Drinks and Beverages

A drink or beverage is a type of liquid that principally serves for human consumption. There are excessively many kind kinds of beverages and drinks. They can be separated into several groups like regular water, non-alcohol, alcohol, soft drinks, fruit juice, vegetables juice, tea, and hot drinks like coffees.

Here are some kinds of drinks and beverages:

Soft drinks – also called pop, soda, coke, sparkling water, or carbonated beverage. Soft drinks is a beverage that naturally has water, usually a sweetener, a flavoring agent and sweetener like sugar, fruit juice, or high-fructose corn syrup. It may also contain caffeine as well preservatives, food colorings and other ingredients.

Soft drinks are called “soft” in contrary to alcohol beverages “hard drinks”.  There is a small amount of alcohol may be included in a soft drink, although it is only less than 0.5% of whole volume. Tea, fruit juice, and other non- alcoholic drinks are also considered soft drink. Many soft drinks served cold.

Soft drink flavors

• Cherry
• Lemon-lime
• Root beer
• Orange and Grape
• Vanilla
• Fruit punch
• Lemonade

Alcohol – Normally having 5% to 40% ethanol by volume, alcoholic beverages have been made and consumed by humans since pre-historic times. Alcoholic beverages may be divided into three categories: beer, wines, and spirits or distilled beverage. Alcohol beverage is widely available, with more than 100 countries having laws regulating their sale, consumption, and production. Beer is considered the third most popular drinks in the world, after water, and tea.

Beer – An alcoholic beverage made by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. Some beer is also flavored with hops, which add bitterness and serve as a natural preservative. Brewing is the preparation of beer.  4% to 12% is a regular strength of beer by volume.

Ingredients of beer:

• Water – beer is made typically of water. Many regions have water with different mineral components, so some regions were eventually better making particular types of beer.
• Starch source – malted grain is the most common starch source. By soaking in the water grain is malted, letting it to start germination, and drying the partly germinated grain in a kiln.
• Hops – as a flavoring and act as a preservative, they used the flower of the hop vine. It contains some characteristic that many brewers want in beer. It also adds a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt as well. Hops also add floral, citrus, flavors to beer and herbal aromas.
• Yeast – it is the microorganism which is responsible for fermentation in beer.
• Clarifying agent – brewers add one or more clarifying agent to beer, which normally precipitate out of the beer together with protein solids.

Some examples of fermented beverages:

• Wine and Brandy – commonly made from grapes but if they are made from some kind of fruit, they considered as fruit wine of fruit brandy. Cherry brandy or plum wine is the example of fruit brandy and fruit wine.
• Vodka – distilled from fermented grain.
• Beer – usually, a beverage fermented from a grain mash. It also made from barley or a blend of

some grains. The beverage is a spirit, when the fermented mash is distilled.