What is a liqueur? Sugar, strength and the law behind the label

In Great Britain a liqueur is defined by the retained spirit drinks regulation, Regulation (EC) No 110/2008, Annex II, category 32. It is a spirit drink made from agricultural alcohol, a distillate or other spirit drinks, sweetened, and flavoured with fruit, plants, other foods or flavourings. It must hold at least 100 grams of sugar a litre, measured as invert sugar, and at least 15% alcohol by volume.

Two exceptions lower the sugar line. A cherry liqueur whose alcohol is made only from cherry spirit needs 70 grams a litre, and a gentian liqueur, flavoured with gentian or a similar plant alone, needs 80. Neither number has a ceiling. Green Chartreuse at 55% ABV and a 15% crème de cassis are both liqueurs.

The regulation also limits flavourings for some of them. Fruit liqueurs of blackcurrant, cherry, raspberry, citrus and a handful of other fruits, and plant liqueurs of mint, gentian or aniseed, may use only natural flavourings. Other liqueurs may use the wider range of flavouring substances allowed in food.

Old bar names survive inside the rules. A label may call a liqueur cherry brandy, apricot brandy or orange brandy, but the word liqueur must sit right beside it in letters no smaller, and if the alcohol did not come from that brandy, the label must say what it was made from.

Category 32 is the floor. Several liqueurs have their own, higher lines, and some bottles sold beside them fall below it.

Liqueurs make more sense grouped by what flavours them than by brand. The table sets out eight families, with their usual strengths and the allergens worth checking on the label.

The nut family is where most allergen questions start: amaretto may take its almond taste from apricot kernels, bitter almonds, peach stones or almonds, depending on the brand, says Wikipedia, and Frangelico is made from hazelnuts, by its maker’s account. Coconut liqueur and banana liqueur sit with the fruit family; coconut is often sold as coconut rum, but at about 21% it is a liqueur in law. Triple sec, curaçao, Cointreau and Grand Marnier takes the orange family apart.

There are two basic routes. In maceration, or infusion, fruit, peel, herbs or nuts sit in spirit, or in spirit and water, until the flavour has moved into the liquid, which is then strained and sweetened. In distillation the flavouring goes into the still, and the aromatic spirit that comes over carries it. Most liqueurs are not aged; they rest after blending so the flavours settle.

The base varies as much as the flavour. Most liqueurs start from neutral spirit, which lets the fruit or the herb lead. Some are built on a named spirit and taste of it, by their makers’ own accounts: Grand Marnier on cognac and Drambuie on aged Scotch.

Cream and egg liqueurs need one more step. Cream and spirit separate if they are simply stirred together, so Irish cream is homogenised until the fat stays suspended in the sweetened spirit. Advocaat is built on egg yolk, sugar and spirit, and the Dutch home style is thick enough to eat with a spoon.

Sugar and alcohol together stop anything growing in a liqueur. A strong one, such as triple sec, amaretto or a herbal liqueur, keeps for years once opened if the cap goes back on and the bottle stays out of the light; only the aroma fades.

Lower strength changes that. Crème de cassis, at 15%, belongs in the fridge once opened and holds its fruit for about six months.

Cream and egg liqueurs follow their own dates. Baileys says its Original lasts two years from bottling, opened or not, kept between 0 and 25°C. Advocaat goes in the fridge once opened. A cream liqueur that has separated, thickened or smells sour is finished.

The wine-based bottles beside them are a different case. Vermouth is wine and oxidises once opened, so keep it in the fridge and expect three to four weeks before it turns dull. Vermouth explained covers the styles and the drinks.

A drink above 1.2% ABV does not have to carry a list of ingredients or a nutrition declaration. That exemption is Article 16(4) of the retained food information regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, and it is why most liqueur labels list nothing. Allergens are outside it. Article 9(1)(c) still requires them, and Article 21 says how: where there is no ingredients list, the label gives the word contains followed by the allergen. The Food Standards Agency’s guidance for manufacturers says the same: “for alcoholic drinks with no ingredients list, allergens must be indicated by the word ‘contains’ followed by the name of the allergen”. The missing list is the law at work, not something hidden.

Annex II of that regulation lists fourteen: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts and five other tree nuts), celery, mustard, sesame, sulphur dioxide and sulphites above 10mg a kilo or a litre, lupin and molluscs. Six matter for liqueurs.

