Can you store liqueur in the fridge?

Cream and egg liqueurs containing real dairy or egg belong in the fridge once opened; ordinary fruit and herbal liqueurs do not.

The dividing line runs along the ingredient, not the category. If the bottle contains cream, milk powder or egg yolk, it is a dairy product with alcohol in it, and the maker's storage advice applies. If it contains only fruit, herbs, nuts or plant extract, a closed kitchen cupboard out of the sunlight does the same job as a fridge.

In Bathmen the whole liqueur category comprises 789 items from 266 brands from 33 countries, with alcohol percentages from 2 to 68 percent, within a shop of around 6,500 items. Most of those bottles need no refrigeration. If in doubt, read the label: if it says store chilled, that is not a suggestion.

Alcohol and sugar preserve together. Liqueur must contain at least 15 percent alcohol and at least 100 grams of sugar per litre, and in that combination a closed bottle keeps well at room temperature for a long time.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787, Annex I, category 33, sets both lower limits. The sugar is expressed as invert sugar. For a few types a lower threshold applies:

• 70 grams of sugar per litre for cherry liqueur whose alcohol comes entirely from cherry distillate;
• 80 grams of sugar per litre for liqueur flavoured exclusively with gentian, a comparable plant or wormwood;
• 100 grams of sugar per litre for all other liqueur, with a minimum of 15 percent alcohol.

Alcohol and sugar both bind water, which leaves micro-organisms little room. What does fade in an old bottle is its colour and aroma, and that happens faster if the bottle stands in the sun or above a hob. Dark and at room temperature is therefore more important for such a bottle than cold.

The period the producer states on the label is decisive, and it should be there because cream and egg liqueurs contain real dairy or egg.

Article 25, paragraph 2, of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 requires the manufacturer to state which storage instructions or which use-by date apply once the packaging has been opened. The Voedingscentrum adds that the date on the packaging no longer applies once the product is open, and that from then on the storage advice on the label determines how long you keep the bottle. If the label says keep refrigerated, the bottle always belongs in the fridge.

Set the fridge to 4 degrees Celsius, the setting the Voedingscentrum recommends. Egg liqueur and advocaat form their own category in the European rules, with at least 14 percent alcohol, 150 grams of sugar and 140 grams of egg yolk per litre. With that much egg in the bottle, chilling after opening is no excess of caution.

Cold makes the syrup thicker and flattens the flavour. So let a chilled liqueur stand for a quarter of an hour before you pour, and the aroma comes back.

A liqueur with 100 grams of sugar per litre or more is a syrupy liquid. When cold, that syrup becomes thicker, runs more slowly out of the bottle and stays on the glass like a film. At the same time, aromas are released less easily at low temperature, so a cold liqueur tastes mainly sweet and short instead of full and spicy.

Sugar also dissolves less well in a cold liquid than in a warm one. In a bottle that stands cold for a long time, crystals can therefore appear at the bottom or around the closure, or the liqueur turns cloudy. At room temperature that usually dissolves again and says nothing about the quality of the bottle.

Store a liqueur without a date upright in a dark cupboard and check its colour, aroma and clarity before serving.

A missing date is usually not an oversight by the producer. Annex X of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 exempts drinks with 10 percent alcohol by volume or more from the mandatory best-before date, and almost every liqueur is above that limit. A bottle without a date is therefore a bottle that does not need one.

Standing upright prevents the liqueur from staying against the closure, because sugar sticks a screw cap shut and in time attacks a cork. If an opened bottle smells sour, a cream liqueur has separated into layers or it clumps in the glass, that bottle goes. With dairy and egg that is the signal that counts, with a fruit liqueur of 20 percent rarely. The selection below this page runs from 14 to 20 percent alcohol and contains 283 bottles from 17 countries, of which 125 are from the Netherlands, 36 from Germany, 32 from Italy and 17 from Ireland. We do not sell alcohol to persons under 18.