6 Craft Cordials for Your Cocktails

Ask for a definition of the word “cordial,” and you’re bound to get a bunch of different (and frankly confusing) answers or possibly even more questions in reply. Is it a spirit or liqueur? Does it even contain alcohol at all? Can the category encompass any possible answer to these questions, as long as the liquid in question contains sugar? 

The answer to the latter question is essentially yes. On the website of the TTB (the government bureau that designates what’s permitted and what’s not in the realm of booze), the official definition doesn’t do much to clear things up, other than specify that a cordial must contain 2.5% sugar by weight. In the section that delineates and explains spirits classifications, where there are no fewer than 41 drilled-down different definitions of whiskey, the focus on cordials gets as murky as a louched glass of pastis. There are 21 different types listed, but the focus is on what they’re made of (gin cordial, brandy cordial, sloe gin) and the maximum ABV (typically 60 proof, or 30%, although once talk of anise-flavored spirits begins, it appears entirely up in the air). The legal definition uses the words “cordial” and “liqueur” interchangeably, calling the category a “flavored spirits product” that makes use of fruits, flowers, plants, juices or extracts of any of the latter.  

But there’s something particular and important implied in the category’s name. The word “cordial” all but instructs you to serve it as something special to be sipped slowly or used thoughtfully in a cocktail made and presented with care. “To be cordial is to be courteous and pleasant,” says Nicola Nice, the creator and owner of gin cordial Pomp & Whimsy. “And they make you think a little of etiquette, don’t they?” 

These half-dozen bottles fill that role beautifully via freshly picked fruit, a bevy of botanicals or simply a carefully considered pivot of spirit base.