Global drink
- Whisky: Made entirely from grains or malted grains or a mix of the two, and aged for at least three years in white oak casks. Malt dried in peat fire to give a distinct smoky flavour. The full load of woody flavour comes from ageing.
- Rum: Linked to the rise of sugar cultivation during colonial times, molasses were distilled and aged in casks for a rich variety of spirits
- Brandy: From wine or fermented grapes; spirit originally distilled from pomace, a leftover of wine breweries, consisting of grape stalks
- Gin: At its very basic, gin is a grain spirit flavoured with botanicals, mainly juniper. To be called gin, a spirit must have a predominant flavour of juniper.
- Vodka: Russian for ‘a little water’, it’s a spirit made from potatoes, any vegetable source and sugarcane or a mix of these
Illustration by Sajith Kumar
Desi Tweak (BIS Standards)
- Whisky: Any distillate made from any agricultural source. Needn’t be aged. What it really is: Made from molasses; colour and flavour added without ageing
- Rum: An alcoholic distillate from fermented sugarcane molasses or any carbohydrate source. It derives its colour from additives as it isn’t aged.
- Gin: Distilled alcoholic beverage made from neutral spirit with added flavours having the ‘characteristics of juniper’, not necessarily the actual botanical What it really is: Again spirit from molasses is labelled as gin adding some flavouring agent.
- Vodka: Made from neutral spirit, may be based on molasses, fermented grain or any other carbohydrates
- Brandy: Any spirit source and needs no grape content nor ageing. If 2 per cent pure grape brandy is added, then it is called blended brandy. What it really is: Indian brandy is just molasses spirit with a lot of added colour and grape flavour agent.
- Country Liquor: Just as in the case of IMFL, “country spirit is an alcoholic distillate from fermented mash of molasses” and other sources.
Source: Bureau of Indian Standards, Whisky Exchange
