Liqueurs

Liqueurs (French liqueur), strong alcoholic beverages that are a mixture of alcohol, water, and sugar with various plant extracts, essential oils, coloring substances, and other ingredients. Liqueurs are made either by the "cold" method—mixing and infusing the corresponding substances—or by distilling an alcohol infusion with aromatic substances, followed by processing the distillate according to the liqueur's name and recipe (adding sugar, etc.). For most liqueurs produced, there is not just one method and recipe, so liqueurs with the same name produced by different firms can differ significantly in taste and chemical composition. As a rule, liqueur recipes are quite complex and may contain 10 or more different flavoring and aromatic ingredients. The best-known liqueurs include "Chartreuse," "Benedictine," "Curaçao," "Kümmel," "Apricot," and others. Their most characteristic ingredients are lemon balm and hyssop (Chartreuse); cardamom, Alpine wormwood, lemon balm, etc. (Benedictine); orange or mandarin peels (Curaçao); caraway (Kümmel); apricots (Apricot). The chemical composition of foreign liqueurs (according to König) is as follows: ethyl alcohol 20-55% (average 39.8%), sugar 4.16-34.68% (average 29%), extractive substances, excluding sugar, 0.1-3.81% (average 1.1%). Russian liqueurs (nastoiki) can also be included in this category; they are usually made by infusing alcohol or vodka with berries and fruits (according to the name) with added sugar. Like liqueurs produced in our country, nastoiki have been very little studied, so their composition cannot be considered fully investigated. The sanitary significance of liqueurs, like alcoholic beverages in general, is characterized primarily by their main component—ethyl alcohol (see Alcoholism). Among harmful substances, as in all vodka products, one should consider the so-called by-products of alcoholic fermentation (fusel oil, etc.), as well as the more characteristic liqueur flavoring and coloring substances (harmful coal-tar dyes). Harmful flavoring and taste substances can be artificial (e.g., esters of nitric acid) or natural plant substances; of the latter, wormwood (Absinthii leaves from Artemisia Absinthium) has particularly attracted attention in European sanitary practice, the components of which cause poisoning with epileptiform convulsions observed along with symptoms of alcoholism when consuming vodka products made from wormwood (see Absinthe). In the RSFSR, to regulate the issue of the possibility of using harmful substances in the production of vodka products, the People's Commissariat of Health issued a circular "On the list of ingredients permitted for the production of vodka products" (Questions of Public Health, No. 18, M., 1928), which lists 111 harmless flavoring, aromatic, and partly coloring substances, in which artificial synthetic compounds, as well as obviously harmful natural products (wormwood, etc.), are completely absent. In 1927, the NKZdr. of the RSFSR published "Rules for the production of vodka products, grape vodka, and cognac" (Bulletin of the NKZdr., No. 23, M., 1927), according to which, in the production of liqueurs and nastoiki for public health purposes, only the following harmless substances are permitted: a) pure rectified alcohol meeting the requirements of the NKFS of the USSR (see Vodkas); b) substances for giving the products a specific taste, aroma, and color permitted for use according to the NKZdr. nomenclature (see above); c) for sweetening—sugar, as well as honey and light molasses. The alcohol content should not exceed 40% in nastoiki and 60%_v in liqueurs. For the use of raw alcohol, harmful health flavoring and aromatic substances, artificial chemical preparations and essences, glycerin, artificial sweet substances and colors not listed in the People's Commissariat of Health nomenclature (Bulletin of the NKZdr. of the RSFSR, No. 3, Moscow, 1925) in the production of these products, the guilty parties are subject to criminal liability as for the falsification of food PRODUCTS.