Where to buy · The base of the recipes

Neutral cane alcohol

Neutral cane ethanol (ENA) is the base of the liqueurs and bitters on this site. Here are the producers, what to ask them and an email template so you can ask yourself.

Why cane

Grain alcohol is chametz on Passover, and corn alcohol is kitniyot. Cane is neither, and ENA is column-distilled until it is neutral: it does not carry cachaça’s green notes. At 95–96% it extracts lemon peel and herbs better than any vodka, and it can be diluted to the strength each recipe asks for.

Cane as the raw material is not enough. What decides it is the whole process, and that is what the email below asks about.

Where kashrut fails

The points the raw material alone does not settle.

Flex mill

Many mills in the Centre-West make cane ethanol in the harvest season and corn ethanol between harvests, in the same columns.

Ask whether the plant processes corn or any other grain. For Passover without kitniyot, only a cane-only plant, or a batch with a hechsher for Passover.

Fermentation

Yeast nutrients can come from grain, like the cornmeal and bran used in the country starter of cachaça.

Ask which nutrients and enzymes go into the fermentation.

Antifoam

An additive that controls foam in fermentation and in distillation. It can be of vegetable or animal origin, or silicone.

Ask the origin of the antifoam.

"Grain alcohol"

The name on the label does not guarantee the origin, and this is the ordinary supermarket alcohol used for liqueur.

Do not use it without knowing the origin. Prefer a product that states "from cane".

Certification

Several export mills hold a kosher certificate, but not always for Passover, and not always for the retail product.

Ask for the certificate and check the BDK Passover list for the year. The final decision is your rabbi’s.

Producers and resellers

What the research found

There is no neutral cane alcohol with a hechsher for Passover on sale in a small container. The only cane base with a Passover listing free of kitniyot is Vodka Polak (BDK, 2021), at 36%. The neutral alcohol producers sell in bulk; two say they hold a kosher certificate without naming the agency. As for grain alcohol with a kosher certificate, there is only the corn one from Inpasa, in bulk and not for Passover.

Avoid

Before you buy

The list is neither a recommendation nor a certification. The data comes from each company’s own site and from the certifiers’ lists, checked on the date shown; prices, packaging and certificates change. Confirm with the manufacturer and with the Passover list for the year.

Kosher wines

For the vermouth and the recipes with a wine base. Wine only works with certification: without a hechsher it does not become kosher by being turned into another drink.

Email template

To ask for a spec sheet, a certificate and a price. Replace what is in brackets.