List of Popular Alcoholic Drinks 🍺🍷🥃 What’s Your Poison?
A familiar question to pub goers and it’s not far from the truth – alcoholic drinks are poisonous in excessive quantities. On the other hand so are salt, water and oxygen! ADDucation recommend responsible drinking in moderation. After all, “Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder“. Prost, Cheers and Santé!
- ADDucation’s list of alcoholic drinks was compiled by Robert Junker and last updated on 18 Aug 2024
Important! Please drink responsibly and make yourself aware of the strength (*Alcohol By Volume) of alcoholic drinks. Visit Drinkaware for more info.
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| 🍷Drink: | Production and storage of alcoholic drinks: | 🍹🥃🍺Popular brands of alcoholic drinks: | Typical AbV* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Absinthe | Wormwood, anise and fennel are soaked (macerated) in wine alcohol and distilled. The distillate may be dyed with herbs. Its greenish color – hence the nickname “green fairy” – varies according to the duration and type of herbs used. Despite its reputation it is not a psychoactive substance (no more than other spirits that is!). | Popular Absinthe brands include Pernod, Jade and Buttryfly. | 45-75% |
| Aquavit | This clear Scandinavian spirit is made from grain or potatoes and distilled with water, caraway and dill seeds. The alcohol must mature for some time in wood or sherry casks before it is drunk ice cold. | Popular Aquavit brands include Aalborg, Bommerlunder, Linie and Skane. | 37.5-45% |
| Beer | Beers (and Lagers) are brewed from malted barley, hops, yeast and water. Some brewers add other grains (rice, maize etc), flavorings, spices or fruit. “Real ale” ferments and matures in the cask and is served without carbon dioxide. Beer is the number 1 alcoholic drink in the world. Czech and German beers and lagers are subject to “purity laws” (1516 Reinheitsgebot in Germany which permits only the use of malt, hops, water and sometimes yeast). | Top selling Global beer brands include Snow, Tsingtao, Bud Light, Budweiser, Skol, Yanjing, Heineken, Harbin, Brahma and Coors Light. | 4-6% |
| Brandy | French and Spanish Brandy is distilled from wine and aged for at least 12 months in oak casks. | Popular brandy brands include Courvoisier, E&J, Hennessy, Martel, Paul Masson and Rémy Martin. | 36-38% |
| Cachaca | Brazilian sugarcane liquor; sugar cane juice (from green sugar cane) is fermented for 24 hours, distilled and stored for 3 years. | Popular Cachaca brands include Beija, Germana, Magnifica and Ypioca. | 38-51% |
| Calvados | Fresh apple juice is fermented into cider for several weeks then distilled twice prior to being diluted to drinking strength and bottled. Calvados from Normandy must first mature in the barrel for at least 2-6 years. | Popular Calvados brands include Dupont, Groult, Huard and Morin. | 40-45% |
| Cider | Apple and pear varieties with high tannin content are scratted (ground down) and fermented at 4-15° until most of the sugar turns into alcohol then transferred to new barrels, leaving yeast and suspended solids in the old barrels. Storage time up to 4 years. | Popular cider brands include Ace Cider, Angry Orchard, Aspall Cyder, Bantam Cider, Woodpecker, Crispin Cider, Cydr Lubelski, Dobry Cyd, Gaymer Cider, Kopparbergs Kopparberg, Magners Irish Cider, Merrydown, Miłosławski Miłosław, Monteiths Crushed Apple Cider, Rekorderlig Cider, Savanna Dry , Schneewittchen Cidre, Strongbow Cider, Superstition Meadery, Thatchers Cider, Woodchuck Hard Cider and Woodpecker Cider. | 2.5-5% |
| Cognac | Brandy from the French town of Cognac; fortified wine is distilled twice and heated to 80° and matured for at least four years in wooden casks. | Popular Cognac brands include Alize, Camu, Courvoisier, Delamain, D’USSÉ and Hardy. | 35-40% |
| Gin | Grain or molasses are distilled with spices (usually juniper berries, coriander) and flavorings (ginger, nutmeg, etc.). | Popular gin brands include Beefeater, Bombay, Booth’s, Gordon’s, Hendricks, Magellan, Plymouth and Tanqueray. | 38-47% |
| Grappa | Fermented pomace (skins, pulp, seeds and stems left over from wine making) is squeezed into boilers, filled with water and distilled. | Popular Grappa brands include Alexander, Nonino and Tremols. | 37.50% |
| Lager | Lagers are brewed using a specific lager yeast (Saccharomyces pastorianus) in a longer cold fermentation process compared to beer which typically results in the clean crisp flavor found in popular lager brand labels. | Best selling global lager brands include Becks, Budweiser, Carlsberg, Corona, Coors, Heineken, Kingfisher, Miller, Peroni, Sapporo, Stella Artois and Tsing Tao. | 4-6% |
| Liqueur | A liqueur is a spirit flavored with fruit, herbs or spices etc. and bottled with extra sugar (at least 100 grams per liter). | Popular liqueurs include Amaretto, Sambuca, Jägermeister, Averna, Campari, Baileys, Kahlua and many more. | 15-40% |
