Liqueurs are oft maligned drinks, especially in these times when everything sweet is seen as a nefarious sugar-delivery system. The fact remains, however, that we need an element of sweet to balance our drinks, and many of the world’s great drinks need a dash or two of a liqueur to make them what they are: the Sidecar needs triple sec, a Last Word is not a Last Word without Chartreuse — the list goes on.
We’re taking a look here at some cocktails — some classic, like the Aviation; some bastardised classics, like Corpse Reviver Number Blue; some just downright good fun (hello, Banana Daiquiri) — and we’ve also got a round-up of some useful liqueurs.
Banana Daiquiri
10ml Suntory Lena Banana Liqueur
50ml dark rum
20ml lemon juice
30ml Monin Fruit de Banana
10ml maple syrup
Shake all ingredients, or blend with ice, depending on your mood.ADVERTISEMENTAdapted from a recipe by James Connolly, Angel’s Cut by Trustee, Perth
Let’s start with the fun, shall we? You hear Banana Daiquiri, and you think slushee machine-dross, but this reworking takes good rum, good ingredients — and the old stalwart of fern bars everywhere, Suntory Lena Banana — and offers up a not so serious drink with a seriously tasty, if guilty, pleasure.
Corpse Reviver Number Blue
20ml Bombay Sapphire
20ml De Kuyper Blue Curacao
20ml Lillet Blanc
20ml lemon juice
1 dash of absinthe
Shake all ingredients, strain into a chilled compete. Garnish with a lemon twist.Adapted from a recipe by Jacob Briars.
You may have heard blue drinks are a thing (we’ve been hearing that for a while now). The story on this drink goes that one day, Jacob Briars — now global trade advocacy director for Bacardi – came across a Facebook group titled A Jihad On All Blue Drinks, and offered up this twist on the classic Corpse Reviver #2. It was a fitting rebuff to some of the more blowhardy seriousness that was going on with the classic cocktail revival at the time. Hooray for blue.
Aviation
50ml gin
20ml lemon juice
2 dashes maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Massanez Liqueur de Violettes
Shake all ingredients, strain into a chilled compete. Garnish with a lemon twist.Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
From Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 book, Recipes for Mixed Drinks, comes this Aviation. It appears in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book, but with the violette liqueur omitted, and that’s a shame, too: it’s really not an Aviation unless you’ve got the pale sky hue to the drink. But please, go easy on the violet — you can go too far into potpourri territory if you’re not being careful.
Golden Cadillac
30ml Galliano L’Autentico
30ml Bols White Creme de Cacao
30ml cream
Shake all ingredients, strain into a chilled compete. Garnish with a lemon twist.Shake and strain, top with chocolate shavings.
A retro cocktail, if ever there were one. Widely seen as a symbol of 1970’s cocktailing, this drink came about in 1952 at Poor Red’s bar in El Dorado, California.
If the cream is too much for you — hey, have it for dessert perhaps? — you could switch in a cream of coconut like Coco Lopez; that idea is cribbed from the now-defunct NYC bar Golden Cadillac, which opened in 2013.
Solerno Spritz
30ml Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur
Prosecco to top
Add Solerno to a high ball, fill with ice, top with Prosecco and garnish with orange — blood oranges if in season.
It’s October, the weather has turned — hell, Sydney Bar Week has been and gone and now summer sunshine ain’t far away. And you could do worse in the sun than this simple mix of Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur and good quality prosecco; for us, the slight bitterness that comes from the oils give a good weight for an otherwise light drink, just be sure to use a dry style of prosecco.
A good lick of great liqueurs
Suntory Lena Banana
This can be found on back bars all over the world, but it is often put to poor use. But add it to a refreshing update on a Banana Daiquiri, like we have here (kudos to Perth’s James Connolly for the spec) and it gets a new lease on life. It’s made with top quality bananas from the world’s tropical regions.
CCA
Tia Maria
Tia Maria has been on the scene for some time now, and it’s because of its blend of fine Jamaican coffee and Caribbean spices that offers up aromas of roasted coffee, vanilla, and chocolate. Check it out in our Classic this month, the Espresso Martini.
Spirits Platform
G.E. Massanez Liqueurs
These French liqueurs — for those of us old enough to remember — were present at the rebirth of proper cocktailing in the early ‘aughts. The Massenez Liqueur de Violette is made with violet flowers, with a fragrant floral nose and sweetness and florals on the palate.
Cerbaco
Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur
Solerno is made from blood oranges on the island of Sicily, Italy combined with Italian lemons. Bright blood orange and lemon characters on the nose, a tart flavoursome palate, and a generous mouthfeel courtesy of its 40% abv making it useful as a base spirit or as a modifier.
William Grant & Sons
Tempus Fugit
Based on old timey recipes, these liqueurs have got bartenders excited about things like crème de menthe and crème de cacao — an excitement we hadn’t seen before. They’ve got some killer bitters too (take a look at this month’s Blind Tasting for more), but we’ve been rhapsodising about the Crème de Menthe — it’s ridiculously good.
Vanguard Luxury Brands
De Kuyper
In 1695 they began distilling genever, and have since grown to be one of the oldest family businesses in The Netherlands and the world’s biggest producer of cocktail liqueurs. De Kuyper Blue Curacao is made from curacao oranges (otherwise known as lahara). It’s pretty much inedible — but when used for it’s aromatic oils it produces fine liqueurs.
Bacardi Lion
Giffard Liqueurs
In 1885, a French chemist was researching the digestive benefits of mint, and wound up creating a clear, white mint liqueur called Menthe-Pastille.
The Giffard family is still producing the Menthe-Pastille, along with a range of other liqueurs and syrups, like the Agave Sec: which uses agave syrup instead of sugar. Great for margaritas!
Iconic Spirits
Galliano L’Autentico
Created in 1896 in Livorno, Italy, by Arturo Vaccari, Galliano is made from a special blend of 30 herbs such as star anise, juniper and other floral aromatic ingredients. It’s a complex liqueur, the result of seven infusions and six distillations, and is iconically served in retro classics like the Harvey Wallbanger and the Golden Cadillac.
CCA