be found such as the wines of Portugal. Documents exist detailing Portuguese wine shipments from the Minho region to England occurring as early as the 12th century and these wines, including those from the wet northern region of modern-day Vinho Verde, were often light and astringent with noticeable acidity. Despite the new source, the variety of French wines for English wine drinkers prevailed, in 1386, the Portuguese and English signed the Treaty of Windsor. The pact of mutual support fostered a strong alliance between the two countries. Over the ensuing centuries, whenever England was in conflict with other European powers, Portugal, Portuguese wine also served as a bargaining chip in English politics. In 1679, the English Parliament banned all imports of French wine as a means of limiting the tariff income of Charles II and forcing him to come to Parliament and ask them directly for funds
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History of Rioja wine
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The history of Rioja wine reflects a long and varied winemaking tradition in the Spanish region of La Rioja, starting with the first Phoenician settlers in 11th century BC. As with many of Europes most well known regions, the Ancient Romans founded many of the Rioja vineyards. Throughout the Middle Ages, pilgrims to the shrine of St. James at Santiago de Compostela passed through the region, today, together with Sherry, Rioja is the most internationally recognized of all Spanish wines. The earliest vine-growing people to reach the Rioja were the Phoenicians, the Rioja region was conquered by the Ancient Romans in the early 2nd century BC and probably came under Roman rule through treaties with the local Celtiberian and Vascon tribes. Vineyards were established at settlements near modern-day Calahorra and Logroño and bodegas soon sprang up in order to supply the Roman troops, archaeological exploration has uncovered evidence of a local cistern from that period with the capacity to hold 75,000 liters of wine. From the 15th century on, the Rioja Alta specialized in wine growing, the popular pilgrimage route el Camino de Santiago took thousands of Christian pilgrims right through the heart of the Rioja throughout the Middle Ages, just as it does today. Whereas many visitors sampled the local wine and the reputation of the region became widespread, following the Reconquista, Rioja wine merchants began to look for outside markets for their wine. Looking north, some bodegas brought their wines to the ports of Bilbao and Santander where it became available to Dutch. This developing trade with its Basque Country neighbors served as an impetus for the bodegas to expand their wine production, as the regions reputation grew, the local authorities tried to implement safeguards to protect the quality and reputation of the wine. In the 1780s, Don Manuel Quintano of nearby Burgos traveled to Bordeaux to learn their winemaking techniques, on his return, he introduced the use of Oak aging barrels to the Rioja bodegas, which dramatically improved the longevity of Rioja wines. This opened up their export potential, and markets developed in places as far-flung as Cuba. This significant economic disadvantage caused the use of oak to fall out of favor for almost a century, the Duke de la Victoria owned a bodega in Logroño and spent considerable time in London during a period of exile following the defeat of the Carlists. It was there that he and an aide, Colonel Luciano Murrieta, discussed ways in which to modernize the Rioja wine industry, Murrieta was dispatched to Bordeaux to learn the latest advances in the Bordeaux wine industry, much like Quintano had been several decades before. Murrieta also reintroduced the use of oak for aging, in the 1850s, the fungal disease powdery mildew began to ravage vineyards in nearby Galicia, opening up the market up for Rioja bodegas, which had been only slightly affected. The completion of a system linking Logroño to Bilbao, Madrid. The French were the first and hardest hit by the louse and this ushered in a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity for the Rioja wine industry. The subsequent boom in the Rioja wine industry lasted until phylloxera finally reached the region itself in the 1890s, in the meantime, regional authorities stepped in to sharply curb all wine imports, so that the local wine supply would take priority. Laws were passed prohibiting the export of wines from any bodega producing less 750,000 liters of wine per annum, at the turn of the 20th century, Rioja had established itself as the most recognizable name for Spanish wine outside of Spain
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History of Sherry
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The triangular region between the towns of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María, and Sanlúcar de Barrameda still marks the limits of the modern denominación. Today, while Sherry does not enjoy the level of popularity it once did, the city of Cádiz was first founded sometime between 1104 BC and the 9th century BC as a trading post by the Canaanite tribe of the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians shared in the traditions of the Ancient Middle East. The Greeks soon followed and brought them the tradition of making arrope. The area was thoroughly entrenched in winemaking by the time the Romans conquered the area in 206 BC after more than three centuries of rule by Carthage, under the Carthaginians, the work of the early viticulturist Mago was widely followed in the area. The early Roman agriculturalist Columella was a native