From the Kitchen
What familiar dishes are made of, and where they came from.
Which spice is harvested from the stigmas of a crocus flower?
Every drink here is made from a plant most people could not identify. Ten questions on which is which.
Almost every drink humans consume for pleasure begins as an unpromising plant: a bitter seed, a tough leaf, a starchy root. What turns them into coffee, tea, beer or rum is processing — roasting, steeping, fermenting, distilling — developed over centuries and usually in one region before spreading everywhere. This quiz covers the raw materials and origins. The explanations note where each drink came from and, where relevant, the legal definitions that decide what a producer is allowed to call it.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: B. A fruit known as a coffee cherry
Why: The seeds are inside a small red fruit. Ethiopia is generally accepted as the plant's origin.
Answer: A. The same plant, processed differently
Why: Both are Camellia sinensis. Green tea is heated quickly to stop oxidation; black tea is allowed to oxidise fully.
Answer: D. Barley
Why: Malting germinates the grain to convert starch into fermentable sugar. Hops were a later addition for bitterness and keeping.
Answer: C. Rum
Why: Molasses is the usual base. The Caribbean became the centre of production during the colonial sugar trade.
Answer: B. Juniper
Why: Without a juniper-forward character it cannot legally be sold as gin in the EU or UK.
Answer: A. Apple juice
Why: The pear equivalent is called perry. Cider means an unfermented apple drink in parts of North America.
Answer: D. Tequila
Why: It must be produced in designated regions of Mexico, chiefly around Jalisco, to carry the name.
Answer: C. Rice
Why: It is closer to brewing than to distilling, using a mould called koji to convert starch into sugar.
Answer: B. Brandy
Why: Cognac and Armagnac are brandies from specific French regions with their own production rules.
Answer: A. The cacao tree
Why: The beans are fermented and roasted before grinding. Cocoa butter is the fat pressed out along the way.
Drinks of the World has 10 questions and takes about 6 minutes to finish. It is rated Easy and sits in our Food & Drink category.
Each of the 10 correct answers adds 10 XP, up to 100 XP for a clean run. Wrong answers cost you nothing, and your full question-by-question review is shown at the end.
Yes. All 10 questions carry a written explanation of why the correct answer is right, so the quiz works as a study sheet as well as a test.
Yes, as often as you like. The questions and the answer options are reshuffled on each run, and you can use Practice Mistakes afterwards to retry only the ones you missed. No account is needed to play.
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