Portal:Liquor

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The Liquor Portal

Introduction

Liquor (/ˈlɪkər/ LIK-ər) or distilled beverages are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include spirit, spirituous liquor or hard liquor. While the word liquor ordinarily refers to distilled alcoholic spirits rather than beverages produced by fermentation alone, it can sometimes be used more broadly to refer to any alcoholic beverage (or even non-alcoholic products of distillation or various other liquids).

The distillation process concentrates the liquid to increase its alcohol by volume. As liquors contain significantly more alcohol (ethanol) than other alcoholic drinks, they are considered "harder". In North America, the term hard liquor is sometimes used to distinguish distilled alcoholic drinks from non-distilled ones, whereas the term spirits is more commonly used in the United Kingdom. Some examples of liquors include vodka, rum, gin and tequila. Liquors are often aged in barrels, such as for the production of brandy and whiskey, or are infused with flavorings to form flavored liquors, such as absinthe. (Full article...)

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Small batch whiskey is whiskey produced by mixing the contents of a relatively small number of selected barrels. Small batch whiskeys are commercially positioned for the upper-premium market. The term is most commonly used for American whiskey but is sometimes used for other whiskeys as well. For example, the Bowmore distillery in Islay, Scotland, has produced a single malt Scotch whisky labeled as "small batch".

American small batch whiskeys are typically aged from six to nine years in oak barrels, but more limited series that are aged up to 23 years are also available. There are generally no clear criteria as to what defines a "small batch". For example, there are no federal regulations that define the use of the term in the United States. Many producers of whiskeys labeled as such do not provide a clear indication of what they mean by the term.

Small batch whiskey should not be confused with pot still distilling (a batch process) that is common for malt whiskey in Scotland and Ireland. The vast majority – and almost all major brands – of American whiskeys are produced from continuous column stills, also known as a Coffey still. (Full article...)

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Harold Clifford "Harry" Hatch (1884–1946) was a millionaire industrialist from Prince Edward County, Ontario, specializing in the business of wine and spirits.

Hatch started out with a small liquor store in Whitby, Ontario, and prospered to the point where he was able to purchase the controlling interest of Gooderham & Worts Ltd. in 1923. Four years later, Hatch acquired Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd. based in Walkerville, Ontario, and in 1927 merged the two companies under the parent company of Hiram Walker-Gooderham & Worts Limited. The company was one of a number of Canadian distillers who prospered by shipping their products into the United States during the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933. (Full article...)

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Eva Ekeblad Jack Daniel James C. Crow Isaac Wolfe Bernheim Elijah Craig Bronfman family Roustam Tariko Hiram Walker William Gooderham Sr. Lewis Rosenstiel John Philip Wiser John Walker (grocer) Samuel Bronfman Popcorn Sutton Dale DeGroff

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Image 1

The Trinidad Sour is an IBA official cocktail. Unusually for a cocktail, it uses Angostura bitters as a base spirit rather than as a flavoring, the bitters being the single largest component of the drink in its IBA formulation. (Full article...)
Image 2

Ramos gin fizz at a bar in New Orleans

A Ramos gin fizz (also known as a "Ramos fizz" or "New Orleans fizz") contains gin, lemon juice, lime juice, egg white, sugar, cream, orange flower water, and soda water. It is served in a large non-tapered 12-to-14-US-fluid-ounce (350 to 410 ml) Collins glass.

The orange flower water and egg significantly affect the flavor and texture of a Ramos, compared to a regular gin fizz. The key to making this egg cocktail is dissolving the sugar before adding ice; the sugar acts as an emulsifier, and it and the alcohol "cook" the egg white. (Full article...)
Image 3

A classic 2:1 Manhattan, made with a whisky, sweet vermouth, bitters and a cherry

A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred with ice then strained into a chilled cocktail glass and garnished traditionally with a maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.

