An Overview of Spirits Made from Sugarcane Juice

Abstract

Among the family of sugarcane spirits, those made from juice are diverse and often produced in a traditional way. They must be distinguished from other sugarcane spirits, which are more widely produced and made from other sugarcane derivatives, such as molasses. These alcoholic beverages contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of many countries. However, despite ancestral know-how, there is a lack of contemporary data required to characterize some sugarcane juice spirits (SCJSs) and to overcome the current and future threats that producers will have to face. While preserving their authenticity and specificity, SCJS producers expect to improve and ensure sufficient yield and a superior quality product. Even if the scientific knowledge on these spirits is not comparable, the available data could help identify the critical points to be improved in the making process. This review aims to present the main SCJSs encountered worldwide, defining their specific features through some important aspects with, notably, references to the complex notion of terroir. To continue, we discuss the main steps of the SCJS process from harvesting to aging. Finally, we expose an inventory of SCJS’s chemical compositions and of their sensory description that define the specific organoleptic properties of these spirits.

Coumarins in Spirit Beverages: Sources, Quantification, and Their Involvement in Quality, Authenticity and Food Safety

“…Scientific studies conducted over the last three decades have proven that the physicochemical phenomena that take place during the ageing of spirit beverages, particularly the release of wood compounds into the distillate, are governed by several factors, including the characteristics of the distillate, the ageing technology (traditional vs. alternative), the kind of wood and its heat treatment, the barrel size, the cellar conditions (temperature, relative humidity and air circulation) and the ageing period [14,19,190]. In this context, the influence of some remarkable factors on the coumarin contents in the spirit beverages under consideration will be emphasised.…”

“…In contrast, cachaça in Brazil is aged in oak wooden barrels but also in barrels made of wood from autochthonous species [43,45,190], such as those specified in Table 1.…”

“…Though toasting procedures differ according to the cooperage, the toasting level is usually categorised as light, medium or heavy. The char (active charcoal) layer is required for some distillates, such as whiskey and cachaça, to decrease pungency and remove off-flavours associated with some constituents, such as sulphur compounds, through adsorption and oxidation [190,200,[205][206][207].…”

“…Ellagic acid and gallic acid result from the degradation of ellagitannins and gallotannins, respectively [209]. Subsequently, several reactions take place in the liquid medium, determining the features of the aged spirits [26,28,177,190,192]. Regarding coumarins, in a recent study, Sampaio et al [210] showed that scopoletin was thermolabile, and underwent degradation in a temperature range from 182.32 • C to 303 • C, with mass loss of 99.98%.…”

“…For those addressed in the present review, this requirement is specified in Section 2. The results of extensive research on this subject have clearly shown that the ageing stage requires a certain period of time for multiple physicochemical phenomena to occur, slowly and continuously, in order to confer specific characteristics to the distillates, contributing to the sensory fullness of the final products [14,18,19,21,190]. It is also recognised that these phenomena basically fall into two categories:…”