A SHORT HISTORY OF LIQUEURS
The story of liqueurs begins with medicine.
Once European distillers began producing aqua vitae, or “water of life,” during the Middle Ages, monks, apothecaries and physicians started infusing spirits with herbs, roots, spices and other botanicals.
Plants had long been valued for their supposed medicinal properties, and alcohol provided an effective way of extracting and preserving their flavors. Sugar and honey helped make some of the resulting potions considerably easier to swallow.
Monasteries became particularly associated with herbal liqueurs. Bénédictine traces its inspiration to the Benedictine Abbey of Fécamp, as the rumor goes, although the liqueur we know today was actually created there in the 19th century. Chartreuse, meanwhile, has a genuine monastic pedigree: Carthusian monks began developing the famous herbal elixir in France during the 18th century from a manuscript given to their order much earlier.
As sugar became more readily available in Europe, liqueurs moved beyond the apothecary. Fruits, nuts, herbs, flowers and spices could be preserved in alcohol and sweetened, and different regions developed specialties based on ingredients available locally.
France developed its own extraordinary range of herbal, fruit and citrus liqueurs, while curaçao gave the cocktail world an orange liqueur whose history stretches back to the Caribbean island of the same name.
By the golden age of cocktails in the 19th and early 20th centuries, bartenders had discovered just how useful these intensely flavored bottles could be. A small measure could add sweetness, bitterness, fruit, spice or aroma without overwhelming the drink.
Peek behind almost any great cocktail bar and you’ll find shelves packed with strange bottles in all shapes and sizes. You may not need them all for your home bar, but choose a few wisely and suddenly a whole new world of cocktails becomes possible.
