Liqueur, first the fruit, then the sweetness, and finally the moment
At nur Gutes, liqueur brings together egg liqueur, cream liqueur, herbal liqueur, fruit liqueur, and nut liqueur from fifteen producers ranging from Berlin to the Münsterland and the Trentino, from clear distillates to thick cream. Five-centiliter miniatures invite you to take the first sip.
Liqueur is defined by EU law as a spirit with at least 100 grams of sugar per liter and 15% vol. It is created when fruit, nut, herb, or bean are steeped in alcohol and the extract is sweetened and sometimes distilled, or as an emulsion made with cream or egg yolk.
Liqueur is sweet by law and tastes of its raw material
The word reached us via the French "liqueur." Behind it lies the Latin "liquor," meaning liquid, which says nothing about sweetness yet. The sweetness only arrived with the law, as the minimum sugar content from the definition above separates liqueur from brandy and spirits. Anyone who stays below this threshold is not allowed to use the word on the label.
Egg liqueur has its own set of rules, namely 140 grams of pure egg yolk per liter and at least 14 percent alcohol by volume. Milk may be added, but it doesn't have to be, and this exact question is what divides the producers on this page. Cream liqueur, on the other hand, does not have its own category and officially falls under emulsion liqueurs. A "crème de..." is a fruit cream with at least 250 grams of sugar per liter, explicitly without milk.
Three paths lead into the bottle, and the first is steeping. Fruit, nut, or herb steep in alcohol for hours to weeks, and some producers distill the extract again afterwards. This creates a clear distillate where the nut is only noted through its fragrance. The second path is the emulsion made with cream, and the third is egg yolk, which binds with or without cream, with grain spirit, rum, or orange spirit underneath.
For lemon, cherry, or mint, the EU only permits flavoring foodstuffs and natural aromas. Sasse consciously avoids any added artificial flavorings in its natural liqueurs, while Marzadro adds natural lemon aroma to its Limoncino in addition to the lemon peel extract.
Finally, herbal liqueur is divided in the trade into sweet, semi-bitter, and bitter, depending on how much sweetness the roots, spices, and peels used in its infusion receive. It is often enjoyed after a meal, as a digestif, as the glass taken at the end of the meal is called.
From egg liqueur to herbal liqueur, five varieties organize the shelf
We begin with egg liqueur, the most frequently requested type, with three styles standing side-by-side, two of them without cream. Lantenhammer binds its Raritas solely with fresh egg yolk and adds orange spirit from Sicilian oranges. Rübbelberg stirs egg yolks from North German farms with grain spirit from a family distillery in the Black Forest, and Marzadro offers its Bellabomba with Trentino milk, egg yolk, and rum.
Cream liqueurs are the second-largest group, at the center of which is Crema Alpina by Marzadro, stirred from the cream of fresh Trentino milk at 17 percent alcohol, in varieties ranging from pistachio to hazelnut, marzipan, strawberry cream, lemon, and coffee to salted caramel and melon. The pistachio liqueur is the best-selling of the creams, pale pistachio green and opaque.
From the Münsterland comes the Paula Pumpernickel range from Sasse, created with the blog of the same name, featuring the "Herrencreme" made from vanilla, cream, block chocolate, and rum, the region's festive dessert. Franzi by NORK bottles the "Hamburger Franzbrötchen" (cinnamon roll), lemon roll, and spaghetti ice cream flavors, while Ehringhausen stirs nut, nougat, and salt into a cream.
Herbal liqueurs and bitters occupy the bitter corner of the shelf, where sweetness acts only as a counterbalance. For its "Sechser," Sasse steeps galangal, angelica, calamus, orange, lemon, and bitter orange according to a recipe over a hundred years old. He then refines it with Jamaican rum and adjusts it to 35 percent, making it a semi-bitter.