The whiskey-based Manhattan is one of five cocktails named for a New York City borough. It is closely related to the Brooklyn cocktail, which uses dry vermouth and Maraschino liqueur in place of the Manhattan's sweet vermouth, and Amer Picon in place of the Manhattan's angostura bitters. (Full article...)
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The naked and famous is an IBA official cocktail, consisting of equal parts mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, and fresh lime juice. (Full article...)
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Schnapps (/ʃnɑːps/ or /ʃnæps/) or schnaps is a type of alcoholic beverage that may take several forms, including distilled fruit brandies, herbal liqueurs, infusions, and "flavored liqueurs" made by adding fruit syrups, spices, or artificial flavorings to neutral grain spirits.

The English loanword "schnapps" is derived from the colloquial German word Schnaps [ʃnaps] (plural: Schnäpse), which is used in reference to spirit drinks.
The word Schnaps stems from Low German and is related to the German term "schnappen", meaning "snap", which refers to the spirit usually being consumed in a quick slug from a small glass (i.e., a shot glass). (Full article...)
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Canchanchara

The Canchanchara is an IBA official cocktail made with Cuban aguardiente, honey, and fresh lime juice. (Full article...)
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A margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila, triple sec, and lime juice. Some margarita recipes include simple syrup as well and are often served with salt on the rim of the glass. Margaritas can be served either shaken with ice (on the rocks), without ice (straight up), or blended with ice (frozen margarita). Most bars serve margaritas in a stepped-diameter variant of a cocktail glass or champagne coupe called a margarita glass. The margarita is one of the world's most popular cocktails and the most popular tequila-based cocktail. (Full article...)
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A Moscow mule is a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer and lime juice, garnished with a slice or wedge of lime, and a sprig of mint. The drink, being a type of buck, is sometimes called vodka buck. It is popularly served in a copper mug, which takes on the cold temperature of the liquid.

Some public health advisories recommend copper mugs with a protective coating (such as stainless steel) on the inside and the lip, to reduce the risk of copper toxicity. (Full article...)
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The Singapore sling is a gin-based sling cocktail from Singapore. This long drink was reputed to have been developed in 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon (traditional Chinese: 嚴崇文; simplified Chinese: 严崇文; pinyin: Yán Chóngwén; Wade–Giles: Yen Ch'ung-wen), a bartender at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore. It was initially called the gin sling. (Full article...)
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A Russian spring punch cocktail

The Russian spring punch is a highball cocktail of vodka and liqueur, per IBA specified ingredients. The International Bartenders Association lists the beverage in its New Era Drinks category.

The Russian spring punch was created in London, England by Dick Bradsell in the 1980s. He claims not to remember which bar he was working at at the time, but tells the story of how he created the recipe for personal friends wishing to hold a cocktail party while minimizing the amount of money they had to spend on alcohol. Participants were provided with the vodka, cassis, sugar syrup and lemon juice, and were asked to bring their own sparkling wine. It is named for the Russian vodka, and the Tom Collins, which is a spring drink. (Full article...)
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Caipirinha

Caipirinha (Portuguese pronunciation: [kajpiˈɾĩɲɐ]) is a Brazilian cocktail, of São Paulo origin, with cachaça (sugarcane hard liquor), sugar, lime, and ice. The drink is prepared by mixing the fruit and the sugar together, then adding the liquor.

Known and consumed nationally and internationally, caipirinha is one of the most famous components of Brazilian cuisine, being the most popular national recipe worldwide and often considered the best drink in the country and one of the best cocktails/drinks in the world, having reached third place in 2024, according to the specialized website TasteAtlas. (Full article...)
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A Bloody Mary garnished with celery served with ice cubes

A Bloody Mary is a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and other spices and flavorings including Worcestershire sauce, hot sauces, garlic, herbs, horseradish, celery, olives, pickled vegetables, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, lime juice and celery salt. Some versions of the drink, such as the "surf 'n turf" Bloody Mary, include shrimp and bacon as garnishes. In the United States, it is usually consumed in the morning or early afternoon, and is popular as a hangover cure.

The Bloody Mary was invented in the 1920s or 1930s. There are various theories as to the origin of the drink and its name. It has many variants, most notably the red snapper, Bloody Maria (made with tequila blanco), and the Virgin Mary. (Full article...)
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Cashew apples after plucking in Chorão, Goa.

