Drinks Glossary -The Guide to what all the cocktail terms mean.
Monday, June 18th, 2007- ABV -The measurment for alcoholic strength of a spirit. The ABV is measured as a percentage part of the entire liquid. For example an ABV of 30% is 30% alcohol 70% water.
- Anejo - Tequilla which has been aged for over a year.
- Agave - The Mexican desert lillies used in the production of Tequilla and Mezcal.
- Age Statement - The age on a bottle which refers to the age of the youngest ingredient.
- Angel’s Share - The phrase used for the amount of spirit which evaporates during the distillation process.
- Aromatized - To flavour with herbs and spices e.g Vermouth
- Bar Spoon - A long handled spoon used to stir cocktails. These spoons often come with a spiraled handle to help twirl the spoon
- Beading - The method of assessing a spirit’s strength by shaking the bottle to produce bubbles (beads). The larger the bubbles and the longer they last the stronger the spirit.
- Bitters - An extract made from fruits, herbs and roots often added to a cocktail to help flavour them.
- Blending - The mixing of different types of spirit or the mixing of different ages of the same spirit.
- Boise - Extract from oak chips and spirit used to colour young brandies.
- Boston Shaker - Large cup shaped instrument used to help shake cocktails before thy are served. They come in two halves with the metal half placed over a mixing glass in order to shake the drink.
- Boston Tin - A metal shaker used to mix cocktails.
- Botanicals - Herbs, peel, flowers etc used to flavour spirits e.g junipers in gin.
- Bouilleur - French name for a distiller.
- Brandewijn - Dutch name for grape spirirt which is now brandy.
- Bruising - Bruising or “to bruise” an ingredient often refers to when a drink is shaken and the alcohol is more violently mixed. An example is in shaken martinis’ where it is argued the gin can be bruised as it is made from juniper berries, leading to a cloudy appearance and altered taste in the finished drink.
- Cask Strength - The term for a spirit which has been mixed with water to reduce it’s strength to the standard strength.
- Cobbler - An iced drink made form sugar mixed with a liqueur, wine or any fruit juice.
- Cold Compunding - The term for the method of adding concentrated flavours to neutral spirits. This is method of adding flavour is cheaper then infusion but gives a rougher end product.
- Collins Glass - A tall glass tumbler used to serve a mixed drink. The glass usually holds 350-470 ml.
- Congeners - Chemical compounds produced during the fermentation, distillation and maturing process. These compunds contain alot of the flavour in a spirit and the fewer amount of congeners the stronger the spirit is.
- Cooler - A drink whose ingredients consist of a wine or spirit base and is mixed with fruit flavours.
- Cuvee - The best grape juice from gentle pressing of the grapes often used to make champagne.
- Distillation - The method of using heat to extract alcohol from fermented liquid. Due to alcohol boiling at a lower temperature then water the vapour given off can be condensed making the spirit stronger.
- Dram - The term for a glass of a certain spirit used most commonly in Scotland, Ireland and Jamaica.
- Eau-de-vie - The French name for brandy and other spirits made from fruit.
- Hawthorn Strainer - A strainer with a wire spring designed to fit over the top of the sdtainless steel half of a Boston Shaker.
- Highball Glass - A glas used to serve cocktails, smaller than a Collins glass holding around 240 - 350 ml.
- Holandas - Spanish Brandy
- Infusion - Method of extracting flavour from ingredients by gently heating them.
- Lip Space - Small space left at the top of a glass often to avoide spillage.
- Mouth Feel - The texture fo a drink when being tasted.
- Muddle - mixing, blending ingredients via pressing & stirring them in a glass. Often done using a muddling stick or rolling pin.
- Neutral alcohol - A spirit above 95.5% which also contains few or no congeners.
- Nose - The aroma of a drink.
- Overproof - High strength, unaged rum.
- Paille - French rum aged for less then 3 years.
- Proof - The american term for ABV, 100 proof is 50% ABV
- Sparging - The process of washing the grains used in the mashing process when making beer
- Vintage - Generally associated with wines or champagne, vintage items are those whose contents such as grapes who are grown and harvested in a specific single year.
- XO - The french name for top quality spirits which have been aged for 6 to 7 years minimum.
Check out the glossary every week for further additions to the glossary.