of Cádiz and was influenced by the areas winemaking tradition. Soon wine from the region was being spread throughout the Roman Empire where it came to be known as Ceretanum or wine from Ceret which was a name for the Sherry namesake of Jerez. The Roman poet Martial was one of the earliest writers to describe this primitive Sherry, during the Roman times, the practice of boiling grape must in order to concentrate the sugar as another means of sweetening the wine was starting to become widely used in the area. Under the Islamic rule of the Moors, the consumption of alcohol was forbidden but some winemaking continued to exist in the region as part of trade and commerce with the non-Muslim neighbors. The Moors also introduced the process of distillation known as alembic to the region created a crude form of grape liqueur. On many of these voyages, stocking up on supplies of the areas wine was considered a necessity. Christopher Columbus almost certainly had Sherry with him when he made some of his voyages to America which makes Sherry, in all likelihood, for Magellans voyage 594,790 maravedis were spent on wine compared to 566,684 maravedis on all the shipss armaments and mens weapons. At the turn of the 15th century, several factors came into play that had a impact on the global wine market. The Venetian traders were losing their supply of wine from the lands of Cyprus, Greece, Romania. War with France had lost the English their access to the wines of Bordeaux, seeing an opportunity to capitalize on this, the Spanish Duke of Medina Sidonia made several moves to put Sherry into the forefront of the worlds wine market. In 1491, the tax on wine was abolished for both Spanish and foreign vessels coming into Sanlúcar. In 1517, English merchants were given preferential merchant status-including the right to arms in the region. In addition to triggering the English Reformation and the break from the Roman Catholic Church, many merchants closed up shop and fled while others were jailed for failing to repent or denounce their King
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History of South African wine
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The early history of South African wine can be traced to the founding of a supply station at the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company. In 1685, another Cape Governor, Simon van der Stel, purchased a large 1,850 acre estate, in the 19th century, South Africa fell under British rule which proved lucrative for the wine industry as South African wine flowed into the British market. Following the devastation from the epidemic in the late 19th century. By the early 1900s there was a glut of wine, creating a wine lake effect which led some producers to pour their unsaleable wine into local rivers. Initially started as a co-operative, the KWV soon grew in power and prominence, to deal with the wine glut the KWV restricted yields and set minimum prices, encouraging the production of brandy and fortified wines. For much of the 20th century, the industry of South Africa received very little attention on the worldwide stage. Its isolation was further deepened by boycotts of South African products in protest at the system of Apartheid. It wasnt until the late 1980s and 1990s when Apartheid was ended, with a steep learning curve, many producers in South Africa quickly adopted new viticultural and winemaking technologies. The presence of flying winemakers from abroad brought international influences and focus on well known such as Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon. The reorganization of the powerful KWV co-operative into a business further sparked innovation. Vineyard owners had previously relied on KWVs price-fixing structure, that bought their excess grapes for distillation, now they had to shift their focus to quality wine production in order to compete. In 1990, less than 30% of all the grapes harvested were used for wine aimed at the market, with the remaining 70% being discarded, distilled into brandy or sold as table grapes. By 2003 these proportions had reversed, with more than 70% of the grapes harvested that year reaching the market as wine. When Bartolomeu Dias and other Portuguese explorers first encountered the Cape of Good Hope in the 15th century, they found little motivation to colonize the sparse and empty land around the Cape. The managers of the Dutch East India Company began looking for a logical midway point on the voyage to build a station that would serve the sailors making the voyage to. In 1652, a Dutch surgeon named Jan van Riebeeck was commissioned with the task of building both a fort and farming community in the Cape. One of van Riebeecks tasks include planting a vineyard, falsely believing the consumption of grapes, in 1654, the Dutch East India Company sent van Riebeeck grapevine cuttings from the Rheingau. These vines were packaged in damp pieces of sailcloth which negatively affected their ability to root in the Capes vineyards
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Alcohol industry
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The alcohol industry is the commercial industry involved in the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The industry has been criticised in the 1990s for deflecting attention away from the associated with alcohol use. The alcohol industry has also criticised for being unhelpful in reducing the harm of alcohol. The World Bank works with and invests in alcohol industry projects when positive effects with regard to health concerns. Alcohol industry sponsored education to reduce the harm of alcohol results in an increase in the harm of alcohol. As a result, it has recommended that the alcohol industry does not become involved in alcohol policy or educational programs. In the UK the New Labour government took the view that working with the industry to reduce harm was the most effective strategy. However, alcohol-related harm and alcohol abuse increased, alcoholism Alcohol advertising Alcohol and health Long-term effects of alcohol Short-term effects of alcohol