Feni (Portuguese: fénnim, often misspelt as fenno or fenny) is a spiritous liquor type originating in Goa, India. The two most popular types of feni are cashew feni and coconut feni. Depending on the ingredients; however, other varieties and newer blends are also sold by distilleries. The small-batch distillation of feni has a fundamental effect on its final character, which still retains some of the delicate aromatics, congeners, and flavour elements of the juice from which it is produced.

The word "feni" is derived from the Sanskrit word फेन phena, in Konkani फेण fenn (froth); thought to come from the bubbles that form when the liquor is shaken inside a bottle or poured into a glass. It is generally accepted that coconut feni was produced before it, and feni followed the same process until distillation was introduced by Europeans. Coconut palms are abundant along the western coastline of the Konkan region of India, whereas the cashew tree was an exotic species of crops, imported by the Portuguese in Goa and Bombay, from what was colonial Brazil in south America. There is ambiguity about when and who first produced a fermented beverage of cashew fruits, to make the distilled spirit of feni. (Full article...)
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A rượu đế still

Rượu đế is a distilled liquor from Vietnam, made of either glutinous or non-glutinous rice. It was formerly made illegally and is thus similar to moonshine. It is most typical of the Mekong Delta region of southwestern Vietnam (its equivalent in northern Vietnam is called rượu quốc lủi). Its strength varies, but is typically 40 percent alcohol by volume. It is usually clear, and a bit cloudy in appearance. (Full article...)
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A brandy crusta is an IBA Official Cocktail made of brandy, Maraschino Luxardo, curaçao, fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and Angostura bitters.

The cocktail, named for the crust of sugar on the rim, was invented by Joseph Santini, a bartender in New Orleans at his bar, Jewel of the South. (Full article...)
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The Piña Colada (/ˌpiːnjə koʊˈlɑːdə, -nə-, -kə-/; Spanish: piña [ˈpiɲa], "pineapple", and colada [koˈlaða], "strained") is a cocktail made with rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with either a pineapple wedge, maraschino cherry, or both. The drink originated in Puerto Rico. (Full article...)
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Traditional Irish coffee

Irish coffee (Irish: caife Gaelach) is a caffeinated alcoholic drink consisting of Irish whiskey, hot coffee and sugar, which has been stirred and topped with cream (sometimes cream liqueur). The coffee is drunk through the cream. (Full article...)
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Bellini Cipriani

A Bellini is a cocktail made with Prosecco and peach purée or nectar. It originated in Venice, Italy. (Full article...)
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A cosmopolitan garnished with a lemon twist

A cosmopolitan, or, informally, a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.

The cosmopolitan is a member of the Gimlet family of cocktails. Though often presented far differently, the cosmopolitan also bears a likeness in composition to the kamikaze shooter. (Full article...)
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The hanky panky is a cocktail made from gin, sweet vermouth, and Fernet-Branca. It is a variation on the sweet martini, or Martinez, made distinctive by the Fernet-Branca, a bitter Italian digestivo. It was created by Ada "Coley" Coleman, head bartender at the Savoy Hotel, London. (Full article...)
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Slivovitz from (clockwise) Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia

Slivovitz is a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). Slivovitz is produced in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, both commercially and privately. Primary producers include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. In the Balkans, slivovitz is considered a kind of rakia. In Hungary it is considered a kind of pálinka, but in Romania and Moldova it is considered pălincă, similar to țuică. In Czechia, Slovakia, Galicia, and Carpathian-Ruthenia it is considered Pálenka. UNESCO put it in a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists in 2022 on request of the country of geographic origin Serbia. (Full article...)
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The Penicillin is an IBA official cocktail made with Scotch whisky, ginger, honey syrup, and fresh lemon juice. (Full article...)
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A Clover Club cocktail is a shaken cocktail consisting of gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup, and egg white. The egg white acts as an emulsifier, forming the drink's characteristic foamy head. (Full article...)
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Tommy's margarita as it is served at Tommy's

