THE MOST POPULAR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IN THE WORLD

65% of U.S. adults 21 and over drink alcoholic beverages.  

• This Gallup poll annual percentage dipped to 55% in 1958 and rose as high as 71% in the 1970s.  
• However, for households annually earning $100,000 or more, this rate is 80% for 18 and over adults.  Those homes earning less than $40,000/year has a rate of 49%.
• While in 1992 beer was favored by 47%, with 27% for wine and 21% for spirits, in 2022 this disparity narrowed to 35% beer, 31% wine and 30% spirits.

Drinks international released its annual list of the most popular liquor (or distilled spirits) brands in the world.  In this list of the top 30, only 2 gins made the cut.  Here are a few of them, and you will be surprised.

• #30 Aperol:  a bright orange Italian bitter, it was created in 1919 and is used in spritzes.
• #29 Jagermeister:  a German digestif, I noticed it was able in South Korean movie theaters.
• #28 Gordon's Gin:  dates back to 1769, a bottle is sold every six seconds.
• #24 Ballantine's Scotch Whisky.

• 
  #23 Baileys Irish Cream, sold 2 billion bottles in 2021.
• #22 Crown Royal Whisky.
• #20 Jameson Irish Whiskey:  Only one Jameson distillery is in operation today, Cork, Ireland.
• #16 Jim Beam Whiskey, has been around for more than two centuries.
• #15 Absolute Vodka.
• #13 Captain Morgan Rum, originally from Jamaica.
• #12 Jack Daniel's Whiskey, from Tennessee.
• #11 Johnnie Walker Whiskey.
• #10 Bacardi Rum, initially from Cuba.
• #  9 Royal Stag Whiskey, from Nepal.
• #  8 Officer's Choice Whisky, is from India, only from 1988.

• 
  #  7 Emperador Brandy, from the Philippines, only from 1990.
• #  6 Tanduay Rum, from the Philippines, and best selling rum now for 4 years.
• #  5 Imperial Blue Whisky, from India, and sells well because it's smooth and cheap...less than $10/bottle.
• #  4 Smirnoff Vodka, was my freshman roommate's favorite drink, and he had his bookshelf full of these bottles by the end of the school year.  Has 33 different flavors.
• #  3  McDowells No. 1 Whiskey, from India, is the best selling whisky.
• #  2 Ginebra San Miguel Gin, has been from Manila in the Philippines since 1834.
• #  1 Jinro Soju, from South Korea, and seen in virtually every movie from that country.

India and Philippines liquors sell well because they are more affordable.  

• Sold in the U.S. by Seagrams, the #5 Imperial Blue Whisky from India costs $8, plus tax. 
• Emperador Brandy can be purchased for less than $10, plus tax.   
• The #2 Ginebra San Miquel Gin goes for $14, plus tax.

• 
  However, Gordon's Gin has been around for almost 250 years as, they say, the top-selling gin in the world, and can be found for less than $10, plus tax.  So there is something else at play.  Also that #2 placed Philippines GSM Gin says it sells five times more volume/year than Gordon's, so something else is wacky about gin statistics.

I rarely touch rum, do drink gin and vodka, but mostly whiskey.  While you can say that the best selling scotch  (which has to come from Scotland) is Johnny Walker Red Label, keep in mind that other single-malt and blended whiskeys from the world over, now have exceeded the standard scotch in world sales.  

• Only whisky from Scotland can be called scotch, while bourbons and scotch-related spirits in the U.S. and Ireland used whiskey, with the e.

• 
  The plural:  whiskey = whiskeys and whisky = whiskies.
• Japan, a whisky, has done well in international tasting competitions.  These are the best, and many of them are now very expensive.
• 
  India cannot use terms like whisky or whiskey in Europe, and sells something called spirit drink. However, you can find locally (in India) bottled Teacher's, Vat 69 and Black&White.  Some of India's spirits have won awards, and they far outsell anything from Scotland, Japan or the USA.

Let me step back and do some re-education.  The standard liquor (including wine) bottle, known as a fifth, is 750 milliliters or 25.36 ounces.

About Jinro Soju, by volume, the world's best selling spirit:

• Launched in 1924, and soon had 3200 breweries.
• Can be from 13-24% alcohol.  

