Liqueurs, absinthe and bitters: the seasoning shelf
Orange liqueurs, maraschino, the Chartreuses, absinthe and cocktail bitters. What each one does in a drink, and the legends on their labels.
A liqueur is a spirit sweetened and flavoured with fruit, herbs, spices or nuts. EU rules require at least 100 grams of sugar per litre. In cocktails they do two jobs at once: they sweeten, and they season. When a recipe uses a liqueur, it usually needs less syrup.
The essentials
- Orange liqueur (triple sec, curaçao)
- Made from sweet and bitter orange peels. The sweetener and orange note in the Margarita, Sidecar, Cosmopolitan and Mai Tai. Strength varies from about 15% to 40%; the stronger, drier bottles taste better and are what our numbers assume.
- Maraschino
- A clear liqueur distilled from Marasca sour cherries, including their stones, from the Dalmatian coast. Floral and funky rather than cherry-sweet. Aviation, Last Word, Hemingway Daiquiri, Martinez.
- Green and yellow Chartreuse
- Herbal liqueurs made by Carthusian monks in the French Alps to a secret recipe. Green (55%) is intense and minty; yellow (40%) is softer and honeyed. Last Word, Naked and Famous.
- Bénédictine
- A honeyed herbal liqueur from Fécamp in Normandy. Its labels tell of a monk's recipe from 1510; the documented history begins with the merchant Alexandre Le Grand, who launched it in the 1860s. A classic case of legend printed on the bottle. Vieux Carré, Bobby Burns.
- Absinthe
- A high-strength spirit of wormwood, green anise and fennel. Banned in many countries in the 1910s, including Switzerland, the United States and France, and legal again in most of them since the 1990s and 2000s (the United States from 2007, France fully from 2011). In cocktails, use drops or a rinse of the glass (Sazerac, Corpse Reviver No. 2).
Cocktail bitters
Bitters are concentrated infusions of bitter roots, barks and spices in strong alcohol. A dash is under a millilitre, but it ties a drink together the way salt does in cooking. Three cover almost every classic:
- Aromatic bitters in the style first sold from the Venezuelan town of Angostura in the 19th century: clove, cinnamon and gentian. Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Champagne Cocktail.
- Anise-scented New Orleans bitters, associated with the 19th-century apothecary Antoine Amédée Peychaud: lighter, red and floral. Sazerac, Vieux Carré.
- Orange bitters: the classic partner for dry gin in the Martini of around 1900.
Bitters are usually 35–45% alcohol. A few dashes add a tiny amount, but they are not alcohol-free; leave them out of drinks for anyone avoiding alcohol completely.
