Ginger is the earthy, spicy flavor that’s essential for many cocktails, like the Moscow Mule or Dark and Stormy. This flavor is often added to drinks in the form of non-alcoholic ginger ale or ginger beer. But there are other options that give your drink that ginger kick, with an added punch of alcohol–enter ginger liqueurs.
You want to have ginger liqueur in your bar because it will expand the range of cocktails you can make tremendously and spice up your cocktail game—pun, intended.
Interested in experimenting with the flavorful root? Here’s everything you need to know about ginger liqueurs.
What Is Ginger?
Before we get to ginger liqueurs, let’s start with the flavor itself. Ginger comes from the Zingiber officinale plant that’s native to Asia and has leafy stems and yellowish-green flowers. The rhizome, or the ginger root, is what’s most commonly used as the spice. It can be purchased in the fresh form as the full root or as a dried, powdered form.
For centuries, ginger has been used for medicinal purposes, especially for relieving gastrointestinal issues, like nausea and bloating. It is also thought to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Today, ginger adds flavor to tea, candy, gingerbread and is an essential ingredient in many dishes and drinks.
How to Use Ginger Liqueur
Ginger spirits are versatile. The liqueur goes with all kinds of other spirits and brings a unique flavor to many different cocktails. The liqueurs are also often used to add sweetness or replace other sweeteners, like simple syrup.
Need some ideas to break open your bottle? Try these cocktail recipes, straight from bar experts.
Mix up Some Moscow Mules
A classic Moscow Mule features ginger beer, but you can replace it with ginger liqueur. Start with one part ginger liqueur to two parts vodka, and adjust the flavor from there. Then, top it off with sparkling water to get the fizz you’re looking for.
Ginger is great for its healing virtues, its taste and the character it brings to any dish or drink. You can swap the vodka for rum to make a rum mule. The rum-ginger pairing brings out different flavors of both the liqueur and the spirit.
Pair It with Citrus
Ginger and citrus are a flavorful pair. Ginger liqueur can be added to a classic Paloma, which blends tequila, lime and grapefruit. It plays really well with brown spirits and aged tequilas, and goes well in an Old Fashioned.
A great citrus-ginger cocktails is the Speightstown Punch. In a glass, mix 1-ounce rum, ¾-ounce fresh grapefruit juice, ¾-ounce ginger liqueur and 1.5-ounce mint green tea. Serve over ice.
Adding an ounce of ginger liqueur to a classic mimosa or margarita will spice up the drink.
Try a Chicago Mistake Cocktail
A twist on a Manhattan, the Chicago Mistake is made by stirring 2 ounces of ginger liqueur, 1-ounce punt e mes (a dark brown Italian vermouth, but you can sub with white vermouth), 5 dashes Angostura bitters and 5 dashes of orange bitters. Serve over ice.
Leaving out the whiskey makes it a low-proof cocktail but one that still has a rich flavor profile.
Make a Penicillin Cocktail
The Penicillin is a classic cocktail traditionally made with Scotch, lemon juice and honey-ginger syrup. For a different taste, try the drink with ginger liqueur instead of syrup.
Sip as a Digestif or Aperitif
A refreshing pre-dinner drink, or aperitif, could consist of lemonade with ginger liqueur, fresh lemon juice and water or seltzer.
Sipping ginger liqueur with seltzer and fresh mint, is very refreshing and low-abv. Perfect for summer months.
Drinking a small amount of ginger liqueur after dinner as a digestif is another option.
