cordials

cordials , in the realm of spirits and cocktails, can mean either of two things. In the United States, cordials are sweet, low-alcohol liqueurs. Flavoring agents include nuts, cream, spices, roots, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, fruits, and herbs. They are generally consumed after a meal, in place of dessert, and they are often named for the flavor used to infuse the alcohol. Base liquors include whiskies, brandies, and neutral grape or grain spirit.

In the United Kingdom and the former possessions of the British Commonwealth, the word cordial has a different meaning—a nonalcoholic sweet drink, usually uncarbonated. Perhaps the most famous example is Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial, which is made by preserving lime juice with sugar in place of alcohol. The Gimlet cocktail is traditionally made with Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial. (In the United States, the product is known as Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice, owing to the differences in the way US English and UK English use the word cordial. The US product additionally uses high-fructose corn syrup in place of the original sugar, which is still used in the United Kingdom and Canada.)

Other nonalcoholic cordial flavors include cucumber, rosehip, cherry, cranberry, rhubarb, ginger, elderflower, nettle, and black currant, to name a few. Alcohol-free UK-style cordials can be sipped with still or sparkling water as a soft drink or mixed into cocktails in a way similar to how you would use a fruit-based syrup.

In the United States, the distinction between cordial and liqueur is small enough to be considered hair splitting. As the bartender and cocktail and spirits writer Gary Regan wrote in his book The Bartender’s Bible, “In America, a cordial, usually served as an after-dinner drink, is what the rest of the world calls a liqueur—a sweetened liquor.” See Regan, Gary. In the United Kingdom, at least, a cordial is strictly nonalcoholic, and a liqueur is alcoholic. In the United States, both cordials and liqueurs have alcohol; the only difference is that cordial tends to refer to an after-dinner drink. But a given spirit can be called either a liqueur or a cordial, depending on the context. A triple sec such as Cointreau, for example, can be a cordial when sipped after dinner but a liqueur when thought of as a cocktail ingredient. And in the United Kingdom, of course, it wouldn’t be called a cordial at all. See Cointreau.

The word cordial derives from the Latin cor, or heart. Historically, alcohol-based cordials were used as medicines, thought to stimulate the heart, and hence the name. Distilled spirits were flavored with spices and herbs. Some cordials even included gold flakes and pearls, harking back to the alchemical principle that these materials purified the soul and promised eternal life. Gold flakes are still an “ingredient” in some liqueurs, such as goldwasser.

Cordials were produced by apothecaries during the Renaissance, who at that time were medical professionals who both compounded and dispensed medicines. These distilled “cordial waters,” as they were known to Renaissance writers, contained a litany of ingredients. A 1600 recipe for Rosa Solis, for example, contained the herb rosa solis (also known as sundew), cinnamon, ginger, cloves, rosehips, and grains of paradise—all steeped along with sugar in a gallon of distilled alcohol. Cordials were also prescribed as aphrodisiacs, which eventually led to them being enjoyed in social settings in addition to for medical purposes. Gradually these medical elixirs became recreational drinks.

Nut-flavored cordials include amaretto (almond), Castries peanut rum creme, Frangelico (hazelnut), Nocello (walnut and hazelnut), and Nocino (green walnuts). Fruit and berry cordials include Amarula (marula fruit), Cherry Heering, Cointreau (orange), Grand Marnier (orange), limoncello (lemon), Midori (melon), sloe gin, Chambord (raspberry), crème de cassis (currant), and Lillehammer (lingonberry). Flower cordials include crème de violette, Rosolio (rose), and St-Germain (elderflower). Cordials also include such flavors as honey (Drambuie), coffee (Kahlúa), and licorice (Sambuca). See Cointreau; crème de cassis; Grand Marnier; limoncello; and sloe gin.

“Drinking Heritage Inspires New Cordials for Gin from Sipsmith.” Bar Magazine, January 22, 2015. http://barmagazine.co.uk/drinking-heritage-inspires-new-cordials-gin-sipsmith/ (accessed March 1, 2021).

Regan, Gary. The Bartender’s Bible. New York: HarperTorch, 2003.

Price, Rose. “Savvy Shopper: Additive-Free Cordials.” Telegraph, June 24, 2006. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/3326434/Savvy-shopper-additive-free-cordials.html (accessed March 1, 2021).

By: Michael Dietsch