15 Best And 15 Worst Liqueurs For Your Home Bar Needs

Straight liquor is only the beginning of the equation for making craft cocktails at home. One often overlooked category is the world of liqueurs. A liqueur is any distilled spirit that is most often used to enhance the flavor of mixed drinks. It isn't a neutral base, like whiskey or vodka. It's usually infused with several ingredients to establish a strong flavor profile.

There are so many spirits and liqueurs on the market that make it even more difficult to stock a home bar. Oftentimes, the average person will only buy liqueurs on occasion, depending on the cocktails they have a taste for. It's not a bad strategy, but it won't help when hosting a party full of people looking for the ingredients to make their preferred cocktail. 

Alcohol always feels like a frivolous expense, so it's a bummer to spend money on a bottle that you end up not even liking. To help determine which bottles your home bar needs, we decided to break down 15 of the best and 15 of the worst liqueurs to buy. It's not a foolproof guide for every drinker, as some of the "worst" bottles might be someone's personal favorite. However, it will help determine which bottles you should always have on hand at home and which are worth buying on an as-needed basis. 

We are preemptively anticipating the outrage of including coffee liqueur in the "worst" category of liqueurs, but it's not without solid reasoning. Coffee liqueur has its place in home bars, especially in households where people drink a lot of espresso martinis and White Russians. However, many mainstream versions of coffee liqueur are artificially sweet and syrupy renditions of the spirit that aren't worth the money. It's also a pretty easy ingredient to find a suitable, oftentimes superior, substitute. That even includes making your own coffee-infused liqueur at home.

Coffee should be added to a cocktail to add those complex earthy flavors, not simply add caffeine into a drink. Oftentimes, real espresso or cold brew concentrate will work as a better flavor addition than a run-of-the-mill coffee liqueur, or a combination of cold brew concentrate with a different flavor of liqueur, like chocolate or vanilla. Some distilleries are going above and beyond with their coffee liqueurs by prioritizing the natural and earthy flavor of the coffee beans rather than trying to make it taste like a Starbucks drink. These bottles might be pricy and hard to come by, which is why we don't suggest keeping them on your bar at all times.

Pernod is a French liqueur made from anise seed, fennel, and other flavoring agents. The brand was originally known for producing absinthe and developed this similarly flavored anise liqueur after the spirit was banned in the 1920s. The 40% ABV spirit has a distinct flavor of licorice, which is why it's not exactly the most necessary liqueur to keep stocked at your home bar. Pernod also stands out because it gets murky when added to liquid, giving cocktails a foggy effect.

Pernod is an acquired taste that isn't the most useful spirit to have on hand unless you're whipping up a Sazerac cocktail. That's to say, those loyal Pernod fans who appreciate the intricate flavors of herbal anise seed shouldn't stop keeping the stuff stocked at home on a regular basis. It's just not necessary to have a bottle on hand if you don't drink it, because the odds are slim that a dinner guest will ask for a Pastis, which is the French way to order a Pernod and water highball.

Suze is one of those liqueurs you don't need to keep at home. The French gentian liqueur is the kind of drink you can enjoy on occasion at a nice bar out to get your fix. Gentian is a wild flowering plant native to the Alps that's used in other liqueurs, like vermouth or amaro, mainly for its bitter qualities. Suze was invented as an aperitif in 1885 and isn't very boozy at 15% ABV. Making Suze is a labor of love as the gentian plants take a minimum of 10 years to reach maturity. The root is macerated with grape-neutral alcohol and aged to create a bitter flavor with a slightly floral taste.

Suze and gentian liqueurs can result in amazing cocktails, like a white negroni. However, they're just not necessary to hunt down to complete your home bar. Suze can be difficult to get your hands on, as well as other gentian liqueurs, which is why it's much more of a treat to stumble across a bottle behind a bar and have an experienced bartender craft you a cocktail. 

Most people who haven't spent time in the U.K. likely aren't too familiar with real sloe gin. In the U.S., sloe gin is technically an ingredient in some cocktails like the Alabama Slammer, but it's usually an imitation version that's more similar to grenadine than the real stuff. Sloe gin is made from dark and small wild berries grown around Northern Europe. The berries aren't that tasty to eat due to their tart and harsh flavor, but they do make for good liqueur making. In the U.K., sloe gin is usually enjoyed as a wintertime digestif after sloe berries reach their peak ripeness in the fall. It's made with gin but is lighter in ABV, darker in color, and way less reliant on juniper as a flavor. The taste is similar to sour cherries, but it's way more complex than that. 

