Vodka

Vodka is an European clear distilled alcoholic drink that has been one of the most popular drinks across the world .

You'll find it to be the most popular spirit in drink making because of it's neutral taste and absence of flavour and colour.

Vodka often replaces Gin in many traditional cocktails

Vodka is known to be good for the heart, and if consumed in moderation, can prove to be good for cardiovascular health

Note that these days there are flavoured Vodka available in the market too, and some cocktails do make use of them.

Amaretto Almond Liqueur

Amaretto is a liqueur, a sweet Italian liqueur that originated in Saronno. There are different brands and each have their slight variations and ingredients vary from apricot kernel, bitter almonds, peach stones or almonds, all these are natural sources of the benzaldehyde that brings the almond flavour to the liqueur. Amaretto usually contains a 21% to 48% Alcohol by Volume.

Amaretto liqueur can be drunk straight or used as an ingredient in mixed drinks, or with coffee.

The name Amaretto originated from the Italian word amaro, meaning bitter. Amaretto's bitterness is derived from the drupe kernel and although the bitterness of Amaretto tends to be mild, sweeteners and at time sweet almonds are added to enhance the flavour of the final product.

Pisang Ambon Liqueur

Pisang Ambon is a Dutch liqueur brand produced and marketed by the House of Lucas Bols.

Pisang Ambon has a tropical fruit flavour and a bright green colour with a prominent banana flavour. As the name would suggest, Pisang Ambon is based on an old Indonesian liqueur recipe. A purple version also exists now, it is named Pisang Ambon Guaraná Lime.

Green Chartreuse

If there is any liqueur shrouded in mystery and steeped in history of European medieval culture of alcoholic medicine making, be it eau de vie or uisce beatha, the history of the monks of different orders who spent their time in identifying herbs and their benefits, Chartreuse would be the forerunner.

Chartreuse gets its name after the monks of the Carthusian Order head quartered in Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in Grenoble, France. It is a distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers, with a recipe that's to this day, a closely kept secret that only two monks can know, at any given time. These are the monks that mix the botanicals.

The recipe of this Elixir Vegetal was presented to Carthusian monks by François Hannibal d'Estrées, a marshall of artillery, during French King Henry IV, in 1605. Since then, through ups and downs, exiles and returns, the monks have held to their secret tightly and once were producing Chartreuse in exile from Spain.

After their exile in 1793 the Carthusian monks returned to France in 1816, and the manuscript to the elixir that was secretly passed on when the monks carrying it were arrested, were passed on back to them, they started producing Chartreus from the Monastry.

They were exiled again in 1903 and they took refuge in Tarragona, Catalonia and the monks started producing it with the label Liqueur fabriquée à Tarragone par les Pères Chartreux, until their return to France and regaining control of the distillery at the Monastry a few decades later.

Coconut Cream

Coconut Cream, Creme de Coconut or Cream of Coconut is a condensed coconut milk, with a thick syrup consistency. It is used to sweeten tropical drinks like a classic pina colada.
Note: For ease of use and flexibility, buy Coconut Milk Powder and mix with desired amount of water and beat it to get either a cream or milk.

Whipping Cream

Whipped cream is a liquid heavy cream that has been whipped by a whisk or in a mixer until a light fluffy cream that holds its shape. The whipping makes the water and cream form a colloid and often dissolved gas is used which on expansion forms a firm colloid. Whipped cream is also called Chantilly cream.
Whipped cream sold in aerosol cans, where the cream is instantly whipped by the expanding gas, is a ready to use whipped cream, and its known by several names like Squirty Cream, Spray Cream or Aerosol Cream, in Scotland it’s called Skooshy Cream. A common Squirty Cream brand in the United States is Reddi-Wip.

Whipped cream is a liquid heavy cream that has been whipped by a whisk or in a mixer until a light fluffy cream that holds its shape. The whipping makes the water and cream form a colloid and often dissolved gas is used which on expansion forms a firm colloid. Whipped cream is also called Chantilly cream.
Whipped cream sold in aerosol cans, where the cream is instantly whipped by the expanding gas, is a ready to use whipped cream, and its known by several names like Squirty Cream, Spray Cream or Aerosol Cream, in Scotland it’s called Skooshy Cream. A common Squirty Cream brand in the United States is Reddi-Wip.