Next to them stand the Grafschaft herbal juniper spirit with berries from the County of Bentheim and the stone pine liqueur from Lantenhammer, made from shaved wood rather than cones. The bitters from Mondino in the Chiemgau region, the Aperitivo from Windspiel, and the Cherry Bitter from Kakuzo also belong here, but play their role before the meal, and the aperitif section introduces them.
Fruit liqueurs begin with the lemon, for which Sasse hand-peels Amalfi coast lemons in Schöppingen for its Limoncello Artigiano and sets the peels to steep. Marzadro purposefully makes its Limoncino stronger so that the citrus aromas carry through. Additionally, there is Limoncello il Convento, the lemon from Faude, and the bergamot from Lantenhammer.
Then the berries and stone fruits, led by the Amérie from Sasse, in which whole raspberries and wild strawberries float. Sour cherry and rhubarb come from Faude in the Kaiserstuhl, apricot and currant from Lantenhammer. Apricot with honey and elderflower represent the Münsterland, quince and garden raspberry from STILVOL. for Baden-Württemberg, raspberry with rosemary for Bremen, and strawberry for Werne.
Nut liqueurs are the smallest group, yet they contain the site's bestseller: a distillate of nuts and cocoa beans, which Sasse calls "Kakao mit Nuss." Faude collects wild, still-soft walnuts in the Kaiserstuhl and steeps them with herbs and spices. After steeping, he presses the nuts and ages the liqueur for a year in a used Sauternes cask. Lantenhammer offers walnut and chocolate-hazelnut, the latter bound with egg instead of cream.
Outside the five categories are the soloists, led by coffee liqueur in four versions. Kaffee Arabica from Sasse, coffee-licorice from NORK made from cold-brewed coffee and licorice root, Crema Alpina Caffè, and "Milchkaffee" are their names, in addition to Sasse's Butterscotch made from hand-stirred caramel with real butter.
Clear and dry, creamy and mild, or rich and yolk-yellow
Anyone choosing a liqueur at nur Gutes reaches their goal with three questions, and sweetness is only the second of them, because the raw material defines the bottle. First the fruit, nut, or herb, then the sweetness and cream, and finally the moment: neat on ice, in coffee, on dessert, or as a gift.
The first question is what it should taste like—lemon or berry, nut, herb, or bean. The second asks for sweetness and texture. Sasse's Kakao mit Nuss runs clear and dry into the glass at 30 percent, while a Crema Alpina waits, creamy and mild, to be drunk ice-cold.
With egg liqueur, the color reveals the style; pure egg yolk stands rich and yolk-yellow in the glass, while versions with grain spirit and no cream remain lighter and flow more slenderly. The third question is the moment, for coffee it may taste of coffee or cream, for ice cream of fruit, and a gift can be small.
No number reveals how sweet a bottle really is, so tasting remains the standard. A cream tastes like dessert, a herbal liqueur opposes the sweetness with bitterness. With lemon, the bitter edge of the peel is added, and a distillate like the Kakao mit Nuss is the driest of them all.
"Small" for us means miniature, Crema Alpina in five varieties, plus Bellabomba and the miniature set with five small bottles. Additionally, there is the tasting set from Sasse with six natural liqueurs of 20 milliliters each, and its counterpart from the Paula Pumpernickel range. Kakao mit Nuss, Herrencreme, Limoncino, and the Berlin egg liqueur are also available in 200 ml bottles, and the 700 ml bottle belongs in the cupboard of anyone who has found their favorite.
The houses behind the liqueur, from the Münsterland to the Trentino
Rüdiger Sasse took over the distillery in Schöppingen at sixteen in 1985, and today seven of the eight best-selling bottles on this page come from his house. His "Sechser" stands deep reddish-brown in the glass, orange and lemon in the front, the bitterness of the bitter orange in the back.
Sabina Marzadro started the first still in Brancolino in 1949, her brother Attilio delivered the grappa, and today the third generation runs the Distilleria Marzadro in Nogaredo. From this grappa workshop come the creams, velvety but never heavy, and the pistachio tastes like pistachio, as pale green as it stands in the glass.
