Various vodkas may be flavoured with spices (such as pepper), plants, leaves, or fruits (such as lemon). From Poland, for example, comes zubrowka, made of a maceration of grasses called "bison grass", mentioned by Somerset Maugham in his novel, the razor's edge as a drink which "smells of freshly mown hay and spring flowers".

Vodka is now an international drink, often served with caviar and smoked fish (especially herring). It is also used to flame various fish preparations and a special sweet omelette and to deglaze certian dishes, particularly poultry.

Of all the major spirits, gin is by far the youngest. Its earliest ancestor was first produced in Holland in 1650. England began producing gin by 1720. Its success was so phenomenal that by 1727 Britons were consuming five million gallons a year on an island with a population of only six million. Gin is now synonymous with British sophistication. Despite its universal popularity, there are few premium

Tea breaks down into three basic types: black, green and oolong. In the U.S., over 90 percent of the tea consumed is black tea, which has been fully oxidized or fermented and yields a hearty-flavored, amber brew. Some of the popular black teas include English Breakfast (good breakfast choice since its hearty flavor mixes well with milk), Darjeeling (a blend of Himalayan teas with a flowery bouquet suited for lunch) and Orange Pekoe (a blend of Ceylon teas that is the most widely used of the tea blends). Green tea skips the oxidizing step. It has a more delicate taste and is light green/golden in color. Green tea, a staple in the Orient, is gaining popularity in the U.S. due in part to recent scientific studies linking green tea drinking with reduced cancer risk. Oolong tea, popular in China, is partly oxidized and is a cross between black and green tea in color and taste.

With the influence of the religious world through the mission of spreading the word of God in the New Continent, the missionaries also discovered the presence of Indigenous products such as the maguey and the corn. Fray Francisco Ximenez, a Spanish monk, indicated the importance of the product diversity obtained from the maguey plant during the 16th century. In his observations he stated that the Mexcalmelt was one of the most utilized varieties of mezcal. However, the Tepemexcall was utilized more emphatically for religious practices. In the year 1651, Jeronimo Hernandez, a Spanish doctor indicates that the Tequila beverage was strictly utilized for medicinal purposes. Among the uses were rheumatic cures achieved by rubbing tequila on the affected body parts.

The prehispanic realm conceived the importance of the products and rituals derived from the maguey and mezcal. However the history that founded the origins of the Tequila as a product initiate in 1758. In 1758 Jose Cuervo, a Spanish entrepreneur was given full cultivating rights on the vast territorial extensions of Villoslada, Jalisco. One year later Jose Maria Guadalupe Cuervo, was given by the king of Spain the rights on the production of Tequila. During the 1850's Jose Maria Castaneda established La Antigua, a mezcal and whine distillery. La Antigua was then acquired by Cenobio Sauza on September first, 1873. During the same year Mr. Sauza exported eight barrels to the United States. In 1888 he changed the name to La Perseverancia.

French wines were exported to England and Scotland, the Scandinavian countries and as far away as the Near East (in spite of the Islamic ban, which at one time obliged certain Bordeaux exporters to label as "mineral water" the casts of wine sent to Turkey). In this way they acquired a reputation which continued to grow until the 18th century. The use of bottles for maturing wines became general in the 18th century. The French Revolution resulted in the parcelling out amoung innumerable small landowners of the vineyards which had belonged to the nobility and the religious communities. In 1867 phylloxera, a plant bug which spread to Europe from North America, destroyed the vines in the majority of European vineyards. Built up again later with vines grafted onto American rootstocks, resistant to phylloxera, French vinetards now extend over an enormous and increasing area and wine is of major importance in the French economy.

Wheather it is coming out of a home cellar or the dealer's, wine should ideally rest for serveral hours, standing up, before being being drunk, so that any deposit sinks to the bottom of the bottle. The wine cradle ,which allows the bottle to be served lying down, as drawn from the bin, is justified only for very old red wines, which have a lot of sediment; the bottle must not be set upright at any time after coming out of the rack. Decanting is the careful transfer of the wine into a carafe, allowing the sediment to be eliminated and aerating the wine, which usually improves it. Bordeaux wines are decanted when they are considered to be a little "closed" or have thrown a heavy deposit, so that they may open out on contact with the air. If you have to uncork bottles of red wine several hours before serving to make sure they are as they should be, they can be closed again if the wine is à point (as you think it should be) or left with the stopper out if the wine seems too "hard" and "closed up". for white wines, about ten minutes of aeration suffices to remove any bottle stink.