> I am wondering if anyone has a list of Spirit with their colour (or
> some other way of showing the different spirits by colour). I am
> trying to make a shot with a very specific colour and would like this
> information.
>
> Godiva
I have this list in my head but I won't try to attempt to write it down. The
list is too large. The difficulty with such lists (there already exist many on
the web) is that they would also have to match the spirits available to a
person. A list must be specifically made for some person, area, or taste.
Otherwise it would be impractically long and complex.
Another peculiar thing about spirits is that all spirits start as a white
liquid. The colour is either from extraction or addition of flavouring
materials. More often however they are artificially coloured and the colour
has not really a strong relation with the spirit flavour except for it being
associated with the spirit. In that case the colour is not a physical aspect
of the spirit but instead a psychological aspect.
Categorisation according to colour becomes difficult due to the weak link
between colour and other aspects of a spirit. Because of that you don't want
to make a general list (so please be more specific). Four examples:
Sloe gin is always red because of the addition of sloes. Sloe gin can easily
be categorised as being red.
However, already something as common like whisky is often regarded, by most of
the people, as being brown. But it isn't and you don't need to look hard to
see this. Many variations of whisky exist and there can easily be found
yellow, green and pale coloured whiskies as well. The brown colour of whisky
is often mostly due to added caramel.
With whisky the brown colour is somewhat related to the flavour. A colour may
also have nothing to do at all with the flavour. People often associate
vanilla with yellow and vanilla spirits are often coloured yellow because of
that. However, vanilla is a black substance and won't produce a saturated
yellow colour when being extracted. Because of that categorisation of vanilla
liqueurs (e.g. Liquor 43 and Galliano) is not that easy. This is even more
strong with spirits like Blue Curacao, ParfaitAmour or Hpnotic. You may
categorise some spirit as being a certain colour but another brand might
easily produce the same kind of spirit in a different colour.
Finally, some classifications may be confusing. E.g. Galliano often seen as
the yellow herbal vanilla liqueur, has also been a liqueur brand producing
things like white sambucca and brown amaretto.