Apricot Brandy
A sweet apricot liqueur rather than a brandy, and a category that collapsed into artificial syrup for decades before decent bottles returned. The revival matters, because the classics were written for something the mid-century version could not deliver.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Ripe apricot jam with a bitter-almond kernel underneath: sweet, perfumed and warmer than its colour suggests.
Storage & Handling
Sealed and upright. An open bottle holds for many months.
Usage
A supporting player across the pre-war canon: the Angel Face stands it beside gin and calvados, and it sweetens and perfumes sours, slings and tiki builds wherever a jammy stone-fruit note is called. Despite the name, treat it as a liqueur, not a spirit.
A Liqueur With a Spirit’s Name
Apricot brandy is a liqueur: fruit macerated in spirit, sweetened heavily and bottled well below spirit strength. The confusion is compounded here by something that does exist, since Alsace and central Europe produce a genuine apricot eau-de-vie, distilled from the fermented fruit, bone dry and unsweetened. The two share a fruit and nothing else. A recipe from the pre-war canon calling for apricot brandy means the sweet liqueur, and pouring the eau-de-vie into it removes all the sugar the drink was balanced around.
The Category Collapsed and Came Back
For much of the twentieth century apricot brandy was among the worst-served categories on the shelf, reduced to sugar syrup with artificial flavouring and a colour closer to orange squash than fruit. That is why the classics using it acquired a reputation for being cloying: they were being made with something that bore no relation to what their authors poured. Bottles worth using returned in the 2000s, made with real apricots and carrying a bitter-almond kernel note, and the affected drinks recovered with them.
The Pre-War Canon
It turns up throughout the drinks of the 1920s and 1930s, usually as a supporting measure rather than a headline. The Angel Face stands it beside gin and calvados in equal parts. The Paradise puts it with gin and orange juice. The Charlie Chaplin pairs it with sloe gin and lime, which sounds implausible and works. In each of them the apricot is doing two jobs at once, sweetening the drink and supplying a jammy stone-fruit note that no other single ingredient provides.
Buying It
Read the ingredients and the colour before the price. A good bottle tastes of ripe apricot with a faint bitter-almond edge from the kernel, and looks amber rather than orange. The cheap end still exists and still tastes of boiled sweets. Check the sugar too, since it is a sweetener as well as a flavour and other syrup in the build should come down when it goes in. Sealed and upright, an opened bottle holds for many months.
Top Tips
- Buy the orchard, not the boiled sweet: good bottles taste of ripe apricot and a bitter-almond kernel edge.
- It is a sweetener as well as a flavour: ease back other sugar when it enters a spec.
- The apricot eau-de-vie of Alsace is a different, dry spirit entirely: check the label for sugar.
Possible Substitutions
- Peach liqueur: softer and rounder, the nearest stone-fruit neighbour
- Apricot jam shaken in, a barspoon: an emergency reading that works better than it should
Production Method
Apricots macerated or distilled into a sweetened liqueur, in the best bottles on a true brandy base with the kernel’s almond note retained. The name survives from an era before labelling law separated liqueurs from brandies.
Common Questions
Is apricot brandy actually brandy?
No. It is a liqueur, with fruit macerated in spirit and sweetened heavily. A genuine apricot eau-de-vie does exist, distilled in Alsace and central Europe, and it is bone dry. The two share a fruit and nothing else, so the labels are worth reading.
What does it taste like?
Ripe apricot with a faint bitter-almond note from the kernel, and a good deal of sweetness. A poor bottle tastes of boiled sweets instead, which is the legacy of decades when the category was made with artificial flavouring rather than fruit.
What cocktails need it?
The Angel Face, which stands it beside gin and calvados in equal parts, the Paradise with gin and orange juice, and the Charlie Chaplin with sloe gin and lime. It runs throughout the drinks of the 1920s and 1930s as a supporting measure.
Why do the classics using it taste cloying?
Usually because they were made with the mid-century version, which was sugar syrup and artificial flavouring rather than fruit. The drinks acquired their reputation from an ingredient their authors never poured. Bottles made with real apricots returned in the 2000s and the recipes recovered with them.