Water

Water might seem like one ubiquitous ingredient in any alcoholic beverage, and to have no specific purpose other than dilute the alcohol, to prevent irritation and burn, it has more purpose to its presence than it seems.
Water breaks the alcohol molecules and attaches to them and releases the esters that holds the secret to the aroma into the drink and to the nose. Temperature of water is important and although almost all cocktails are served chilled, be sure to understand the role water plays in a drink. Another factor is the quality of water, if you are serious about your cocktail, be sure to use the best neutral tap water or preferably bottled spring water if possible.

Sugar

Brown Sugar is a sucrose sugar with a distinctive brown colour from the presence of molasses, it is a partially refined or unrefined sugar containing sugar crystals and residual molasses giving it a distinctive taste and flavour of crystallised molasses or toffee. The taste of dark brown sugar is described as a caramel taste with a deep molasses flavour.
Brown sugar is used in cocktails where a caramel candy or toffee flavour is expected.

Caster Sugar is finely ground granulated sugar. It is not as fine a powdered confectioners' sugar and has a little grit to it. It is somewhere between confectioners' sugar and granulated sugar, and melts in mouth with a mild spicy feel to the tongue

Vanilla Sugar is the regular granulated sugar infused with vanilla flavour, by using vanilla pods and seeds to flavour the sugar. A home made alternative is to use vanilla sticks or pods in a jar of sugar and leave it sealed for 4 weeks to allow the vanilla flavour to infuse. Or to use granulated sugar and vanilla extract and blend in a mixer, although this ends up in powdered sugar.

Cloves

Cloves are flower buds of the evergreen clove tree ( Syzygium Aromaticum ) native to the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Clove is now grown in many countries and is available year round like most exotic spices that were once exclusive to trade routes across the seas. Found in both ground and whole forms. This aromatic spice can be used to season roasts and curries, and flavour hot beverages, and in cocktails, cloves can add a spicy warmth to the drink.

Cinnamon Sticks

Cinnamon is a very popular spice used world over, obtained from the inner bark of the trees of the genus Cinnamomum. Cinnamon is used in a wide variety of cuisines, sweets, breads and tea and is a dominant flavour in Cola too. Cinnamon trees are grown for two years befiore harvesting them by cutitng the stems at ground level, leaving stumps of trunks from where new shoots grow back and the tree growns again. The cut down stems are immediately processed, the outer bark is scraped off and the stem is beaten evenly with a hammer to loosen the inner bark which is then pried off in long rolls, dried and cut into pieces for sale.
Both Cinnamon Sticks and Cinnamon Powder is used in cocktails to add that sweet and woody flavour to the drink. Alternatively if you are not comfortable with the Powder and the recipe doesn't explicitly asks for Cinnamon Powder you can use a drop of Cinnamon Oil instead.
Note: Cinnamon Leaf Oil has a musky and spicy scent, and a light-yellow tinge that distinguishes it from the red-brown color of cinnamon bark oil Cinnamon leaf oil is lighter, cheaper and ideal for regular use. Although cocktail creation is an art and you can experiment with both.

Lemon Peel

No Information in our Database

Red Wine

Red wine is a table wine made from dark grape varieties. There are around twenty different grape varieties that are extremely popular around the world, while grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir get most of the attention from connoisseurs. The other popular grapes are Syrah ( or Siraz ) of the Rhone Valley of France, Malbec the national grape variety of Argentina, Grenache of Spain, Sangiovese grapes of Italy, Tempranillo the noble grapes of Spain and many more. Read more on them here.

Younger wines are usually an intense violet, while matured wines are brick red and ild wines are brown. The colour of the wine comes from the anthocyan pigments in the skin of the grapes, and thus although the juice of these purle grapes is greenish-white. the colour red is extracted from the skin of the grapes.

Wines are fermented alcoholic beverages and thus there are several stages of fermenting the pressed juice obtained from the fruit must, then allowing a second fermentation known as Malolactic fermentation, a process where certain bacteria is allowed to convert malic acid present in grape juice into lactic acid. This is followed by a racking stage where the lees ( yeast and other solid sediments ) is separated from the wine. Then ready wine is then aged and some pass through a stage of filtration for better clarity.

Brandy

Brandy, simply put, is a distilled wine. It is categorised under Distilled Alcoholic Beverages along with Whiskey, Rum, Gin, Vodka and Tequila, but it's in a way a cross connection between Fermented liquor and distilled liquor. A Brandy typically containts 35% to 60% Alcohol by Volume ( 70-120 US proof ) and is usually consumed as an after dinner digestif.

Although Brandy is generally classified as a liquor produced by distilling wine, in a broader sense, this encompasses liquors obtained from the distillation of either pomace ( the soild remains of grapes after mashing and extraction of juice for wine making ) or fruit mash or wine.

It may be noted that Brandy like Gin is also one of the original Water of Life or eau de vie, carried over from the medieval tradition of an aquaous solution of ethanol used as a medicine.

The history of Brandy is closely tied to the development of commercial distillation in and around the 15th Century. In early 15th Century French Brandy made way for a new cross-Atlantic trade or Triangle Trade and replaced Portuguese Fortified Wine or Port from the central role it played in trade, mostly due to the higher alcohol content of the Brandy and ease of transport. However by the late 17th Century, Rum replaced Brandy as the exchange alcohol of choice in the Triangle Trade. More info on Wikipedia for the interested Brandy aficionados. Note that an Apricot Brandy can refer to the liquor (or Eau de Vie, Water of Life) distilled from fermented apricot juice or a liqueur made from apricot flesh and kernels.