Any discussion on liqueurs necessarily must begin with addressing what a liqueur exactly is: Liqueurs are sweetened liquors (note the spelling difference) that are flavoured and scented by the addition of spices, herbs, flowers and so on. The art of making liqueurs involves taking four basic ingredients and mixing them in a harmonious way that will result in a pleasant tasting drink after a certain procedure and elapsed time.
The first ingredient of liqueur making is alcohol; one must understand that pure, comestible alcohol (as opposed to denatured alcohol for industry), usually distilled from grain or wine but other sources like distilled sugar cane or rum can be used, is required. The liqueur-maker, as a rule, does not distill their own alcohol (though many of the bigger liqueur companies do) but rather, procures it from whatever the biggest spirit industry is in that country: in Italy it is brandy from wine, in Belize it is rum from sugarcane and in Ireland it is whiskey from grains. Alcohol can make up anything from 18% (or 36 proof) to usually, around 40% (80 proof) of a liqueur recipe but it can be even higher, so beware.
The second ingredient in liqueurs is sugar. Other sweetening agents such as honey, glucose or rock candy are used but 95% of the industry uses finely granulated, refined sugar. The sugar usually makes up from about 18% to 33% or higher.
Water is the third ingredient and makes up the balancing percentage of the recipe. These three ingredients are what make up the bulk of the liqueur and are what add the biggest material cost (yes, even special, costly water can be used) to the whole enterprise. So, what this means is that a cheap liqueur uses cheap base ingredients and cheap things usually mean that the quality is poorer, as quality is the biggest sacrifice in making things cheap. Therefore, as a general rule, cheap liqueur is most likely to be of poorer quality than a more expensive one.
Any material that is aromatic, coloured and medicinal makes up the fourth ingredient. This last ingredient is usually the most expensive (but not invariably so) and in our case, the most labour intensive: the growing, maintenance and harvesting of fruit and spices in a small farm environment without mechanisation. According to the recipe and more specifically, the type of fourth ingredient used, liqueurs can be broadly defined into five types: Herb, spice and bitter liqueurs form the first category; examples being Amaretto di Saronno, Bénédictine D.O.M and Campari. Fruit liqueurs make up the second category and include such liqueurs as Cointreau (the number-one mixing liqueur at the bar) and Triple Sec. The third category includes Crèmes (thick, very sweet liqueurs mostly used for mixing), such as Crème de Cacao and Crème de Menthe. Emulsion liqueurs are made from chocolate, cream, milk and/or eggs; examples include, Kahlúa and Tia Maria. And finally, as their name suggests, whiskey liqueurs have whiskey in them; Bayley’s Irish Cream and Southern Comfort are common brands.
To give a little background on liqueurs, we need to go back a little in time and we also have to consider medicine. From about the 1400s, which is where this story starts but mainly from the 16 to 17 hundreds, people used to use a lot of plant products as medicines. Since these substances could not be preserved for very long by themselves, alcohol and sugar (much as salt, in salt fish) were used as preservatives in order to be able to keep “the medicine” until required. In addition, alcohol, called “spirits” and sugar itself, were considered pharmaceutical agents. Monasteries were the usual places where medicines were made and the first liqueurs were likely to be associated with a specific monastery or even a specific monk (like Bénédictine D.O.M). Many people also made their own medicines at home and liqueur-making families were born from this. The places where this phenomenon occurred the most were in Southern France and Italy; that’s why many liqueurs seen are either French or Italian (Campari, Amaretto, etc.). With time, medicine changed and drugs changed but liqueurs still tasted good and people kept on drinking them just for fun. With even more time, people invented nicer and fancier drinks using the many different tastes provided by liqueurs so that cocktails like margaritas and dry martinis came about (Prohibition was very helpful in doing this).
