Discover›Spirits guide
Liqueur
From fruit, herbs and spice to your glass
A liqueur is a spirit that has been flavoured and sweetened: with orange peel or cherries, herbs and roots, coffee, nuts, honey or cream. Here is how liqueurs are made, step by step, the main styles from herbal to creamy, what the rules on the label mean, and how to enjoy them.
A short history
From apothecary to after-dinner glass
The first liqueurs were medicines. Physicians and monks steeped herbs in the new ‘water of life’ distilled from wine and sweetened it with honey or sugar to make it easier to swallow. People soon took them for pleasure.
- c. 1300Treatises long attributed to the Catalan physician Arnau de Vilanova describe aqua vitae, spirit distilled from wine, both plain and ‘compound’: with herbs and spices steeped in it, as a remedy. They are copied and printed all over Europe for centuries.
- 1575The Bols family starts distilling in Amsterdam. With spices brought home by the Dutch East India Company, the house goes on to create hundreds of liqueur recipes; it calls itself the oldest distilled-spirits brand in the world.
- 1764In 1605 the French nobleman François Annibal d’Estrées gives the Carthusian monks of Vauvert, in Paris, a manuscript for an ‘elixir of long life’. At the Grande Chartreuse, in the Alps, the monks’ apothecary works it into a herbal elixir in 1737 and, in 1764, into the liqueur now called Green Chartreuse.
- 1874In New Orleans, the bartender Martin Wilkes Heron flavours whiskey with fruit and spice to make it smoother. His creation, later called Southern Comfort, is still one of the best-known liqueurs in the world.
- 1960In Tallinn, master liqueur maker Ilse Maar and her colleagues at Liviko create Vana Tallinn: Jamaican rum with citrus, vanilla and spices. It soon becomes one of Estonia’s hallmark products and its favourite souvenir.
- 1974Baileys is launched in Dublin, the first cream liqueur: Irish whiskey and fresh cream that stay together in the bottle without souring. Today cream liqueurs are made all over the world.
How it’s made
From plant to bottle: eight steps
Every liqueur starts with two things: a spirit and something to flavour it. The maker draws the flavour out by steeping, by letting spirit run through the plants, or by distilling, then sweetens, rests and bottles it. Most houses combine several methods and keep the exact recipe secret.
01
Fruit, herbs & spices
Almost anything with flavour can become a liqueur: soft fruit such as cherries, blackcurrants and raspberries; citrus peel; herbs, flowers and roots like mint, gentian or angelica; seeds and spices such as anise, cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla; coffee and cocoa beans, nuts, honey, even cream and eggs.
Some liqueurs are built around a single flavour. Others blend dozens: the Carthusian monks say their recipe holds some 130 plants. Quality starts here, with ripe fruit, fragrant peel and well-dried herbs.
130plants in the Chartreuse recipe, say the monks
02
The base spirit
Most liqueurs start from neutral spirit, distilled to about 96% so that it tastes of almost nothing and lets the fruit or herbs speak. It is cut with water to the right strength for steeping.
Others are built on a spirit with its own character: Cognac in Grand Marnier, Scotch whisky in Drambuie, whiskey in Southern Comfort and Fireball, Jamaican rum in Vana Tallinn. Here the base spirit is part of the taste, and it can be named on the label.
96%the strength of the neutral spirit most liqueurs start from
03
Maceration
The simplest and oldest method: fruit, peel or herbs are left to steep in the spirit, often at a lower strength, so the alcohol slowly draws out their aroma, colour and taste. Fruit also gives up some of its juice.
It can take days for delicate ingredients and many weeks or months for fruit and roots. The liquid is then drawn off and the fruit pressed. Crème de cassis, cherry liqueurs, limoncello and walnut nocino are all made this way.
Weeksto months of steeping for many fruit liqueurs
04
Infusion & percolation
Instead of leaving the plants to soak, the spirit can run through them. In percolation it trickles through a bed of herbs, beans or bark and is pumped back to the top, again and again, until it carries enough flavour.
This works like a coffee machine and suits coffee and cocoa beans, vanilla, dried herbs and spices. Some makers infuse warm for speed; cold is gentler and keeps fresh aromas. Many liqueurs blend extracts made in different ways.
Againand again: the spirit circulates until it is rich enough
05
Distillation
For a clear, intense flavour, the macerate is distilled again in a pot still. The vapour carries the fragrant oils of peel, seeds and herbs, but not their colour or bitterness, and the condenser turns it back into a clear, perfumed spirit.
Orange liqueurs such as triple sec, anise liqueurs such as sambuca, and many herbal liqueurs are made at least partly this way. Distillates and macerates are often blended: one gives freshness, the other depth and colour.
