SC - Re: liqueurs and distillation
Jeff Gedney
JGedney at dictaphone.com
Tue Jun 27 08:14:20 PDT 2000
Just a few notes from my own researches...
In early uisge making, "Beere" was a more likely a term to be used
for the to be distilled liquid than the currently favored term "wash".
Aqua vitae was a general term for "ardent spirit", and was used for
a huge variety of distilled ardent spiritous beverages.
Some notes from the Works of John Davis, an Elizabethan navigator
and explorer describe the presence in some far Eastern kingdoms of
marketplace distillers who made Aquavitae from Rice, and also the juice
of sugar cane. ( apparently these beverages were favored in some
of the Islamic kingdoms of the East Indies, because they were not
made of the "fruit of the vine", which was considered something of a
loophole in the Law.
Some "High end" vodkas are Grain and spice based, and one or two
are actually made from fruit(!)
IMHO, Vodka is more like period aquavitae because the Aquavitae
is rarely described as being aged in barrels, to add color and flavor...
(which is what is done to brandy before it ever sees the light of day.)
So period Aquavitaes must have generally been been clear and
subtly flavored with the spices and flavorings that were present
BEFORE distillation. This is exactly how some "high end"
Vodkas are produced. I posted several Vodkas which fit this
description to the SCA-Distilling list when this topic was running over
there.
Very few vodkas are actually wholly made of potatoes. a great many
are entirely grain based.
brandu
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