Anise and other Anise- flavoured spirits Flashcards
History- Anise and other Anise Flavoured Spirits
Anise-extracts originally used as a medicine for stomach aches and circulatory problems.
18th: absinthe produced by Mme Henriod in Switzerland. Her Elixir d’Absinthe share a lot of ingredients with the Chartreuse and was used as a medicinal spirit.
1787: recipe passed on to Henri Dubeid and Henri Louis Pernod that commercialised it.
19th: big success of Absinthe boosted by antimalarial properties in foreign legion + artistic world’s endorsement.
1860: L’heure verte: accepted bourgeois ritual. Absinthe craze.
Late 19th: anti-absinthe movement started => 1915: Absinthe banned in France.
1928: launch of Pastis by Pernod following Absinthe’s ban
1932: launch of Ricard. Top selling spirit brand
Now: some Absinthe allowed in France.
Defintion- Anise and other Anise Flavoured Spirits
EU = must take their flavours from star anise, green anise and / or fennel and should be the most dominant aroma when mixed with neutral alcohol
Production- Anise and other Anise Flavoured Spirits
Base spirit: neutral alcohol obtained from column still distillation.
Flavours obtained by:
a. Maceration
b. Distillation
c. Addition of aniseed-flavoured extracts
d. Combination of these
Absinthe
Ingredients:
1. Grand wormwood – ancient medicinal herb recommended by Pythagoras to aid childbirth
for musty floral notes & bitterness
2. Star anise for flavour
3. Green anise for flavour
4. Fennel for flavour
5. Petite wormwood for colour (jade)
Process:
1) 24h maceration of botanicals in hi abv alcohol (traditionally wine based)
2) Flavoured spirit diluted and redistilled to 80% abv
3) Colouring plants added for short maceration
NB: most new absinthes made by adding extracts to alcohol. Only real Absinthe will ‘louche’, not those made from extract.
Thujone levels: max 10mg/l. Thujone: terpene contained in wormwood with hallucinogenic properties.
Pernod and Pastis
Ingredients: liquorice added to botanical mix.
Pernod: Neutral alcohol macerated with liquorice
+ distilled and rectified star anise & fennel blended with neutral alcohol and distillates of other botanicals.
Combination blended, sweetened, coloured and bottled.
Pastis: Liquorice roots must be part of the botanical mix
1. dry ingredients (mugwort + star anise + cardamom + sage and 40+ other botanicals) macerated for 3 months
2. blending with distillates and left for a month
Max sugar 100g/l
Ricard: Anethol extracted from anise + fennel and blended with alcohols infused with liquorice root. Blend left to macerate in alcohol flavoured with other botanicals.
Ouzo, Raki and other Anise Drinks
Ouzo (Gr): similar to Pastis. Made with a neutral alcohol redistilled with anise + optional other botanicals & mastic.
Max 50g/l sugar
Must be produced in Greece
Raki (Turkey): raisin/sultanas spirit redistilled with anise. More subtle & mellow.
Raki (Lebanon): pomace-based => drier vs. Turkish Raki
Pacharan (ES): sloe-berry infused anise. From dry to semi to sweet.
Akvavit (Scandinavia)
Spirit flavoured with spices and herbs of which caraway must dominate.
Blend of caraway + neutral grain spirit redistilled with other botanicals incl. dill, fennel, cumin, coriander & orange peel.
Some aged in oak.
Know as Snaps in Denmark & Sweden.
Linseed Flavoured Spirits
The EU is the heartland of anise- based spirits. As with gin there is a generic category of anise flavoured spirits and more closely defined ones.
Aniseed Flavoured Spirits
They must have a predominant flavour of anise extracted from star anise, anise, fennel, or any plant that shares the same principal aromas. The spirit base is highly rectified spirit and the flavour can be obtained by maceration and/or distillation, the addition of aniseed- flavoured extracts, or a combination of these. Only natural flavours can be used.
Pastis
It must be made using liquorice root as well. It can be sweetened up to 100 g/L and must be bottled at 40% abv. Anethole levels must be between 1.5 and 2 g/L.
Pastis de Marseille
This is the same as Pastis except that anethole levels must be 2 g/L and it must be bottled at 45% abv.
An EU legal définition of absenthe…..
is expected in late 2013.
