root-based spirits encompass two kinds of spirits. First are spirits distilled with sugar beet or, rarely, other roots as the basis of the spirit—for example, a vodka made of sugar-beet neutral spirit. The other type includes liquors and liqueurs made by steeping roots or rhizomes in another, usually neutral, spirit. In agricultural and culinary use, the word “root” often denotes true botanical roots, but also rhizomes and tubers. See tuber-based spirits.
True roots that are fermented and distilled are rare. Among them are the carrot, used in Japan to make shochu, and the yellow gentian, used in the German Alps to make Enzian. By far the most common, however, is the sugar beet. This is used for tuzemak, a rum-like spirit from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and some craft distillers, such as Brooklyn’s Industry City, are also now using sugar beets to make vodka. Sugar-beet alcohol, in fact, is used in variety of products—including as a base for other flavored spirits, such as absinthe, gin, and a great many liqueurs and cocktail bitters.
Most roots used in spirits making are however used to flavor other spirits. Gentian, another true root, is used to add a deeply bitter flavor to cocktail bitters, aperitifs, digestives, vermouths, and especially gentian liqueurs, made by steeping the root and other botanicals in grain alcohol. It was one of the components of Stoughton’s Bitters, the first cocktail bitters, and is an important component of their linear descendant Campari. See Campari and Stoughton’s Bitters. Gentian-flavored aperitifs, and liqueurs include Salers, Suze, Bonal, Perigord, and Deribaucourt, most of them products of the Alpine region between France and Italy. See aperitif and digestive and Suze.
Another true root, ginseng, provides the base flavoring agent in ginseng root liqueur, common in Korea. Ginseng has long been thought to have therapeutic properties, including regulating blood pressure and increasing blood circulation. See South Korea.
The licorice plant is a legume, and its roots are used to flavor candies and sweeteners, as well as Italian liqueurs such as Anima Nera and Liquirizia.
A rhizome is a plant stem that grows underground, sending out roots and shoots. Galangal and calamus are among the rhizomes that have been made into liqueurs, but the most common rhizome liqueur is made from ginger. Examples include the French Domain De Canton ginger liqueur; the King’s Ginger, from the United Kingdom; Barrow’s Intense, from New York City; and Sikkim Pearl of Himalayas, from India.
See also cordials.
Gentian Research Network. http://gentian.rutgers.edu (accessed April 26, 2021).
By: Michael Dietsch