Alcohol Category

This refers either to beer that's stored in a keg or to unpasteurized beer in bottles or cans

This is a Scottish liqueur made with Scotch, honey, and various herbs.

Dry means "not sweet", and this popular style of vermouth is used to make many cocktails, including the martini.

This is a French apéritif made with white or red wine and flavored with quinine and other herbs and spices. The white version is drier than the red

This is a famous Italian brand of bitters that's supposed to ease hangovers. It's flavored with over 40 herbs and spices. Branca Menta is a mint-flavored version.

These liqueurs are flavored with flowers. Examples include crème de violette and crème de rose.

These are wines that have been fortified with brandy and sometimes flavored with herbs, roots, peels, and spices. The most popular examples are sherry, Madeira, Marsala, port, and vermouth. Fortified wines are often used in cooking, or they're served as apéritifs or dessert wines.

This is a clear French fruit brandy that's made with raspberries. Don't confuse this with framboise liqueur, which is sweeter, or with framboise syrup, which is a non-alcoholic raspberry flavoring.

This is a popular brand of hazelnut liqueur.

This is a variety of grape that's often made into white jug wine.

While other brandies are distilled from fruit juice, fruit brandies are distilled from the entire fruit--skins, pits, and all. They're usually colorless, and fairly high in alcohol. Varieties include apricot brandy, plum brandy, kirschwasser (cherries), framboise (raspberries), fraise (strawberries), grappa (grapes), pisco (Muscatel grapes), mure (blackberries), and myrtille (bilberries). Don't confuse fruit brandies with the cheaper and cloyingly sweet fruit-flavored brandies.

This is wine made from fruit other than grapes.

This is brandy that has fruit flavoring and coloring added. Don't confuse these sweet liqueurs with the more elegant and expensive fruit brandy, which is distilled from whole fruit

This excellent Italian liqueur is flavored with anise and comes in a bottle that's one inch taller than your liquor cabinet. It's used to make Harvey Wallbangers and other cocktails.

This name is given to American red wines made mostly from Pinot Noir and Valdiguie grapes. It's an unexceptional fruity wine that goes best with hearty dishes that have rich sauces. Don't confuse this wine with Gamay or Napa Gamay, both of which are superior. The name Gamay Beaujolais is scheduled to be phased out by 2007.

This name is given to American red wines made mostly from Pinot Noir and Valdiguie grapes. It's an unexceptional fruity wine that goes best with hearty dishes that have rich sauces. Don't confuse this wine with Gamay or Napa Gamay, both of which are superior. The name Gamay Beaujolais is scheduled to be phased out by 2007.

This Danish liqueur is flavored with 29 herbs and spices. It's usually served at room temperature.

German and domestic versions of this white wine are somewhat sweet, flowery, and relatively low in alcohol. They're very good with curry and spicy Asian food. Imports from Alsace tend to be drier and are excellent with seafood and poultry.

This is distilled from grains and similar to vodka except that it's flavored with juniper berries, herbs, peels, and spices. London gin = dry gin = English gin = London dry gin is the preferred gin for martinis and other mixed drinks. American gin is similar, but isn't quite as heavy and dry as London gin. Hollands gin = sweet gin = Dutch gin = Geneva gin = Jenever is sweeter and more aromatic than other gins and isn't normally used for mixed drinks. Don't confuse gin with sloe gin, which is sweetened.

This Scottish liqueur is whisky-based and flavored with herbs, fruit, and honey.

This is a brand of chocolate liqueur.

This is a cinnamon schnapps with gold flakes floating in it. Imagine filling your mouth with red hots and washing them down with vodka.

This is a liqueur flavored with citrus peel, herbs, and spices. It has gold flakes floating in it.

This is pure alcohol--odorless, tasteless, and very potent at 190 proof. Cooks use it to make liqueurs, but since it can also be used to purify crack cocaine, eyebrows may be raised if you buy a large bottle. Well-known brands include Everclear and Sunset. Grain alcohol should always be diluted before consumption, since it's so harsh and potent. Don't substitute methyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol for grain alcohol--both of these are toxic.

This is a Spanish orange liqueur.

This is a fairly sweet brandy-based orange liqueur. There are two kinds: the well-regarded red, or Cordon Rouge, and the sweeter and less potent yellow, or Cordon Jaune.

