Giffard Pamplemousse liqueur. I am a huuuuge grapefruit fan, and as such have been eyeing this liqueur since I first heard about it (Pamplemousse is French for grapefruit). Being the mega fan I am (fav fruit hands down), I’m often disappointed by the grapefruit flavors I find in food/drinks since…
Pomp & Whimsy Gin Liqueur. I’ve been seeing lots of beautiful creations and love for this new liqueur recently, and am so glad to have this in my collection. As the craft cocktail and spirits scene booms with its cultural popularity, we’re seeing more artisan brands popping up with beautiful…
Chambord. This is actually one of my favorite fruit liqueurs even though I don’t reach for it as often as I’d like. Chambord is a delicious French liqueur made with red and black raspberries, vanilla, citrus, honey, and cognac. It tastes quite jammy (in a good way), with rich vanilla…
Ancho Reyes Original. If you’re even mildly a fan of spicy cocktails or the smokiness of dried peppers, this is the perfect liqueur to pick up! I resisted for a while, convincing myself I didn’t need a spicy liqueur in my collection that would be too specialized to get broad usage,…
Rothman and Winter Orchard Apricot Liqueur. Let’s revisit “Apricot Brandy.” I recently posted about how apricot brandy can be super confusing as it can refer to two VERY different things: one is a dry (non-sweet) full 40% ABV spirit distilled from fresh apricots, and the other is a sweetened liqueur version…
Disaronno Originale. The oh-so-familiar amaretto liqueur in the distinctive bottle. Amaretto is probably one of the most recognizable mainstream liqueurs, and most likely you’ve heard of it in some form or other, whether that be in cocktails like the amaretto sour or the perfect warm apres-ski drink, in coffee, as…
St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur – this is truly autumn in a bottle. As if my previous posts haven’t given it away, I’m a huge fan of everything they do and produce at St. George Spirits in Alameda, CA. It was the first distillery I ever visited and my first introduction…
Bénédictine. In the same realm as Chartreuse, Bénédictine is another one of those age-old (300+ yrs) herbal liqueurs from Europe (France) made with a blend of secret herbs and spices (27) that only a few (3) people know at one time. It’s sold as a 40% ABV standalone liqueur, as…
St. Elizabeth Allspice dram was brought to market in 2008 as a traditional pimento dram. (no, not the weird red strips inside olives) Pimento is also known as “allspice” and is commonly used in Jamaican and Caribbean cooking (jerk chicken!). Pimentos are very fragrant tiny dried berries that have flavors…
Drambuie. A whiskey liqueur made from scotch, heather honey, and secret herbs/spices. The flavor of this is definitely scotch forward and very sweet with strong honey and herbal notes. It’s been around for a couple hundred years but really picked up popularity in the Prohibition period to pair with (aka mask)…
Luxardo maraschino liqueur. To start, this tastes nothing like those neon plastic-y cherries generally associated with “maraschino” (more on those later – the history there is also quite interesting). As one of the oldest European liqueurs (1821), Luxardo is a staple for a well-rounded collection both to recreate classic cocktails…
Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao orange liqueur. You may have heard of Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Triple Sec, Curaçao, and the like, but what’s the difference? The commonality between these is that they’re all considered orange liqueurs, a base spirit sweetened and flavored with oranges, and the distinction between them is actually…
Green Chartreuse. You may have heard of the color chartreuse (this was super popular in the fashion world a couple years back), but did you know the color actually got its name from this liqueur? Chartreuse has its roots back to 1737 (the color reference came in 1884) and is…
Frangelico was actually one of the very first liqueurs I ever owned. When I first got interested in cocktails my senior year of college, I threw a couple cocktail parties for my friends, loading up my ‘bar’ with a few very calculated purchases (getting cocktail ingredients was a HUGE investment for…
St. George Absinthe Verte. For almost a century, absinthe has been surrounded by a shroud of mystery due to its ban for supposed hallucinogenic properties. When the ban was finally lifted in 2007, St. George Distillery in Alameda CA released the first legal American absinthe, which had been in the…
Sloe Gin. What is sloe gin, what does it taste like, and how do you use it? As the name suggests, sloe gin is actually a liqueur made from gin that is macerated (aka soaked in alcohol to draw out the flavors of the fruit) with sloe berries and a…
Ohhhh St. Germain. This was one of my first purchases that really jump started my cocktail interest (after getting past my initial “cocktail discovery” craze in college of throwing together Malibu, Peach schnapps, and Ocean Spray and calling it a cocktail). St. Germain is an elderflower liqueur – which tastes…