Liqueurs are a spectrum of flavours and styles, but there's only one winner in our league table. Oli Dodd reports.
Liqueurs and cocktails have a symbiotic relationship. While more often a side character in the glass, so many brands within the category owe their place in the bar to the classics that call for them. Our number-one placed brand is a perfect example of this.
Campari’s popularity in the UK’s best bars cannot be uncoupled from its role in the cocktails they serve. The Negroni is the second bestselling classic in the UK’s bars according to our poll but it doesn’t stop there – our top-50 bestselling cocktails list also includes the Americano, Boulevardier and then there’s the Garibaldi, Jungle Bird and Spritzes too. In our poll, 16% of bars said Campari was their bestselling liqueur, while it was a top three in a third.
Liqueur brands generally fall into two camps. There are the specialists that offer a specific flavour or style, like Campari, and the generalists that provide an array of flavours and are usually French or Dutch. Our second and third-placed brands fall into the latter category.
Family-owned Briottet, perhaps best known for its Crème de Cassis, boasts dozens of flavoured liqueurs. Our poll indicated it is the most popular of the one-stop shops, the bestselling brand in 11% and a top three in just shy of a quarter of the UK’s best bars.
If you’re not using Briottet for its range, there’s a decent chance you’re stocking Giffard. Also family-owned, the Loire Valley-based liqueur and spirits producer is known best in its homeland for Menthe Pastille. Elsewhere, the brand’s utility earned it the status of bestselling liqueur brand in 9% of our bars and a top-three brand in 20%.
Next up, Cointreau means that the top four is unchanged on last year. The triple sec features in the Margarita, which has topped our bestselling classics poll for consecutive years, but as Margs continue their stranglehold on UK cocktail drinkers, they increasingly call for a smaller portion of Cointreau, often eschewing the liqueur altogether – perhaps an indication as to why the brand was the bestseller in only 3% of bars while being on the supporting cast in 17%.
Now a moment of appreciation for the enduring power of Baileys. It’s hard to parse why a liqueur without any famous classic serves on our bestselling list and with limited applications after 17 March was the bestselling liqueur in 7% of our bars – must be a lot of Baby Guinnesses.
In sixth, Bacardi’s St-Germain which must’ve enjoyed last summer’s Hugo Spritz fling. While barely registering as a bestseller in bars, the elderflower liqueur created by Rob Cooper with the aid of UK bartending figures such as Simon Difford, was a top-three selling liqueur in 16%.
Merlet is the third French liqueur house to appear on the list, it was a top-three seller in 10% of bars. Kahlúa, meanwhile, has remained on the list while its hipster rival Mr Black has dropped off, perhaps indicating that the national Espresso Martini spec (the fourth bestselling classic in our poll) has been decided.
In ninth place, chili liqueur Ancho Reyes is a top-three bestselling liqueur in 10% of our bars while Chartreuse drops one place to 10th. Since 2021, the Carthusian monks who have made the botanical liqueur for centuries decided not to increase production to meet the growing demands to protect their monastic life. As a result, prices have risen and a steady supply has become harder to find. Chartreuse’s placement on the Bartenders’ Favourite list goes to show that its absence hasn’t softened the adoration for it within the industry.