What is advocaat?

Advocaat consists of ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin, a distillate of agricultural origin or a spirit drink, combined with good-quality egg yolk, egg white and sugar or honey.

The law sets strict minimums for the composition of the final product:

• at least 150 grams of sugar or honey per litre, expressed as invert sugar
• at least 140 grams of pure egg yolk per litre

Dairy products may be used in production. For flavouring, only flavouring foods, flavouring substances and flavouring preparations are permitted. If eggs from a bird species other than Gallus gallus are used, this must be stated on the label.

Advocaat must contain at least 14% alcohol by volume. In practice, according to the trade reference Difford’s Guide, most bottles are between 14 and 20%.

Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 sets a minimum of 15% for spirit drinks, but makes an explicit exception for products that meet category 39. Advocaat is therefore the only spirit product legally allowed to stay below that 15%.

In European legislation, liqueur with egg is a separate category, number 40, with a much lower egg yolk requirement: at least 70 grams per litre, against 140 grams for advocaat.

Liqueur with egg must, however, contain at least 15% alcohol and at least 150 grams of sugar or honey per litre. By comparison: ordinary liqueur (category 33) needs at least 15% alcohol and 100 grams of sweetening per litre, with 70 grams for cherry liqueur and 80 grams for liqueur flavoured solely with gentian or wormwood. You can usually tell the difference between advocaat and liqueur with egg straight away from the thickness and the colour of the bottle.

There is no certainty about the origin of the name. Two explanations circulate side by side in the specialist literature.

The first traces the name back to the avocado: in the seventeenth century, Dutch colonists in the West Indies are said to have made a drink from avocado flesh and, after returning home, replaced it with egg yolk. The Portuguese abacate supposedly became corrupted via advocate into advocaat. The second explanation places the origin much later, in the 1930s, and links the name to the profession of lawyer, advocaat in Dutch. Neither can be proven.

No, not since 1 January 2015. Until that date the Verordening Benaming Gedistilleerde en Zwak gedistilleerde Dranken of the Productschap Dranken applied. It used the same minimums for advocaat as the European rules: 140 grams of egg yolk and 150 grams of sugar per litre, at 14% alcohol.

Die verordening eiste ook uitdrukkelijk een gele kleur en stond aroma’s, kleurstoffen en verdikkingsmiddelen toe. Sinds de intrekking gelden alleen nog de Europese regels rechtstreeks. In Nederland geldt NIX18: alcohol wordt niet verkocht aan wie jonger is dan 18 jaar.