Nuts first. Wikipedia says amaretto may be made from almonds or from apricot kernels, peach stones or bitter almonds depending on the brand, and only almonds are on the list. Frangelico is made from hazelnuts, and nocino from green walnuts. Orgeat, the almond syrup kept beside them, is a tree-nut ingredient whenever it is made from almonds.

Milk is in Irish cream, in most chocolate liqueurs and in the cream versions of butterscotch and coconut liqueur; coconut itself is not one of the fourteen. Egg is the base of advocaat, and both egg categories of the spirit drinks regulation require yolk. Raw egg white in a sour is a separate question from the allergen line, and the Food Standards Agency’s advice on eggs answers it.

Sulphites belong to the wine-based bottles beside the liqueurs: vermouth, sherry and port. They are not liqueurs, and above 10mg a litre their sulphites must be declared.

Cereals are the line most often misread. Annex II exempts cereals used for making alcoholic distillates, agricultural alcohol included, so a liqueur whose alcohol was distilled from grain carries no gluten line for that reason. A liqueur with malt or biscuit added after distillation is another matter. Soya turns up as lecithin in some chocolate and cream liqueurs. Peanuts, celery, mustard, sesame, fish, crustaceans, molluscs and lupin are on the list and almost never in a liqueur, so a contains line naming one is worth reading twice.

The words gluten-free are a separate rule from the allergen line. They are a regulated claim under Regulation (EU) No 828/2014, allowed only where the drink as sold holds no more than 20mg of gluten a kilo. Trading Standards guidance says liqueurs may carry the claim, but the maker must be able to show by testing that the bottle stays under that figure. The distillate exemption is about the allergen line, not the claim.

Recipes change, so check the bottle on every branded liqueur, and again whenever you buy a new one. No general rule replaces the label in your hand.

Most drinks use a liqueur in small measures, to sweeten and flavour at once. The Margarita takes 20ml of triple sec, the only sugar in the glass. The Kir takes 10ml of crème de cassis under 90ml of dry white wine, and the Rusty Nail stirs 25ml of Drambuie into 45ml of Scotch.

Some drinks give it an equal share. The Last Word is four parts of 22.5ml: gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime. The Negroni is equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth at 30ml, and the French Connection is equal measures of cognac and amaretto.

A few make the liqueur the base. The Amaretto Sour sets 45ml of amaretto against 30ml of lemon, with a little cask-strength bourbon for backbone. The Espresso Martini takes 30ml of Kahlúa with vodka and a hot shot of espresso, and the White Russian 25ml of coffee liqueur under cream. The Campari and Soda and the Aperol Spritz lengthen a bitter with soda or prosecco.

Sugar makes a liqueur dense, which is how the B-52 layers: coffee liqueur at the bottom, Irish cream on it, an orange liqueur on top. The Grasshopper and the Golden Cadillac shake liqueurs with cream. Keep citrus away from cream liqueurs, because acid curdles them at once.

When a liqueur joins a drink that already has syrup, take some syrup out. Understanding cocktail balance sets out the sums, and cocktail terms defines the aperitif and the digestif.

Read the legal name first. Liqueur, crème de, or a legal name such as sambuca, advocaat or sloe gin tells you which sugar and strength floors the bottle met.

Then the strength, which runs from 14% for advocaat to 55% for green Chartreuse. The same 25ml of each carries very different alcohol, and a recipe balanced on a 40% triple sec turns softer and sweeter on a 20% one. ABV vs proof explains the figures.

Then the contains line, if there is one. There is no ingredients list behind it, so it is the whole of what the label owes you on allergens. How to read a rum label applies the same habit to a spirit.

The British definitions are Regulation (EC) No 110/2008, Annex II, categories 30 and 32 to 42, as retained in UK law and read on legislation.gov.uk on 12 October 2026. The United States standard for cordials and liqueurs is 27 CFR 5.150, read on eCFR the same day.

The allergen rules are Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Articles 9(1)(c), 16(4) and 21 and Annex II, and gluten-free claims are Regulation (EU) No 828/2014, all read on legislation.gov.uk on 12 October 2026. The quotation is from the Food Standards Agency’s Allergen labelling for food manufacturers, published on GOV.UK on 14 December 2017, and the gluten-free point from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s Business Companion guide to alcoholic beverages, reviewed in March 2026.