Cognac

Cognac is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France. It is produced in the surrounding wine-growing region in the departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime.

Demerara Sugar

A type of sugar syrup made with demerara sugar. It's used in cocktails to add sweetness, richness, and depth of flavor, particularly with whiskey and aged rum. Made with 2:1 demarara sugar to water.

Fortified Wine

A wine with a distilled spirit, often brandy, added to it. Adding before fermentation results in a sweeter, higher abv wine while a later addition usually ends drier with a lower abv.

Grappa

Grappa is an alcoholic beverage: a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin that contains 35 to 60 percent alcohol by volume. Grappa is a protected name in the European Union. Grappa is made by distilling the skins, pulp, seeds and stems left over from winemaking after pressing the grapes.

Mead

An alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The ABV about 3.5% to more than 20%. Possibly the most ancient alcoholic drink, the defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey.It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling, and despite a common misconception that mead is exclusively sweet, it can also be dry or semi-sweet.

Orgeat

Orgeat syrup is an almond-flavored syrup with rose-water and/or orange flower water. It is commonly used in classic and tropical cocktails.It does not contain alcohol.

Sherry

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain.

Port

Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties.

Madeira

Madeira is a fortified wine made on the Portuguese Madeira Islands, off the coast of Africa. Madeira is produced in a variety of styles ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own, as an apéritif, to sweet wines usually consumed with dessert.

Rich Simple

Like simple syrup, rich simple is sugar dissolved in water but at a ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 water. This allows for less dilution of a cocktail and a richer mouthfeel.

Sake

Sake, 酒, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name Japanese rice wine, sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (such as huangjiu and cheongju), is produced by a brewing process more akin to that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars that ferment into alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes.

Simple Syrup

Sugar dissolved in water. Often called just "simple", it simplifies adding sugar to drinks and blends better than granulated sugar. It is made by adding 1 part of sugar to 1 part hot water, stirred and left to cool. Also see Rich Simple.

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