The Styles Of Liqueur
Sweet Rewards
Delicious elixir flavoured with ingredients from every corner of the world. Liqueurs are sweetened spirits infused with almost any fruit, plant, or food you can think of. Liqueurs are a minefield of different ingredients and flavour, and for simplicity’s sake, we have divided them into 5 broad categories: Herbal (vegetal & seed) – Cream (egg) – Fruit – Spirits – Nut (bean&chocolate). Many brands straddle across two or more camps.
Difference between fruit-flavoured brandies, which are essentially liqueurs, and fruit brandies.
~~ Fruit-flavoured brandies are manufactured liqueurs from base grape brandy and sugar with the addition of an extract or a fruit concentrate.
~~ Fruit brandies are non-grape brandies. The end product is clear, strong, and usually distilled to 40%ALV.
THE STYLES
HERBAL/ SPICE
This category includes some of the oldest spirits known to man and touch of ancient cures from the hands of Monks. They were initially created not to bring drinking pleasure, but to cure illness. France is one of the two major producers of premium herbal liqueurs, the other being Italy. The modern sweeter herb-based liqueurs developed from these medicinal drinks. It is impossible to list all the ingredients of all the brands, but they will contain botanicals such as angelica, hyssop, mint, cloves, aloes, orange & lemon peel, honey, gentian, wormwood, anise quinine, caraway and almond.
Popular herbal brands: La Fée (Absinthe), Benedictine, Canton, Chartreuse, Goldschläger, Herbsaint, Jägermeister, Kümmel, Licor 43, Krupnik, Paan, Strega, Luxardo (Sambuca), Unicum, Underground, and Zen.
FRUIT
The arrival of fruit liqueurs marks the change in drinking pattern, from good/healthy for you to pure enjoyment. Looking deceptively gentle in the glass, these drinks give a burst of fruity, juicy tanginess that is quite powerful. These liqueurs tend to be coloured according to their fruit, some naturally other by the addition of colouring. Some of the world’s most successful and popular liqueurs are made from citrus fruits. During the 17th century, Amsterdam, capital of Holland, was a busy port, bringing home exotic gifts from Dutch colonies around the world. One of the colonies, Curacao, an island in the Carribean, provided the Dutch sailors with a special type of bitter orange. These special oranges found their way into the hands of liqueur-makers, who began to use the fruit to flavor brandewijin, grape brandy. Three huge brands are Bols, de Kuyper, and Cusenier.
Popular brands are: Alize, Cherry Heering, Chambord, Cointreau, Guyot (crème de cassis), Bols (curaçao), Hypnotiq, Russo (limoncello), Mandarine Napoleon, Luxardo (maraschino), Midori, and Pama.
NUT / COFFEE/ CHOCOLATE
The infusion of seeds and nuts in alcohol is an old rural tradition. The principle is pretty much the same for all styles. The nuts are chopped up and steeped in neutral or grape spirit, filtered, sweetened and sometimes coloured. Most coffee liqueurs are made using a rum base, which is softened and sweetened with coffee and sugar. Crème de cacao ( chocolate) liqueur featured whole cocoa beans.
Popular nut liqueur brands: Disaronno (almond), Frangelico (hazelnut), Boudier (hazelnut), Trader Vic’s (macadamia), Nocello (walnut).
Popular coffee liqueur brands: Kahlúa, Tia Maria, Toussaint, Café Royal (Meaghers).
Popular chocolate liqueur brands: Mozart, Godiva, Cresta.
SPIRIT/ WHISKY
Delicate, unique and intense, these liqueurs are made from secret recipes handed down through generations. The vast majority of liqueurs uses a neutral spirit base, but there are notable exceptions such as Grand Marnier.
Popular brands are: Drambuie, Grand Marnier, Glayva, Irish Mist, Rock and Rye, Souther Comfort.
CREAM / MILK / EGG
The attraction of this category lies in the fact that they are easy to drink, have a lower alcohol content, and are softly sweet. If you like it sweet and creamy, then this category is for you. Fun, rich, and luscious, these liqueurs are pure indulgence.The egg-yolk based advocate is dominated by Warninks, which goes through an estimated 60 million egg-yolks a year. The eggs are broken by machine, separated, and mixed with the grape spirit, sugar, vanilla and an emulsifying agent.
Popular brands are: Baileys, Amarula, Warninks, Sheridans.