today we’re taking about drinking around the world. and no, not the epcot bar crawl. (ps did you know that was a thing? i didn’t until i googled “drinks around the world” and that was the only thing that popped up!)
in same way that we have come to associate pizza and pasta with italy or tacos with mexico, we also have a ton of drink associations. some are obvious, like guinness = ireland, but others aren’t so obvious. gin and tonics in spain, for instance. what drink do you most associate with spain? sangria? well, sure, but they’re experiencing a gin and tonic revolution over there now. likewise, we associate sake with japan, but did you know there is also a highly respected japanese scotch whisky? in fact, so highly respected that it’s been named the best whisky in the world (which came as a shock to the scots, i suspect.)
some drinks are just variations on other drinks, like the bloody caesar (a bloody mary with clam juice,) and others are in a class all their own, like brennivin or kumis. i’ve broken the world down into the traditional continents and will elaborate on the drinks found there (except antarctica.)
in north america, a continent with two of the largest countries on the earth, there is bound to be a vast array of drinks that you might consider “national.” but unless you’re going to count budweiser as a national drink, we’ve really only got one in the states: bourbon. it is actually the only drink that the government calls ours. (but we’ve also got a flourishing wine industry on the west coast, from california to washington state, and our craft beer industry is booming.) from jack daniels to bookers to j.rieger rye whiskey, there are dozens of different bourbons to make your old fashioned with. in canada, you have to try a bloody caesar, or – if you prefer sweet tasting drinks – an ice wine, which is wine made from grapes that have frozen on the vine.
south of the border, of course, you better be drinking tequila, or it’s smoky cousin, mezcal. many people don’t know the difference: while made from the same agave plant that tequila is distilled from, mezcal traditionally comes from further south in the oaxaca region. it’s also distilled using a different method: after the maker smokes the agave plant over hot coals, it is then crushed by a large stone wheel pulled by donkeys and finally distilled. if you’ve made your way to cuba, the mojito is definitely the drink of choice. made with white rum, sugar, lime mint and club soda, it’s hemingway’s poison and it’s altogether refreshing. in fact, if you’re in the caribbean at all, rum – and it’s many cocktails – is the go-to drink.
south america has several fascinating drinks. to start with, i want to talk about the caipirinha. i love this drink. it’s made with cachaça, a sugar cane rum distilled in brazil, sugar, and lime. that’s it. for some, cachaça is fiery, so i have toned it down in the past with pineapple juice. you still get a good kick of flavour though! across the continent, peru and chile have pisco, a clear brandy distilled from grape wine. the two countries have fought for the claim of pisco as their own for four hundred years but as both countries grow the grapes and distill their own pisco… you could try both and make an informed decision! while you can absolutely drink pisco on its own, many people prefer a pisco sour, a sweet and sour cocktail made with lime juice, egg white, simple syrup, pisco, and bitters.
bolivia, one of the two landlocked countries in south america, has a varied climate ranging from the andes to the lowlands near the brazil border. their national drink is singani, a brandy-like liquor produced from white muscatel grapes grown in the mountains. and, if you were hoping to buy a bottle, steven soderbergh can help you do that.
lastly, and quickly because i’m running out of time to write this, there’s a couple different fire-water-esque liqueurs in south america: fernet (argentina,) aguardiente (colombia,) and canelazo (ecuador.)
there aren’t too many african national drinks. in cameroon, there’s afofo, which fwx says “an official cameroon travel guide says this liquor distilled from palm wine is “something resembling gin.”” other palm wine variations are made in ghana (nsafufuo) and are similar to the palm wine called tuba, made in the phillipines (among other places.) in niger, they make chapulo; in zimbabwe, they brew chibuku, a homebrew made from maize and sorghum.
i’ve already mentioned tuba, a palm wine in the phillipines, and we’ve talked a little about sake, from japan. similar to sake, however, are rakshi, a rice wine made in nepal; cheongju, from korea; sombai, a cambodian spice and fruit infused rice wine; and rượu cần, a vietnamese rice wine. this just names a few: you can find a more extensive list here. it might be worth mentioning that since wine is defined as being fermented from the sugars in fruit, and sake is fermented from the breaking down of the sugars in rice, that it really isn’t a wine.
if you get to thailand and get offered thai whiskey, don’t be surprised when it’s actually spiced rum. sang som rum, a sugar cane distilled rum from thailand is virtually unknown outside of the country, while mekhong is a better known brand. and don’t confuse balian arak with the jordanian arak. in bali, it’s moonshine, it’s unregulated, and it can be potentially harmful to drinkers.
skipping over china, we head to mongolia for kumis: a fermented milk drink made traditionally from mare’s milk. now, of course, a lot of times it’s made with cow’s milk (it’s cheaper.) and lastly, russia. the motherland drinks vodka – everyone knows that – but there’s one more official drink: kvass, a slightly sweet, only barely alcoholic, carbonated beverage that quenches thirsts across the huge country. it’s typically made from berries or fermented rye bread and herbs.
to be quite honest, i don’t really know where to start with europe. the drinks across the continent are so varied – from old vine french wine to italian and german wine, scotch to rakia to ouzo to belgian beers to schnapps. then there’s limoncello, sangria, genever, and grappa. in the scandinavian countries, aquavit and brennivin. mulled wine and hard cider also make appearances.
and – to confound matters even more – depending on where you are determines how to drink something. don’t take your scotch neat – but don’t pile on the rocks either. single malt scotch needs just the teensiest drop of water to open the flavours. in turkey, how you take your rakı just depends on how you like it, but in greece, ouzo is typically served with chilled water, making it a milky white colour.
many eastern european and middle eastern countries have some take on plum brandy (rakia, slivovitz, grappa) or anise-flavoured liquors like pastis (ok, it’s french), rakı, ouzo, becherova, or arak.
remember back in the 90’s when foster’s would have commercials? “fosters: australian for beer.” sadly, that’s still the case. aussies and kiwis are huge drinkers, but there’s no national drink, and beer still seems to be the biggest alcoholic seller. they’re working hard though, to define their drinking culture.
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