• 
  But was initially 35% until 1965, when it was diluted to 30% because of rice shortages.  
• So to further adapt, ethanol from sweet potatoes and other products were used, and flavored with sweeteners, essentially resulting in what soju is today.
• All soju producers in South Korea today is supplied ethanol by Korea Ethanol Supplies Company.
• 
  Saccharine was the most commonly used sweetener until the late 1980s, which has been replaced by stevioside.
• A glycoside derived from the stevia plant, originating in South America.
• Is 300 times sweeter than cane sugar.

• Jinro is the most popular brand in Korea, and Chamisul has 20.1% alcohol.

• 
  There is a protocol to soju in the Korean society, usually consumed straight, like wine, but mostly drunk bottoms up in portions of 2 ounces.
• There is a variety of games played with soju.
• I like to have my soju with ice.

Those liquors above are termed spirits, for they usually contain more alcohol than something like wine or beer.  

• Spirits are all distilled, with products ranging from 35% to 55% alcohol.  

• 
  Proof is double the ethanol percentage.  Thus, spirits at 40% are 80 proof, and 100 proof whisky has 50% alcohol.  Seems so unnecessary, but there is a history.  In fact, this all goes back to England in the 16th century and the subsequent tax that could be charged.
• You'll also see ABV, which is alcohol by volume.  
• Wine and beer are not distilled, and so are not considered to be a spirit.

To get  alcohol, fruits, starches and grains go through a fermentation process (or two, for starch, for example, needs first to be modified into glucose) involving yeasts (sometimes also bacteria, as in the production of kombucha), where sugars, mostly glucose, are broken down into ethanol and carbon dioxide, plus heat.  A variety of alcohols can result, many of them poisonous.  Alcohols like methanol and isopropanol also cause intoxication, but only ethanol is relatively safe for human consumption.

• 
  Beer is brewed to an ethanol range from 2.5% to 15%.  Standard beer has an ABV between 4% and 6%.  The process involves something called lautering, a process of separating the wort, or mash, from the residual grain.

• 
  Wine, from grapes, is the oldest alcoholic beverage, dating back to 7000-6600 BC.  
• Hard cider is fermented apple juice, typically 4%-6%ABV.
• Mead is fermented honey with an ABV of from 10% to 14%, and some say this was the first alcoholic drink, with a history going back to at least 6500 BC.

• 
  Sake, from rice, is around 16%ABV, a newcomer, only produced in the 3rd century BC, using a fungus to first convert the rice into sugars, to which a special yeast is added.

• 
  If you follow this blog, I recently reported that hard kombucha is the newest alcoholic drink on the market.  So novel that I actually could not find it in a couple of markets.  Still trying.  How's this for marketing?  KOMBUCHA IS A PROBIOTIC DRINK.  Sales doubled from 2020 into this year, for it appeals to health-conscious consumers.  The process not only produces ethanol, but also vitamins, and helps digestion, reduces inflammation and controls weight.  This halo effect, however, hasn't yet been medically confirmed.  Like sweet or sour beer, depending on the additives, the ABV ranges from 3% to 8%.

So if you've been wondering, beers (and similar) sell a lot more volume than wine or spirits.

In the U.S.

About spirits in the U.S.  Note the low consumption of scotch whiskey, and dominance of vodka.

Further, in the U.S.

Bet you didn't know that more than half of beer drunk in the USA is light.

Finally, in America:

• #1 spirit is Smirnoff Vodka.
• #1 wine brand is Barefoot.
• #1 beer is Bud Light

Finally, Anheuser-Busch rules the world beer industry.  American run?  Nope.  Now called Anheuser-Busch InBev, or ABInBev.  InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian brewing company, succeeded in a hostile takeover of Anheuser-Busch in 2008.  Their beers are Budweiser, Corona, Lowenbrau, St. Pauli Girl, Foster's (Australia), Cass (South Korea), Michelob, Modelo, Labatt, Stella Artois, Beck's, various brands in China and India, a total more than 100 brands.  Stella might be my favorite of all beers.

Again a surprise of sorts, but the top beer-producing country is China (286 million barrels), with the U.S. #2 and Brazil #3.  China perhaps first made beer 9000 years ago.  The world's best seller is China's Snow, with Tsingtao #2.  #3 is Bud Light.

I end with my chicken tonkatsu lunch.  First photo, a before.  Second, the meal, with sake and beer.

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