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Brewing
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Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a brewer, at home by a homebrewer. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests that emerging civilizations including ancient Egypt, since the nineteenth century the brewing industry has been part of most western economies. The basic ingredients of beer are water and a starch source such as malted barley. Most beer is fermented with a brewers yeast and flavoured with hops, less widely used starch sources include millet, sorghum and cassava. Secondary sources, such as maize, rice, or sugar, may also be used, sometimes to reduce cost, or to add a feature, the proportion of each starch source in a beer recipe is collectively called the grain bill. Steps in the process include malting, milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering. There are three main methods, warm, cool and spontaneous. Fermentation may take place in an open or closed fermenting vessel, there are several additional brewing methods, such as barrel aging, double dropping, and Yorkshire Square. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BC, and archaeological evidence suggests emerging civilizations including ancient Egypt, descriptions of various beer recipes can be found in cuneiform from ancient Mesopotamia. Ethnographic studies and archaeological records indicate that brewing alcohol was primary an activity engaged in by women, chemical tests of ancient pottery jars reveal that beer was produced as far back as about 7,000 years ago in what is today Iran. This discovery reveals one of the earliest known uses of fermentation and is the earliest evidence of brewing to date, in Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is believed to be a 6, 000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a beverage through reed straws from a communal bowl. A 3900-year-old Sumerian poem honouring Ninkasi, the goddess of brewing, contains the oldest surviving beer recipe. The invention of bread and beer has been argued to be responsible for humanitys ability to develop technology, Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5,000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. Ale produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process, and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. More than 133 billion litres are sold per year—producing total global revenues of $294.5 billion in 2006
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Drinking establishment
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A drinking establishment is a business whose primary function is the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. Some establishments may also serve food, or have entertainment, there are different types of drinking establishment ranging from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed dive bars, to 5,000 seat beer halls and elegant places of entertainment for the elite. A public house, informally known as a pub, is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises in countries and regions of British influence. Although the terms are used to refer to the same thing. A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink beverages and, more than likely, also be served food. The word derives from the Latin taberna and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna, a brewpub is a pub or restaurant that brews beer on the premises. A beer hall is a pub that specializes in beer. An Izakaya is a type of Japanese drinking establishment which serves food to accompany the drinks. A speakeasy is an establishment that sells alcoholic beverages. Types of bars range from seedy bars or nightclubs, sometimes termed dive bars, many bars have a happy hour to encourage off-peak patronage. Bars that fill to capacity sometimes implement a cover charge during their peak hours, such bars often feature entertainment, which may be a live band or a popular disc jockey. Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons, some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go dancers, or strippers. The term bar is derived from the counter on which drinks are served. The back bar is a set of shelves of glasses and bottles behind that counter, in some establishments, the back bar is elaborately decorated with woodwork, etched glass, mirrors, and lights. A public house, informally known as a pub, is an establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises in countries and regions of British influence. Although the terms are used to refer to the same thing. A pub that offers lodging may be called an inn or hotel in the United Kingdom, today, many pubs in the UK, Canada and Australia with the word inn or hotel in their names no longer offer accommodation, and in some cases have never done so. Some pubs bear the name of hotel because they are in countries where stringent anti-drinking laws were once in force, in Scotland until 1976, only hotels could serve alcohol on Sundays
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Ethanol fermentation
