When it comes to making an alcoholic beverage, the only thing they all have in common is that they’e fermented, except for Sake, which is a beverage unto its own. But after that, virtually everything else is different.

However, fermentation does not an alcoholic beverage make, because Chinese Dark Tea is also fermented, just like any alcoholic product, and has very little, if any, alcoholic content. That also can be said about other fermented products like Kefir, Kavass and Tepache, which only have about a 1% alcohol content. Good luck catching a buzz on any of those.

Fermentation Alone

Fermenting alone can give you a significant amount of alcoholic content, and wines are a good indication of that. Some fermented wines and a fermented honey drink called Mead have upwards of 13% alcoholic content. But for the most part, fermenting only gives beverages about a 5% alcoholic boost at the most. Hard cider, beer, plum jerkum and Ugandan Tonto, among others, are in this fermented alcoholic category.

Distilling

To get the maximum alcohol content from a fermented beverage, it needs to be distilled. Without getting into the scientific principles of the distillation process, when you distil a fermented liquid, you separate the water from the alcohol by first boiling it off into alcohol steam and then condensing the alcohol steam back into a liquid. This way, the alcoholic content can be increased while still maintaining flavor.

Some of the most common distilled beverages include vodka, whiskey, rum, brandy and tequila. Others that are less common include Absinthe, South Korean Soju, Turkisk Raki, Finnish Kilju and Southeast Asian Arrack, to name a few.

Ingredients

Almost anything can be used to create an alcoholic beverage. Grapes and apples are commonly used for wine, but different types of wine can be made from such things as dandelions and elderberries.

Kefir is fermented cow’s milk, while Central Asian Kumis is fermented mare’s milk. West African Ogogoro is made from palm tree sap, Tepache is made from pineapple rinds, and Slovakian Borovicka is made from juniper berries. And let’s not forget America’s favorite, Moonshine, or corn liquor as it is also known, which is made from corn.

Throughout History

The process of making alcoholic beverages has not changed much since the earliest mention is made of fermented beer about 3500 years ago in Iran, while the first distillation process for drinking occurred in about 100 BC for the purpose of making wine. Granted, more modern methods are employed, but alcohol is still alcohol, regardless of the time when it was made.