Flavoured Spirits

Question 1

How do a distiller flavour a spiced rum, that’s oak-aged and has natural flavours? And which flavours are common to use?

Answer 1

Flavours are added using maceration. Re-distillation would damaage the aromas from the oak and the natural flavours. cinnamon and vanilla are common used.

Question 2

How do they flavour a vodka in the traditional way?

Answer 2

Normally they use maceration as a method. Flavours like honey, fruits, spices, and the aromatic herb “bison grass”.

Question 3

How do they flavour a vodka in the modern way?

Answer 3

use different flavours, such as vanilla, fruit, pepper, chili. Some let the botanicals macerate in the spirit and then re-distill the resulting liquid.

Question 4

Which botanical is legally required to be present in a gin?

Answer 4

Juniper - enbär

Question 5

which botanicals are commonly used in a gin except for juniper?

Answer 5

coriander seeds, citrus peel, angelica root and orris root.

Question 6

What kind of spirit do you use for making gin?

Answer 6

In EU you need to use a neutral spirit
In USA you are permitted to use any distilled spirit.

Question 7

How do you mature gin?

Answer 7

In inert vessels, some exeptions where they mature it in oak for a short period.

Question 8

Which technique do the distillers use when flavouring a gin? Two different ones

Answer 8

To get the purest flavour, they should process each botalnical individually instead of together and then blend them after or if they want one of them to stand out they can blend most of them together and then one by itself so that one stand out in the final blend.

Distillers also use stills with a botanical casket on the lyne arm to produce a lighter style.

Question 9

Which two styles of gin are there?

Answer 9

Juniper-style
Contemporary

Question 10

Which three different labeling terms do you categories gin in to?

Answer 10

Distilled Gin
London dry gin
Old Tom

Question 11

What does distilled gin means? (labeling term)

Answer 11

in EU it means that all the flavours have been added after re-distillation.
in USA it means that all of the flavours must come from re-distillation

Question 12

What does London dry Gin means? (labeling term)

Answer 12

In Eu - it can only get it’s flavours by re-distillation.
No suger can be added.

Question 13

What does Old Tom means? (labeling term)

Answer 13

indicates that the gin has added suger and notable amount of liquoruce.

Question 14

What does louching means?

Answer 14

It means when you’re diluting a spirit with the chemical anethole in it, when water is added it will form an opaque, cloudy suspention.

Question 15

Which four spirits is included in anisees spirits?

Answer 15

Pastis, absinthe (france
ouzo (greece)
raki (turkey)

Question 16

What is the chemical anethole extracted from ?

Answer 16

From a handful of plants, aniseed, fennel and star anise

Question 17

How do distillers process a aniseed spirit?

Answer 17

Start with a neutral spirit, both maceration and re-distillation. Some process aniseed-flavourd plants individually and the rest together or all sindividuallt.
Normally unaged.

Question 18

What’s Pastis? (from, character, colour)

Answer 18

It’s an aniseed spirit, from mediterranean.
Aniseed, fennel, star anise and liqourice is used for maceration.
It’s normally yellow, green or green-brown.
Sweetened.

Question 19

Is absinthe supposed to be sweetened?

Answer 19

No, not when bottling, it’s meant to be sweetend to taste by the consumer.

Question 20

What’s the character of Absinthe?

Answer 20

It’s either colourless or green, with a distinctly floral aroma and bitter taste from the wormwood.

Question 21

Which is the only way to extract bitterness from a botanical?

Answer 21

by maceration

Question 22

What’s the italian name for bitter spirits?

Answer 22

amaro

Question 23

Which are the four bitter ingredients namned in the book?

Answer 23

quinine
gentian
bitter orange
artichoke

Question 24

Are distillers allowed to add suger to a bitter?

Answer 24

yes, they must, to balance the bitterness.

Question 25

What are liqueurs?

Answer 25

it’s flavoured spirits that have been sweetened.

Question 26

Which base spirits are used when making liqueurs?

Answer 26

the majority use a neutral spirit base, but some examples use cognac or scotch whisky

Question 27

Which are the four main groups when you talk about liqueurs

Answer 27

herb
fruit
seed, nut and kernel
cream