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Because yeasts perform this conversion in the absence of oxygen, alcoholic fermentation is considered an anaerobic process. It also takes place in some species of fish where it provides energy when oxygen is scarce, ethanol fermentation has many uses, including the production of alcoholic beverages, the production of ethanol fuel, and bread baking. The chemical equations below summarize the fermentation of sucrose into ethanol, alcoholic fermentation converts one mole of glucose into two moles of ethanol and two moles of carbon dioxide, producing two moles of ATP in the process. The overall chemical formula for alcoholic fermentation is, C6H12O6 →2 C2H5OH +2 CO2 Sucrose is a dimer of glucose and fructose molecules, in the first step of alcoholic fermentation, the enzyme invertase cleaves the glycosidic linkage between the glucose and fructose molecules. C12H22O11 + H2O + invertase →2 C6H12O6 Next, each molecule is broken down into two pyruvate molecules in a process known as glycolysis. Glycolysis is summarized by the equation, C6H12O6 +2 ADP +2 Pi +2 NAD+ →2 CH3COCOO− +2 ATP +2 NADH +2 H2O +2 H+ The chemical formula of pyruvate is CH3COCOO−, Pi stands for the inorganic phosphate. Finally, pyruvate is converted to ethanol and CO2 in two steps, regenerating oxidized NAD+ needed for glycolysis,1, CH3COCOO− + H+ → CH3CHO + CO2 catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase 2. CH3CHO + NADH+H+ → C2H5OH + NAD+ This reaction is catalyzed by alcohol dehydrogenase, as shown by the reaction equation, glycolysis causes the reduction of two molecules of NAD+ to NADH. Two ADP molecules are converted to two ATP and two water molecules via substrate-level phosphorylation. Other microorganisms can produce ethanol from sugars by fermentation but often only as a side product, however, many yeasts such as the commonly used bakers yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, prefer fermentation to respiration. These yeasts will produce ethanol even under conditions, if they are provided with the right kind of nutrition. Several potential causes for the decline in activity have been investigated. Viability remained at or above 90%, internal pH remained near neutrality, none of these factors appears to be causally related to the fall in fermentative activity during batch fermentation. Ethanol fermentation causes bread dough to rise, yeast organisms consume sugars in the dough and produce ethanol and carbon dioxide as waste products. The carbon dioxide forms bubbles in the dough, expanding it into something of a foam, less than 2% ethanol remains after baking. All ethanol contained in alcoholic beverages is produced by means of fermentation induced by yeast, brandy and eaux de vie are produced by distillation of these fruit-fermented beverages. Mead is produced by fermentation of the sugars present in honey. Beer, whiskey, and vodka are produced by fermentation of grain starches that have converted to sugar by the enzyme amylase
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Winemaking
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Winemaking or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from fruits or plants. Mead is a wine that is made with honey being the primary ingredient after water, Winemaking can be divided into two general categories, still wine production and sparkling wine production. The science of wine and winemaking is known as oenology, a person who makes wine is traditionally called a winemaker or vintner. After the harvest, the grapes are taken into a winery, at this stage red wine making diverges from white wine making. Red wine is made from the must of red or black grapes and fermentation occurs together with the grape skins, white wine is made by fermenting juice which is made by pressing crushed grapes to extract a juice, the skins are removed and play no further role. Occasionally white wine is made from red grapes, this is done by extracting their juice with minimal contact with the grapes skins. Rosé wines are made from red grapes where the juice is allowed to stay in contact with the dark skins long enough to pick up a pinkish color or by blending red wine with white wine. White and rosé wines extract little of the contained in the skins. To start primary fermentation yeast may be added to the must for red wine or may occur naturally as ambient yeast on the grapes or in the air, yeast may be added to the juice for white wine. During this fermentation, which takes between one and two weeks, the yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into ethanol. The carbon dioxide is lost to the atmosphere, after the primary fermentation of red grapes the free run wine is pumped off into tanks and the skins are pressed to extract the remaining juice and wine. The press wine is blended with the free run wine at the winemakers discretion, the wine is kept warm and the remaining sugars are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The next process in the making of red wine is malo-lactic conversion and this is a bacterial process which converts crisp, green apple malic acid to soft, creamy lactic acid softening the taste of the wine. Red wine is transferred to oak barrels to mature for a period of weeks or months. The wine must be settled or clarified and adjustments made prior to bottling, the time from harvest to drinking can vary from a few months for Beaujolais nouveau wines to over twenty years for wine of good structure with high levels of acid, tannin or sugar. However, only about 10% of all red and 5% of white wine will taste better after five years than it will after just one year. Depending on the quality of grape and the wine style
43.
