Our Spirits

Trivia About Spirits

What does Spirits mean? (from "The 1911 Edition Encyclopedia LoveToKnow")

The original meaning of the word spirit (Lat. spirilus, from spirare) was wind in motion, breath, the soul, and hence it came to denote that which gives life or vigor to the human body and other objects, and it is, therefore, synonymous with everything eminently pure, ethereal, refined or distilled.

In popular chemical nomenclature the term spirit in its former sense is still occasionally encountered, for instance, spirits of salts for hydrochloric acid. The spirits of the British Pharmacopoeia (e.g. sp. act/zeus nitrosi; sp. chioroformi; sp. camphorae) are solutions of various substances, obtained either by distilling these with, or dissolving them in, the rectified spirit of the Pharmacopoeia, which latter is pure alcohol with 16% by weight of water.

What is proof?

Proof is a method of measuring the alcohol content of spirits. You calculate the proof of a spirits product is by multiplying the percent of alcohol by volume by two (2). For example, a spirits product that has a 40% alcohol content by volume is 80 proof [40 multiplied by 2 = 80].