ClearSambuca and maraschino must stay colourless by law
06
Sweetening
Sugar is what makes a liqueur a liqueur. It is added as syrup, or as honey, glucose or fructose, and stirred into the flavoured spirit. It softens the alcohol, rounds out bitter herbs and carries the flavour across the palate.
In the EU a liqueur needs at least 100 g of sugar per litre. A ‘crème de’ needs at least 250 g, and crème de cassis more than 400 g. The art is balance: enough sugar to feel silky, with enough acidity, bitterness or spirit that it is never cloying.
100 gof sugar per litre at least, by EU rules
07
Resting & ageing
After blending, most liqueurs rest for weeks or a few months in steel tanks or large vats, so that the flavours settle and marry. Many herbal liqueurs rest for a while before bottling; Gammel Dansk, for example, rests for about three months.
A few spend longer in oak, which rounds them and adds notes of vanilla and spice: some herbal liqueurs and some brandy-, rum- or whisky-based ones. Cream liqueurs are the exception: they are not aged at all.
3 monthsof rest for Gammel Dansk before bottling
08
Colour, filter & bottle
The liqueur is brought to its final strength with pure water and filtered, often chilled first so that it stays clear in the cold. Colour comes from the fruit and herbs, from caramel or from permitted colourings; Green Chartreuse takes its colour from the plants themselves.
Cream liqueurs are homogenised, like milk, so the cream and the spirit stay together. Then comes the bottle, often as distinctive as the recipe: squat decanters, tall slim bottles, square flasks.
17–55%from Irish cream to Green Chartreuse
Styles
Eight families of liqueur
There are thousands of liqueurs, but most belong to a few families. Here are the main ones, with the names you will meet behind the bar.
Orange & citrus
Triple sec and curaçao are made from the peel of bitter and sweet oranges; Grand Marnier blends orange with Cognac. Limoncello, from the lemons of southern Italy, is served ice-cold after dinner. Clean, zesty and essential in cocktails such as the Margarita and the Cosmopolitan.
Fruit & berry
Crème de cassis from Burgundy blackcurrants, maraschino from Dalmatian marasca cherries, and liqueurs of peach, raspberry, pear and apple. Sloe drinks such as pacharán from Navarre and English sloe gin are close cousins. Lovely with sparkling wine, as in a Kir Royal.
Herbal & monastic
The oldest family, born in monasteries and apothecaries: Chartreuse from the French Alps, Bénédictine from Normandy, Italy’s Strega, génépi from the mountains and the herb liqueurs of Galicia and the hierbas of Mallorca. Complex and aromatic, often drunk as a digestif.
Bitter & digestif
Italian amari and German herbal bitters, made with roots, bark and bitter herbs such as gentian and wormwood, sit between liqueur and medicine. Their drier cousins are the bitters. On our shelves: Gammel Dansk, Denmark’s bitter dram of 29 herbs, spices and flowers since 1964.
Anise & liquorice
Sambuca from Italy and anisette from France and Spain, sweet and colourless, with anise or star anise. In the north, salty liquorice, salmiakki, is a national passion and makes a dark, sweet and salty liqueur. On our shelves: Salmiakki Nordic Liquorice Liqueur.
Nut, coffee & chocolate
Amaretto with its almond taste, hazelnut liqueurs, nocino from green walnuts, crème de cacao and coffee liqueurs from Mexico to Galicia. Rich and warming, at their best after dinner, in coffee or poured over ice cream.
Cream & egg
Irish cream, led by Baileys since 1974, blends whiskey with fresh cream; other cream liqueurs use rum, chocolate or coffee. Advocaat, from the Netherlands, is a thick liqueur of egg yolk, sugar and spirit. Serve cool, and keep cream liqueurs in a cool place once opened.
Whisky, rum & spirit liqueurs
Here the base spirit leads, sweetened and lifted with honey, fruit or spice: Drambuie, Southern Comfort, honey and cinnamon whisky liqueurs, spiced rum liqueurs. On our shelves: Southern Comfort Original, Fireball, Mackmyra Bee from Sweden and Vana Tallinn from Estonia.
