Liqueur

Liqueurs (French loanword liqueur, liquor from Latin for " liquid") are aromatic alcoholic beverages with relatively high sugar content ( at least 100 grams per liter). The alcohol content is normally 15 to 40% by volume, but there are stronger and weaker liqueurs, such as Chartreuse verte with 55 % vol or Aperol with 11 or 15 % by volume

History

In Medicine

Arnaldo of Villanova, Rector of the Medical Faculty of the city of Montpellier, which then belonged to Catalonia, brought in the last quarter of the 13th century, the technique of distillation - the production of alcoholic beverages with a higher alcohol content than beer or wine - from the Crusades with after Europe.

In alcohol and alcohol water mixtures he took a variety of medicinal plants to extract their active ingredients. This technique is called maceration. It belongs next to the distillation still one of the two basic techniques of liqueur production. Maceration can last from a few hours to several weeks.

After the maceration of alcohol together with the extracted essential oils is still distilled once or twice. The second distillation is known as rectification. To make the edible plant extracts, Villanova rounded out the flavor from honey.

The liquor thus began as a remedy. For a long time remained the domain of liqueurs pharmacies and monasteries with their herb gardens.

Herbal extracts with alcohol with no added sugar are still available in pharmacies, such as chamomile extract or sage extract or as a mixture of many herbs as bitters, spirits a form, which should help to digest.

As a forerunner of today's liqueurs, however, the flavored wines of Roman and Greek antiquity apply. In similar taste also some fruit and fruit wines in Central Europe are like the black Ribiselwein ( currant).

As a stimulant

But early in the 14th century also began to produce liqueurs for the simultaneous use of alcohol, aroma and sweetness.

Due to the very high sugar prices, the consumption of liquors was limited to the 17th century to the most affluent sections of the population. When the Italian noblewoman Catherine of Medici in 1532 the French king Henry II married, were among her entourage also specialists in the manufacture of liqueurs.

Since sugar, first as a result of colonialism, generally available, there are liqueurs from almost all known fruits and herbs. In France, there was virtually in any place one or more Liquoristen who created a colorful mix of liqueurs. Some of these brands have a long tradition, but nationwide dissemination reached liqueur brands until the 19th century.

Among the oldest and most traditional manufacturers include Benedictine ( created in 1510 by Dom Bernardo Vincelli, a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Fécamp, Normandy, France, taken over in 1810 by a liquor dealer ), Bols (1575, Netherlands), De Kuyper ( 1695, Netherlands) and Marie Brizard ( 1755, France). Among the most traditional German name counts " The salmon to Danzig".

Today is manufactured by a monastery of the Chartreuse.

In 1876, Eugen Verpoorten Heinberg in the same distillery, in which he invented the eggnog and produced. This is produced by the former and still kept secret recipe.

Liqueur today

In the EU liqueur produced a minimum content of 100 g of invert sugar per liter must have. Also other sugars may be used, however, the degree of sweetness to the needs of at least 100 grams per liter, corresponding to invert. Every spirit that contains at least these sugar content, is a liqueur. Creams are especially sweet liqueurs with a minimum sugar content of 250 grams per liter, at Crème de Cassis at least 400 grams per liter are required. Creams are mainly used for making cocktails.

In addition to the classical technique of maceration today liqueurs are also partly derived simply by mixing fruit syrup and / or flavors with sugar, alcohol and water. Their color will get the most liquors by added dyes, while both natural and artificial colors are allowed.

The liqueur market in Germany

In 2005, about 140 million liters of liquor were sold in Germany. The largest share of this semi-sweet liqueurs ( which alone retails sales in stores over 200 m² was 43 % of the total liquor market ), followed by Eierlikören ( 16.6 %) and cream liqueurs ( 10.7 %). In 2004 the per capita consumption of less than two liters, which is about a third of the per capita consumption of spirits in total ( 5.9 liters).