4 Nonalcoholic Cordials to Use in Your Cocktails

The word “cordial,” as it’s used in the United States, is a little ambiguous, encompassing both liqueurs and nonalcoholic syrups. When it’s used to mean the latter, how does a cordial differ from a regular old one-to-one sugar and water combo? “Syrup is the broad-based category, and cordials are a segment of it; not all syrups are cordials, but all cordials are syrups,” says Christa Cotton of El Guapo Bitters in New Orleans. “To me, a cordial is more complex in flavor; there are more components.”

The word has popped up on cocktail menus as a more interesting modifier than a typical simple syrup. The appeal of cordials lies in their stand-alone complexity. A great cordial doesn’t just balance sugar and acid (and the resulting flavors of sweet and sour); it often combines fruit, spices and/or herbs to create something that’s as exciting when combined with club soda as it is with your spirit of choice. 

For Nashville’s Rhonda Cammons, the desire to get drinks served quickly to her corporate clients without cutting corners on ingredients led her to create Perfectly Cordial, which takes inspiration from the structure of sours and complexity of Tiki in her young but growing line of bottled cordials. “With corporate bartending, it’s always about time and getting a good drink in front of customers quickly,” she says. “I was looking for good quality mixers that I could buy wholesale, and there was nothing.” So she started tinkering. “If you didn’t drink alcohol, I’d make you a riff on a cold green tea with caramelized pineapple, coconut water and seltzer. I had more people ordering the nonalcoholic stuff with cordials than traditional Gin & Tonics or Vodka Sodas, and I thought, Maybe I’m on to something here.”

She is, and so are these other craft cordial makers.