How much alcohol is in liqueur?

Liqueur must contain at least 15 percent alcohol. That minimum is set out in Annex I, category 33, of European Regulation 2019/787 and applies throughout the European Union.

If a drink stays under that 15 percent, the word liqueur may not appear on the label as a legal designation. Such a bottle is then called, for example, a flavoured drink or a flavoured wine product. That difference is not a formality. It also determines where the bottle may be sold and how excise duty is calculated on it.

The content can be read on the label, in percent vol and measured at 20 degrees Celsius. If it says 20 percent vol, a litre of that liqueur contains 20 centilitres of pure alcohol. If you are unsure about a bottle, pick it up and look for that number; it must appear in the same field of view as the name and the volume.

The regulation sets no upper limit for liqueur, so above 15 percent any content is permitted.

How much alcohol is actually in the bottle is determined by the producer within that one lower limit. As a result, liqueurs on the shelves vary widely: from bottles just above the legal minimum to bottles that come close to ordinary spirits. The regulation does not concern itself with this, as long as the bottle meets the requirements of its category.

Go by the number, then, and not by taste. Sweet masks alcohol, and with liqueur the sweetness is precisely what is prescribed by law. A liqueur that feels mild and syrupy can be considerably stronger than a dry drink that seems sharper. The label states the content with at most one decimal, so you can lay two bottles side by side without calculation.

Liqueur contains at least 100 grams of sweetener per litre, expressed as invert sugar. The regulation mentions two cases with a lower minimum.

For liqueur flavoured only with gentian, a comparable plant or wormwood, 80 grams per litre applies. For cherry liqueur whose alcohol consists entirely of cherry distillate, 70 grams per litre applies. Those two exceptions exist because the taste of gentian and of cherry would otherwise disappear under the sweetness.

The alcohol content does not change because of these exceptions. A gentian liqueur and a cherry liqueur must also reach at least 15 percent. Sweetener and alcohol are two separate requirements in the regulation: one may not replace the other. That is also the answer to the question why a sweet drink of 12 percent may not be called a liqueur, however sweet it is.

Egg liqueur and advocaat form a category of their own in the regulation, number 39, with a minimum of 14 percent alcohol instead of 15 percent.

That lower limit does come with requirements for the contents. It must contain at least 140 grams of egg yolk per litre and at least 150 grams of sweetener per litre, again calculated as invert sugar. A bottle that does not reach that egg and sweetener content may not carry the name egg liqueur or advocaat.

A liqueur that contains egg but does not meet category 39 falls under category 40, egg liqueur. The usual minimum of 15 percent alcohol applies to it, with at least 70 grams of egg yolk and 150 grams of sweetener per litre. On the shelf those two types often stand side by side, so it pays to compare the content and the name.

In the Netherlands, drink with 15 percent alcohol or more is spirits under the Alcoholwet, and spirits may only be sold in a wine & spirits shop.

Because liqueur is legally only liqueur from 15 percent, virtually every liqueur falls under that rule. Egg liqueur of 14 percent is the best-known exception; it counts as a low-alcohol drink. So in the Netherlands the limit from the European regulation runs almost parallel to the line between the wine & spirits shop and the ordinary shelf.

Praktisch betekent dat iets prettigs voor wie vergelijkt: in de winkel aan de Brink in Bathmen staat het likeurschap bij elkaar, van de lichtere flessen tot de stevige. U kunt de gehaltes dus naast elkaar bekijken en uitleg vragen voordat u kiest. NIX18: geen alcohol onder de 18 jaar.