Tommy's margarita is a variant of the margarita cocktail that uses agave nectar instead of triple sec. It is recognized by the IBA as a new era drink. (Full article...)
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A dark 'n' stormy is a highball cocktail made with dark rum (the "dark") and ginger beer (the "stormy") served over ice and garnished with a slice of lime. Lime juice and simple syrup are also frequently added. This drink is very similar to the Moscow mule except that the Dark 'n' Stormy has dark rum instead of vodka. The original Dark 'n' Stormy was made with Gosling Black Seal rum and Barritt's Ginger Beer, but after the partnership between the two failed and the companies parted ways, Gosling Brothers created its own ginger beer.

Gosling Brothers claims that the drink was invented in Bermuda just after World War I. (Full article...)

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... that to comply with a law that restricted liquor sales near churches, the Peninsula New York placed its cocktail lounge up a flight of stairs and down a long hallway?
... that Thomas Dickson Archibald, when speaking against increasing fines for violating liquor licenses, said "we need only go a step further and make the violation a hanging matter"?

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This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Caesar made with 2 shots of vodka, a pinch of horseradish, a little spicy with 5 dashes of tabasco, made muddy with about 10 dashes of Worcestershire, all over ice, and filled to the top of a celery salt and spice rimmed glass with Clamato juice.

A Caesar is a cocktail created and consumed primarily in Canada. It typically contains vodka, Clamato, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce, and is served with ice in a large, celery salt-rimmed glass, typically garnished with a stalk of celery and wedge of lime. What distinguishes it from a Bloody Mary is the inclusion of clam broth. The cocktail may also be contrasted with the Michelada, which has similar flavouring ingredients but uses beer instead of vodka. (Full article...)

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Lemon drop (cocktail) The Glenlivet distillery Alcoholic beverages in Oregon Rum and Coke Black Cat Bar Stork Club 5-8 Club Gypsy Restaurant and Velvet Lounge Sip 'n Dip Lounge Lutz Tavern Christian views on alcohol Whiskey Rebellion

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Feuerzangenbowle

Feuerzangenbowle is a traditional German alcoholic drink for which a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire and drips into mulled wine

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The following are images from various liquor-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A martini is a classic gin-based cocktail. (from List of cocktails)
Image 2These flaming cocktails illustrate that some liquors will readily catch fire and burn. (from Liquor)
Image 3A B-52 (from List of cocktails)
Image 4Viru Valge, an Estonian vodka (from Liquor)
Image 5This fruity, blended piña colada is typical of many rum-based cocktails. (from List of cocktails)
Image 6A cosmopolitan (from List of cocktails)
Image 7Mulled wine steeping (Swedish glögg) (from List of cocktails)
Image 8A row of alcoholic beverages – in this case, spirits – in a bar (from Liquor)
Image 9Distillation equipment used by the 3rd century alchemist Zosimos of Panopolis, from the Byzantine Greek manuscript Parisinus graecus 2327. (from Liquor)
Image 10Abandoned 19th-century vodka distillery in Estonia (from Liquor)
Image 11An illustration of brewing and distilling industry methods in England, 1858 (from Liquor)
Image 12A mojito served in Slovakia (from List of cocktails)
Image 13An old whiskey still (from Liquor)
Image 14A Ramos gin fizz (from List of cocktails)
Image 15A grasshopper (from List of cocktails)
Image 16A piña colada (from List of cocktails)
Image 17Map of Europe with individual countries grouped by preferred type of alcoholic drink, based on recorded alcohol consumption per capita (age 15+) (in liters of pure alcohol) in 2016.
  Wine
  Beer
  Spirits
(from Liquor)
Image 18A display of various liquors in a supermarket (from Liquor)
Image 19A pisco sour (from List of cocktails)
Image 20A martini cocktail (from List of cocktails)
Image 21A Queen Mary beer cocktail: beer, grenadine and maraschino cherries (from List of cocktails)
Image 22Some single-drink liquor bottles available in Germany (from Liquor)