Glossary
Terroir
The combined environmental factors — soil, altitude, climate, sun, water — that shape a beverage's flavour profile. Imported from wine, applied universally.
Wine writers borrowed terroir from agricultural French; coffee, tea, and craft alcohol then borrowed it from wine. A Sumatran coffee tastes different from a Kenyan because of altitude, soil mineral content, and rainfall pattern. A Darjeeling first flush tastes different from a Sri Lankan Ceylon for the same reasons.
Spirits used to argue terroir didn’t apply (distillation was supposed to erase the source). Single-malt Scotch and craft tequila have re-opened the question: peat, water source, fermentation yeast all leave fingerprints that survive the still.