Telling what is good and what is bad in liqueurs is difficult business. What makes it difficult is the fact that the final decision is whether you like it or not. This means that if you happen to like a cheap, sloppily made mixture of alcohol, sugar, water and Gatorade, the rest probably is meaningless. Having said that, the general rule is that the longer the process, the more time it takes and the more careful the person making it is, the better the liqueur. And yes, you guessed it, all those good things…they usually mean more money! There is a way to determine whether these good things are happening or if the producer is trying to defraud you with false claims: the liqueur tasting. You can even perform this test on just about anything…like wine tasting, Cognac or Armagnac tasting, whiskey tasting and beer tasting…any drink can be tasted!
In “the tasting,” the first thing to remember is that it is done blind (you don’t know what you are tasting). This offsets the effect of bias and is important when you are tasting from different producers. The next step is to pour a little liqueur out into a shot glass and to look at it. Colour and clarity are the main things determined but by swirling a glass you can get a rough estimate of alcohol and sugar content. The colour gives a clue as to the material the liqueur is made from and the clarity tells you how old it is. Liqueurs are generally filtered only when the aromatic materials are removed from the liqueur solution at the very start of the whole process. Subsequent to this, the liquid is left to stand and the longer it stands, the more material will settle out. Very clear liqueurs generally take a minimum of a year to produce and often longer. Sometimes liqueurs will not clear regardless of how long they are left to settle, this usually happens if the liqueur is made from starchy fruit or fruit that contains a lot of pectin. As with all fine things, rules are actually guidelines and experience is what allows you to understand the exceptions.
The next step is to sniff it and determine what sort of impression this creates. Some people are able to determine very fine nuances with practice and tasting usually appeals to people who like to use their nose. The final step is the actual tasting in the mouth and noticing the correlation between the olfactory sensation of the previous step and the gustatory sensation from this final step. It is customary to have a glass of water between tastings and to at least swish the mouth out after each liqueur. Many tastings can involve fifteen or twenty liqueurs so that many people will spit out after tasting in order not to get intoxicated.
After each liqueur is tasted, the identity of the bottle is revealed and the taster is allowed to examine the bottle. This is also an important part of the tasting, as a label can tell you a lot about the quality. The thing that is important to remember is that in purchasing liqueurs you are buying something really nice inside a bottle. Most serious liqueur-makers recognize and are acutely aware of this fact so that a simple, clear label is more likely to depict a good liqueur. To put it another way, the liqueur-maker knows that their product speaks for itself and therefore does not need a shiny, glitzy, meretricious label. Good liqueurs generally should not look like a bottle of Gatorade.
Since most liqueurs were at one time at least, nominally a medicine, a dark, light-proof bottle is commonly used, especially if the liqueur is a dark, herbal bitter. Certain light liqueurs, or liqueurs that show a particularly attractive colour can be bottled in clear or unusual bottles. Generally, bottles can be smaller as a liqueur is meant to be drunk as single shots, not a bottle at a time.
We touched on the aging of liqueurs earlier but to add a further point, it must be remembered that some liqueurs are bottled early for the express purpose of making the peak of the liqueur occur at a later time, say, six-months to a year after bottling. Such a liqueur will taste “young” if drunk immediately and will also not be as clear. The equivalent situation in wine making would be the first wine made with the start of your crop for the year; it is meant to be drunk quickly because your previous year’s wine is finished or finishing; you know you will consume it “young.” Also, since it is stored in bottles (rather than barrels) it will not age the same way with time. Many people are fond of such “Nouveau” wines.
Drinking liqueurs (or anything, for that matter) is largely a matter of personal taste with a few caveats: Most liqueurs used to be considered medicine at one time and as such, were had one shot at a sitting; having too much can make you feel sick and drinking enough for a “liqueur hangover” is an unpleasant experience few people repeat. To fully appreciate a liqueur, a simple shot or over ice, are appropriate ways to drink. Having said this, there are some very finely flavoured cocktails that make good use of liqueurs and this is a good way to enjoy them too. Liqueurs can also be used in other ways: drizzled over ice cream or cake; incorporated into other desserts; or even used as a sauce base in cooking.
However liqueurs are taken, the main point is to try and gain the same amount of pleasure as the maker has gained from making them.