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III.5 - Distilled Beverages

from Part III - Dietary Liquids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
James Comer
Edited by
Kenneth F. Kiple  and
Kriemhild Coneè Ornelas
Kenneth F. Kiple
Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University, Ohio
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Summary

Alcoholic beverages have been a part of human culture since at least the Neolithic period. Yet until recently, beverages made from fruits, grains, or honey were considered to be what historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch (1992) has called “organic,” meaning that the amount of sugar in the ingredients produced the amount of alcohol in the drinks. Examples of such beverages are beer and wine. Beginning in the period from about A. D. 800 to 1300, however, people in China and the West learned to distill alcoholic liquids. This chapter traces the history of distilled alcohol and discusses the nature of several kinds of liquor.

Distillation and Alcoholic Beverages

Distillation is a method for increasing the alcohol content (and, thus, the potency) of a liquid already containing alcohol – the existing alcohol content usually the result of the fermentation of vegetable sugars. The distillation process separates the alcohol from other parts of the solution by the heating of the liquid to 173° Fahrenheit, a temperature sufficient to boil alcohol but not water. The resulting steam (vaporized alcohol) is collected and condensed, returning it to liquid form – but a liquid with a much higher proportion of alcohol than before. Repeating the process increases the liquor’s potency yet further. Because distilled alcohol contains bad-tasting and dangerous chemicals called fusel oils (actually forms of alcohol) and congeners, both by-products of the distilling process, it is often aged in a procedure, originating in the eighteenth century, that rids the beverage of these chemicals. As the liquid ages, its container (preferably made of wood) colors and flavors it to produce a smoother and better-tasting product (Ray 1974).

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Chapter
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The Cambridge World History of Food , pp. 653 - 664
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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