| Mead | Honey wine made from honey (instead of sugar), water (sometimes fruit or apple juice) and yeast. | Popular mead brands to try include Kuhnhenn, Schramm’s and Superstition. | 11-16% |
| Mescal | Agave hearts are cooked in soil pits for 3-5 days and then ground. The slurry is mixed with yeast and sugar and fermented for several days in stainless steel tanks. After the second distillation, the alcohol is diluted and bottled. | Popular Mescal brands to try include Del Maguey Vida, Durango, Gem & Bolt and Ilegal. | 40% |
| Pils | Pils is a cold, bottom fermented lager beer with a strong hop aroma and a maximum of 12.5% original gravity. This brewing method originated in the Czech town of Plsen (pronounced Pilsen). | The original Pils brand is Pilsner Urquell, popular pils style lagers include Holsten Pils, Budweiser Budvar (original Budweiser) and Grolsch. | 4.5-6% |
| Port | Port wine, usually know just as port is usually a sweet red wine made by adding high-proof brandy which stops the fermentation. This leaves residual sugar in the wine giving it a sweet and heavy taste. | Popular Port brands include Cockburn’s, Croft, Dow’s, Fonseca, Graham’s, Quinta do Noval, Royal Oporto, Sandeman and Taylor Fladgate. | 17% |
| Rum | Sugar cane, sugar cane juice and water produce a mash which is then fermented. This sugar wine is distilled and diluted with water and stored in used oak barrels. It originally came from the Bahamas and Jamaica. | Popular rum brands to try include Bacardi, Captain Morgan, Cruzan, Mount Gay, Myers’s Original, Stroh and The Kraken. | 40-55% |
| Sherry | Spanish white wine reinforced with brandy (from the Palomino grape). Aged in open casks. | Popular Sherry brands to try include Dry Sack, Gonzalez Byass, Harveys Bristol Cream, Savory & James and Tío Pepe. | 14-16% |
| Tequila | Blue Agave is harvested after 8-9 years. The interior of the Agave (Piño) is steamed in an oven at 60-85° for up to 36 hours and, after cooling for up to 48 hours, sugar and juice are pressed from the Agave. This ferments with yeast for up to 12 days, the sugar is converted into alcohol, then it is twice distilled. | Popular Tequila brands to try include 901 Tequila, Don Julia, Herradura, Jose Cuervo, Sauza and Two Fingers. | 38-50% |
| Vermouth | Fortified wine flavored with spices and herbs and sometimes colored. The recipe for this sweet aperitif originated in the area of Turin. | Popular Vermouth brands include Cinzano, Dolin, Martini & Rossi, Noilly Prat and Punt e Mes. | 16-18% |
| Vodka | Rye, wheat or potatoes are crushed, mixed with water and heated, converting the starch to sugar. Lees is then added to set off fermentation. After several distilling processes the vodka is diluted with water and bottled. Storage / maturing are not necessary. Vodka is distilled in countries all around the world each with their own popular brands. | Popular Vodka brands include Absolut, Cîroc, Gilbey’s, Grey Goose, Reyka, Russian Standard, Seagram’s and Stolichnaya (Stoli). | 37-95% |
| Wine | Ripe grapes (for white wine) are pressed (must) thereby coming into contact with yeast. The yeast converts the sugar in the must into alcohol. This generates heat of up to 37° which is why wine is stored in cool cellars. Red wine grapes are not pressed but only lightly crushed. Follow these 5 easy steps to choose wine you will like… | Best selling wine labels include Barefoot, Beringer, Blossom hill, Changyu, Concha y Toro, Hardys Wine, Lindeman’s, Robert Mondavi, Sutter home and Yellow Tail. | 11-12% |
| Weissbier | Weissbier (German for “white beer”), or in the US “Hefeweizen” (“yeast wheat”), is top-fermented beer made from at least 50% wheat instead of barley malt with a slightly cloudy appearance. A filtered, clear version is known as Kristallweizen (“crystal wheat”). | Popular Weissbier brands to try include Erdinger, Franziskaner, Maisel’s, Paulaner and Weihenstephaner. | 5-6% |
| Whisky or Whiskey |
Called Whiskey in the USA and Ireland and Whisky in Scotland and the rest of the world. Grain is milled to meal and mixed with warm water, converting starch to sugar. The resulting mash is mixed with yeast and fermented. Alcohol results which is distilled, typically two times in Scotland and three times in Ireland. Using distillation the alcoholic vapours are condensed, collected and stored for several years at least. Malt is made exclusively of malt. Bourbon (USA) is made predominantly (at least 51%) of corn and stored in charred barrels. | Popular brands include Johnnie Walker, Ballantine’s, Grant’s, Chivas Regal, J&B, William Lawson’s, William Peel, Dewar’s, Label 5, Bell’s, Passport Blended Scotch Whisky, Buchanan’s, White Horse, Clan Campbell, Teacher’s Highland Cream, Sir Edward’s, 100 Pipers, Black & White, Grand Old Par0 and VAT 69. | 40-43% |
Related ADDucation Lists: Best Red Wines… | Best White Wines…
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