The rules
What the label means
In Europe, what may be called a liqueur is set by EU Regulation 2019/787 on spirit drinks. The headline rules, simplified:
Liqueur
EU spirit drinks rules, category 33
- At least 15% alcohol
- At least 100 g of sugar per litre
- Exceptions: 80 g for gentian or wormwood liqueurs, 70 g for cherry liqueurs made only with cherry spirit
- Flavoured with fruit, plants or other foods, or with flavourings; colour may be added
- Some, such as cherry, blackcurrant, raspberry, mint, génépi and aniseed, may use natural flavourings only
Styles with their own rules
EU categories 34 to 40
- Crème de …: at least 250 g of sugar per litre; crème de cassis over 400 g
- Sambuca: colourless, anise-flavoured, at least 38% and 350 g of sugar
- Maraschino: colourless, from marasca cherries, at least 24% and 250 g of sugar
- Nocino: green walnuts, at least 30%
- Advocaat or egg liqueur: at least 14% alcohol and 140 g of egg yolk per litre
Reading the label
Names and spirits
- ‘Whisky liqueur’, ‘rum liqueur’, ‘Cognac liqueur’: the alcohol must come only from that spirit
- A liqueur cannot be sold as whisky: EU whisky must be at least 40% and unsweetened
- ‘Crème de’ means extra sugar, not cream; cream liqueurs contain dairy
- Cherry brandy and apricot brandy are liqueurs, not brandies, and the label says so
- ‘Dry’ may appear on a liqueur, though it is still sweetened
Protected names
Geographical indications
- Irish cream: only from the island of Ireland
- Ratafia catalana: Catalonia’s liqueur of green walnuts and herbs
- Palo de Mallorca, Licor café de Galicia and Licor de hierbas de Galicia: protected Spanish liqueurs
- Pacharán navarro: sloes in anise spirit, a category of its own
- Bitters such as Gammel Dansk: a category of their own, with no minimum sugar
A simplified summary of the EU rules; each category and protected name goes into more detail. Outside the EU, rules differ: in the United States a liqueur, also called a cordial, needs only 2.5% sugar by weight.
Words to know
A short liqueur glossary
- Maceration
- Steeping fruit, peel or herbs in spirit so it draws out their flavour.
- Percolation
- Running the spirit through a bed of plants or beans, again and again.
- Distillate
- The clear, aromatic spirit made by distilling a macerate.
- Botanicals
- The plants, seeds, roots, bark and peel that flavour a liqueur.
- Base spirit
- The alcohol a liqueur is built on: neutral spirit, brandy, rum or whisky.
- Crème de
- A liqueur with extra sugar, at least 250 g per litre. No cream involved.
- Triple sec
- A clear orange liqueur made from sweet and bitter orange peel.
- Amaro
- Italian for ‘bitter’: a bittersweet herbal liqueur, usually drunk after a meal.
- Digestif
- A drink served after a meal; many herbal liqueurs began as aids to digestion.
- Frappé
- Served over crushed ice, a classic way to drink mint and herbal liqueurs.
How to taste
Five ways to enjoy a liqueur
- The glassA small tulip or stemmed liqueur glass gathers the aromas; a tumbler is best on ice. Pour a small measure: liqueurs are rich, and 3 to 4 cl is plenty.
- TemperatureFruit, citrus and cream liqueurs taste fresher well chilled, and limoncello, Fireball and salty liquorice are classic ice-cold shots. Herbal and spirit-based liqueurs show more at cellar or room temperature, or over a single ice cube.
- Nose & tasteLook for the main flavour first, then what balances it: acidity in fruit liqueurs, bitterness in herbal ones, the base spirit in whisky and rum liqueurs. A good liqueur is sweet but never cloying, and its flavour lasts.
- Ice, water & mixersCrushed ice opens up herbal and mint liqueurs. Many make easy long drinks with tonic, soda or ginger ale, and a dash of crème de cassis turns white wine into a Kir and champagne into a Kir Royal.
- At the tableServe herbal and bitter liqueurs as a digestif; nut, coffee and cream liqueurs with or instead of dessert, in coffee or over ice cream. Vana Tallinn is good in coffee or mulled wine. Keep opened bottles closed and away from heat; cream liqueurs cool.
Looking for a gift, or something to pour after dinner? Come and see us at the shop: we’re happy to help you choose.
Plan your visit →In our shop
Liqueur on our shelves
Estonia’s Vana Tallinn, Sweden’s honeyed Mackmyra Bee, salty Nordic liquorice, Southern Comfort from New Orleans, cinnamon Fireball and Denmark’s Gammel Dansk. Collect them at the shop or get free local delivery.
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Vana Tallinn Spiced Rum Liqueur 1L. 40%
€9.95 Add to cart -
Mackmyra Bee Honey Whisky Liqueur 0.5l 22%
€24.95 Add to cart -
Salmiakki Nordic Liquorice Liqueur (500ml 32% vol.)
€8.95 Add to cart -
Southern Comfort Original 35% 0.7l
€7.39 Add to cart -
Fireball Cinnamon Whisky Liqueur 0.7l 33%
€8.46 Add to cart -
Gammel Dansk Bitter 0.7l 38%
€16.95 Add to cart