Amalie and Josef Lantenhammer founded their distillery in 1928 in Hausham on Lake Schliersee, and Tobias Maier has led the house since 2018. The Raritas egg liqueur is made there in batches of 200 liters. The stone pine liqueur is distilled by Christina Kölbl in the castle distillery at Tegernsee; the resulting liqueur glows amber, smells of resin and forest, and becomes soft in the mouth.
Siblings Ann-Katrin and Johann Dallmeyer brought NORK to the market in Scheeßel in 2016 and are now based in Bremen. Grain spirit is the base, and since mid-2019, the Sasse fine distillery has been distilling their liqueurs. In the Franzbrötchen of the Franzi range, cinnamon, caramelized sugar, and butter are velvety stirred together.
Florian Faude, a trained vintner, founded his distillery in 2006 at the age of 22 in Bötzingen in the Kaiserstuhl and processes local fruits as single-varietal products. His sour cherry from his own juice stands deep dark red in the glass, with the almond tone of the pit and a lively acidity.
The Rübbelberg manufactory began in Berlin apartments in 2017 and is now located in Kreuzberg. Almost a whole bourbon vanilla bean and a lime go into every 500 ml bottle, and the egg liqueur shows this with its light straw-yellow color and fine vanilla specks.
Also included are Birgitta Schulze van Loon with her transparent manufactory at the Bremen Europahafen, as well as Theres and Georg Glitz-Ehringhausen in Werne. Master distiller Hans brought the bitter recipe from Italy to the Chiemgau, and his grandson Max continues it today as Mondino.
Liqueur is drunk as cold as it is creamy
The creamier, the colder—that is the simple rule, and Marzadro names 0 °C as the drinking temperature for Crema Alpina. So, it belongs in the back of the fridge before you pour it, so that it runs thick and slow into the glass.
Egg liqueur goes into the glass chilled—neat, on ice, or in coffee. The Raritas also works hot, with white wine and spices, and Marzadro serves the Bellabomba warm with whipped cream and cocoa.
Clear liqueurs like Limoncino and stone pine want to be well chilled or on ice—and use ice cubes rather than crushed ice. You drink the Kakao mit Nuss at room temperature, or mix it according to Sasse's recipe for a highball: 30 milliliters of liqueur, 20 milliliters of Lagerkorn, 10 milliliters of lemon juice, topped up with bitter lemon.
Coffee liqueur belongs in Tiramisu and Espresso Martini, and here you have the choice between the Kaffee Arabica and the Crema Alpina Caffè, which brings the cream along with it. Strawberry cream goes with strawberries, egg liqueur on vanilla ice cream, and Bellabomba in cake, substituted one-to-one for the egg liqueur.
The cheese is cut, the dark chocolate broken, and the green walnut liqueur from the Kaiserstuhl pairs well with both; it is almost black-brown in the glass and has a bitterness that responds to the sweetness from the cask. A "Sechser," on the other hand, likes to be enjoyed alone, after a meal, and the Limoncello wants cold and nothing else.
Once opened, cream and egg liqueurs belong in the fridge, the clear ones in the cupboard, and shake the creams before pouring because the cream settles.
For Easter the egg liqueur, in summer the lemon, in Advent the marzipan
Egg liqueur came from the Netherlands, where the oldest producer of Advocaat has been documented since 1616, and it has its fixed place at Easter, while pistachio, strawberry cream, and elderflower belong to Mother's Day. In summer, Limoncello and lemon sit in the fridge, and the Amérie waits for the sparkling wine with which Sasse recommends topping it off.
Autumn brings quince and walnut, and in Advent come the marzipan from Marzadro, the gingerbread egg liqueur from NORK, and the Christmas egg liqueur from Piekfeine, in the order in which the cookie tins are opened.
On our shelf in Nordhorn, the egg liqueur moves to the front in spring and the marzipan in Advent, and the summer in between belongs to the lemon. First the fruit, then the sweetness, and the moment finds itself all on its own.