Fermentation in food processing
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Fermentation in food processing is the process of converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms—yeasts or bacteria—under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation usually implies that the action of microorganisms is desired, the science of fermentation is known as zymology or zymurgy. The term fermentation sometimes refers specifically to the conversion of sugars into ethanol, producing alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer. However, similar processes take place in the leavening of bread, other widely consumed fermented foods include vinegar, olives, and cheese. More localised foods prepared by fermentation may also be based on beans, grain, vegetables, fruit, honey, dairy products, fish, meat, since ancient times, humans have exploited the fermentation process. Seven-thousand-year-old jars containing the remains of wine, now on display at the University of Pennsylvania, were excavated in the Zagros Mountains in Iran. There is strong evidence that people were fermenting alcoholic drinks in Babylon c.3000 BC, ancient Egypt c.3150 BC, pre-Hispanic Mexico c.2000 BC, the French chemist Louis Pasteur founded zymology, when in 1856 he connected yeast to fermentation. When studying the fermentation of sugar to alcohol by yeast, Pasteur concluded that the fermentation was catalyzed by a force, called ferments. The ferments were thought to only within living organisms. Alcoholic fermentation is an act correlated with the life and organization of the yeast cells, not with the death or putrefaction of the cells, nevertheless, it was known that yeast extracts can ferment sugar even in the absence of living yeast cells. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research, one year earlier, in 1906, ethanol fermentation studies led to the early discovery of NAD+. Food fermentation is the conversion of sugars and other carbohydrates into alcohol or preservative organic acids, all three products have found human uses. The production of carbon dioxide is used to leaven bread, the production of organic acids is exploited to preserve and flavor vegetables and dairy products. It has more cases of botulism than any state in the United States of America. The World Health Organization has classified pickled foods as possibly carcinogenic, other research found that fermented food contains a carcinogenic by-product, ethyl carbamate. A2009 review of the studies conducted across Asia concluded that regularly eating pickled vegetables roughly doubles a persons risk for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Science aid, Fermentation - Process and uses of fermentation Fermented cereals, a global perspective - FAO1999
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Beer
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Beer is the worlds oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink, it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, the fermentation process causes a natural carbonation effect, although this is often removed during processing, and replaced with forced carbonation. Beer is sold in bottles and cans, it may also be available on draught, particularly in pubs, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume, archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilisations. Approximately 5000 years ago, workers in the city of Uruk were paid by their employers in beer, the earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria, a fermented beverage using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlike sake, mould was not used to saccharify the rice, almost any substance containing sugar can naturally undergo alcoholic fermentation. It is likely that many cultures, on observing that a liquid could be obtained from a source of starch. Bread and beer increased prosperity to a level that allowed time for development of other technologies, Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC, and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today, alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices and other substances such as narcotic herbs. What they did not contain was hops, as that was an addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbot. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. As of 2006, more than 133 billion litres, the equivalent of a cube 510 metres on a side, of beer are sold per year, the process of making beer is known as brewing. A dedicated building for the making of beer is called a brewery, a company that makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company. Beer made on a scale for non-commercial reasons is classified as homebrewing regardless of where it is made. Brewing beer is subject to legislation and taxation in developed countries, however, the UK government relaxed legislation in 1963, followed by Australia in 1972 and the US in 1978, allowing homebrewing to become a popular hobby
45.
Cider
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Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. The juice of any variety of apple can be used to make cider, the addition of sugar or extra fruit before a second fermentation increases the alcoholic content of the resulting beverage. Cider is popular in the United Kingdom, especially in the West Country, the UK has the worlds highest per capita consumption, as well as its largest cider-producing companies. Cider is also popular in other European countries including Ireland, Portugal, France, northern Italy, central Europe also has its own types of cider with Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse producing a particularly tart version known as Apfelwein. Cider alcohol content varies from 1. 2% ABV to 8. 5% or more in traditional English ciders, in UK law, it must contain at least 35% apple juice, although CAMRA says that real cider must be at least 90% fresh apple juice. In the US, there is a 50% minimum, in France, cider must be made solely from apples. Perry is a product made from fermented pear juice. Ciders can be classified from dry to sweet and their appearance ranges from cloudy with sediment to completely clear, and their colour ranges from almost clear to amber to brown. The variations in clarity and colour are mostly due to filtering between pressing and fermentation, some apple varieties will produce a clear cider without any need for filtration. Both sparkling and still ciders are made, the variety is the more common. Modern, mass-produced ciders closely resemble sparkling wine in appearance, more traditional brands tend to be darker and cloudier. They are often stronger than the varieties and taste more strongly of apples. Almost colourless, white cider has the apple juice content as conventional cider but is harder to create because the cider maker has to blend various apples to create a clearer liquid. White ciders tend to be sweeter and more refreshing and they are typically 7-8 % ABV in strength. Black cider, by contrast, is dry amber premium cider which has an content of 7-8 % ABV. The descriptor black usually comes after the name such as Union Black. Apples grown for consumption are suitable for making, though some regional cider-makers prefer to use a mix of eating and cider apples. There are many hundreds of varieties of cultivars developed specifically for cider making, once the apples are gathered from trees in orchards they are scratted into what is called pomace or pommage
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