This potent and somewhat harsh drink is made from the grape residue, called pomace, that's left over from making brandy. It's traditionally been thought of as a second-rate eau de vie, but some producers have developed premium grappas that are quite smooth and very pricey. Grappa is the Italian version, marc the French, aguardiente the Spanish, testerbranntwein the German, and bagaceira the Portuguese.

A specialty of the Caribbean island of St. Martin, guavaberry liqueur is based on rum and flavored with the island's indigenous guavaberries.

This is low-alcohol wine that's made from apples. It's fairly sweet, and especially popular in Normandy.

This is great in coffee, on ice cream, or in cakes that use a liqueur as an ingredient. Frangelico is a well-regarded brand.

Herbal liqueurs include Chartreuse, Strega, Suze, Kümmel, Izarra, Jägermeister, Fernet Branca, and anise-flavored liqueurs.

Made in New Orleans, this anise-flavored liqueur was developed as a substitute for absinthe, which contains a narcotic and is outlawed in the United States. It's used in mixed drinks and Oysters Rockefeller.

This is a bitter, full-bodied ale that's relatively high in alcohol. It can be identified by the letters IPA on the label. Don't confuse this with American pale ale, which is much tamer.

This is made with Irish whiskey flavored with chocolate and cream. Bailey's Irish Cream is a well-known brand.

This liqueur is based on Irish whiskey, and is flavored with herbs and honey.

Irish whiskey resembles Scotch, only without the smoky flavor. Jameson 1780 and Black Bush are highly regarded brands. Whiskey should be served at room temperature.

This is a Basque version of Chartreuse. Like its prototype, it comes in a green and a milder yellow version

This is a potent, bittersweet herbal liqueur. You can sometimes see Jägermeister bumper stickers on cars, often the kind that also sport surf shop decals.

This is a grape variety that produces a fragrant, fresh-tasting white wine that's great with ham, sausages, smoked fish, shellfish, or spicy Asian food. It's the grape that's used to make excellent Rhine wines in Germany. Don't confuse these excellent wines with domestic Riesling wines, which are usually made with inferior cousins of the Johanissberg Riesling grape. Late harvest Johannisberg Rieslings are very sweet, and make excellent dessert wines.

This colorless cherry brandy is made primarily in Germany. French kirsch isn't quite as dry.

This is wine that's been made in accordance with Rabbinical law. Most people think of them as syrupy-sweet screw-top wines made with Concord grapes, but some kosher wines are now being produced that are indistinguishable from quality non-kosher wines. Unless pasteurized, a wine can only remain kosher if it's poured by an observant Jew. Bottles of pasteurized wine sport the label "mevushal."

This is a sweet liqueur based on grain alcohol and flavored with caraway seeds and cumin. Gilka Kümmel and Allasch Kümmel are well-regarded brands.

This is a liqueur flavored with kumquats.

These are the light-bodied, effervescent beers that are so popular in America. They're brewed from malted barley, hops, and water, and then stored (or "lagered") until the sediment settles. The beer is then clarified and carbonated. Dark lager beers are brown in color and sweeter than the more popular pale lagers. Pilsner Urquell beer is a famous lager that's made in the Czech Republic. Producers elsewhere sometimes call their better brews Pilsner beer = Pilsener beer, but they're not as good as their namesake. Light beer = lite beer has fewer calories and less alcohol than conventional beer.

These pricey wines are produced from grapes that are picked late in the season, after they've shriveled a bit on the vine. This concentrates the sugar and allows producers to turn the grapes into sweet, rich dessert wines. Some of the best late harvest wines are made from grapes that have become moldy with the Botrytis cinerea fungus (also known as "noble rot"). The fungus pokes holes in the grape skins, allowing more water to evaporate. Ice wine = icewine = eiswein is an especially sweet and expensive kind of late harvest wine in which the dehydrated grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine, resulting in a very sweet wine. These and other late harvest wines are often sold in half-bottles, and are best drunk by themselves or with fruit or light desserts. Don't serve them with chocolate or very sweet desserts.

These liqueurs are made with lemon peels and best served very cold.

This Spanish liqueur is made up of 43 ingredients, with vanilla and citrus predominant.