tuber-based spirits are liquors or liqueurs distilled with tubers as the basis of the spirit—for example, a vodka made of potatoes or yams, or a liqueur based on beet-sugar spirit.
Shochu is a Japanese spirit distilled from a variety of possible sources—most often barley or rice, but sometimes sweet potatoes or potatoes. Shochu is traditionally low in proof, about 25 percent alcohol by volume, but some higher-proof products (up to 35 percent alcohol by volume) are available. The lower-proof varieties are usually drunk neat or on the rocks, with the higher-proof versions more suitable for cocktails. See shochu.
Though, as with shochu, most vodka, aquavit, and gin are grain-based, potato vodka is common—mostly in Poland and elsewhere in eastern Europe—and examples of vodkas and occasionally gins distilled from tubers such as yam, sweet potato, and cassava do exist, as does a thriving cottage industry in much of Africa making spirits from cassava and dried cassava chips. See Central and East Africa, and kwete. Some of these products are distilled multiple times to become as neutral as possible, while others are distilled once and retain some of the flavor of the base ingredient.
In Germany, the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus, also called sunchoke, sunroot, earth apple, or topinambur) is made into a type of brandy called topinambur. In California, the distillery Charbay experimented with a never-released spirit, somewhat akin to tequila, made from Jerusalem artichoke.
In California’s Central Valley, the Corbin Cash distillery makes a vodka out of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) and also a sweet-potato liqueur; whereas the vodka is distilled to remove most of the flavor of the sweet potato, the liqueur is designed to keep the flavor in.
Cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium, also known as sow bread) has historically been used in medicinal liqueurs, where it’s blended with other herbs, roots, tubers, and flowers and then mixed with alcohol and sugar to make a potable tonic used against infection.
See also vodka; aquavit; and gin.
“Alcoholic Beverage Q&A.” National Research Institute of Brewing. http://www.nrib.go.jp/English/sake/esakefaq04.htm (accessed July 1, 2016).
Olmsted, Larry. “The Best Spirit You’ve (Probably) Never Tasted: Japan’s Shochu.” Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2013/08/06/the-best-spirit-youve-probably-never-tasted-japans-shochu/ (accessed April 7, 2021).
By: Michael Dietsch