Every country and nation has its own specialty alcoholic beverage. Some of them gain worldwide recognition, while others remain forever a local exotic for tourists. The alcohol market constantly fluctuates in favor of one type of liquor or another. But some of them may well compete for the title of the most popular drink. Let’s find out what kind of alcohol is most bought in the world and what drinks are preferred by residents of different countries.
List of the most popular drinks
There are many types of alcohol in the world, which have their own unique characteristics: color, taste, aroma, strength. Every year new brands appear on the shelves and the range expands. The British publication Drinks International researched the alcohol market and found that 46% of the world’s population prefers strong drinks. Thirty percent of people are inclined to choose beer, and wine drinkers account for 24 percent of all alcohol consumers. Let us dwell on each type of alcohol in more detail.
Whiskey
The drink with an alcoholic strength of 32 degrees and more was invented by the Scots and the Irish, who still argue about the authorship, is made in three basic stages: maturation, distillation and aging. The volume of sales of this type of liquor in the world is more than 30%. If we are talking about world-famous and popular brands, most of them are in Scotland, Ireland, USA, Canada and Japan. The leader in total production of whiskey with a share of 63% (according to Drinks International) is India, the country with the most mass production of whiskey on the planet – as a rule, these are local brands.
According to the American online publication vinepair.com, the consumption of this strong drink per person is the leader in France (2.15 liters per year). Second place went to Uruguay (1.77 liters), while the United States came in third (1.41 liters).
Beer
Foam drink first appeared about 9.5 thousand years ago. Moreover, scientists believe that originally barley on earth began to be grown for the production of this alcohol, not for baking bread. Most of the beer is consumed by the inhabitants of Germany – 8.9 billion liters per year. The Poles do not lag behind, who drink about 3.8 billion liters of hop annually.
Wine
Probably the most ancient alcoholic drink with a unique range of tastes and flavors – wine. The world of this noble beverage is large and diverse – the world export of wine in terms of money amounts to more than 30 billion euros a year. Quiet red wines of Bordeaux and Tuscany, white wines of Veneto and New Zealand, Portuguese ports, French sparkling wines, excellent wines of Spain and Italy, Chile and South Africa: alcohol from grapes is produced in almost every corner of the world.
If we talk about the popularity of wine, the most popular drink is in Italy. Each year an Italian drinks about 69 liters of wine. In Portugal the figure is almost 62 liters, in France – 55.3. As for champagne, the French are considered the biggest fans, consuming about 162 million liters of this exquisite drink every year.
Vodka
A strong drink is a mixture of rectified alcohol and prepared water. The aqueous-alcoholic solution is treated with activated carbon, various ingredients are added and filtered. About 126 million cases of this alcohol are sold worldwide each year. Among the most popular brands are Smirnoff, Absolut, Khortitsa and Beluga. Most of them are owned by large international companies with American and British capital.
Cognac
One of the most interesting and popular alcoholic beverages is made in the French region of Charente. Its production is regulated by French law, all cognacs must be produced exclusively within the region from local raw materials. All other beverages made using cognac technology are called brandy. The annual consumption of brandies and cognacs in the world amounts to more than 62 million cases. Oddly enough, the best-selling brand in the world is the Philippine Emperador. Among the French cognacs the first place belongs to Hennessy brand.