Sloe gin is most commonly used in drinks like a Charlie Chaplin or a sloe gin fizz. Because it's not that widely loved as an ingredient, it's not worth seeking out for your bar. Good sloe gin is hard to source and not the most crowd-pleasing liqueur you can keep stocked. The bottle will likely cost you a lot and end up taking up unnecessary space on your bar, which is why we suggest skipping this stuff. 

An Italian liqueur you can skip, on the other hand, is amaretto. It's an almond-flavored liqueur typically made out of almonds and/or the pits of apricots or peaches. There's plenty of sugar inside to make it sweet, which can be the downfall of the liqueur; it's hard to find a great bottle of amaretto that isn't overwhelmingly sweet. In Italian, amaretto translates to "a little bitter," so a good bottle should have balanced bitterness with sweet, nutty flavors.

Usually, amaretto is used in drinks like an amaretto sour or in Italian desserts like tiramisu, but again, only if it's a good bottle. One of the most popular brands of amaretto is Disaronno, which has been around for centuries and is easy to find when you need it. Aside from that, it can be hard to source and limiting to use, so it's not necessary to keep amaretto stocked at all times in case of emergencies. 

D.O.M. Benedictine is another liqueur with a rich history that some people love. It's just not completely necessary to always have a bottle in your liquor cabinet at all times. Benedictine has been around since 1510 and features a blend of 27 plants and herbs infused with a neutral spirit. The recipe was created by a French monk, originally for medicinal use, and has been passed down for generations.

The process for creating Benedictine's signature recipe is labor-intensive, but the result is a flavorful liqueur with a lot of notes going on. The main flavor notes include honey, pine, almond, and citrus, but that's only scratching the surface. It's commonly used as an ingredient in a simple tonic drink or in something more involved like a Singapore Sling. It's a great liqueur that every drinking enthusiast should try at least once, but because of its limited uses, we wouldn't suggest regularly buying a bottle unless it's your all-time favorite. 

For those folks who haven't spent much time in Chicago, Jeppson's Malört might be a completely foreign spirit to you. Those familiar with the peculiar liqueur probably know immediately why we don't think it's a bottle everyone should stock at their home bar. Jeppson's Malört is a wormwood liqueur that tastes similar to absinthe, but it's so bitter that the flavor lingers indefinitely on your palate. The liqueur has been around since 1933, even though a version of it was sold as a medicinal product during Prohibition. Some people believe that Jeppson's Malört is a hangover cure or a digestive agent, but most people drink it for the novelty. 

Chicagoans relish making out-of-towners shoot Jeppson's Malört at a bar and watching them gag at the bitterness. There's a cult fandom around the liqueur for being so bad that it's good, and the brand has leaned in on the distaste for the product in its marketing. Jeppson's Malört is the kind of liqueur you take a shot of for a dare, not to keep stocked at home for a moment's notice—that is, unless you're a Chicagoan who loves to prank people into drinking the spirit of your hometown. 

Similarly to creme de cacao, creme de menthe is a sugary liqueur that usually doesn't contain dairy. Unlike the previous best liqueur, creme de menthe is one of those bottles you don't always have to keep in your liquor cabinet just in case. The bright-green liqueur can be a little off-putting, as can the extremely sweet flavor. Creme de menthe is really only used in throwback cocktails like the Grasshopper, which isn't exactly the most common bar order to hear in the 2020s. Outside of that retro drink, you will have to get pretty creative to think of inventive cocktail ideas to use up the rest of the bottle.

Creme de menthe and mint-flavored spirits in general aren't the most favorable flavor profile for cocktails. It seems more fitting in a dessert or a dessert cocktail like a Grasshopper or spiked hot chocolate. It's one of those spirits you should buy when the craving hits, not because you feel obligated to have a bottle behind your home bar.

Another Italian liqueur worth skipping on your liquor store run is the botanical Galliano L'Authentico, which has been around since the 1890s. It's hard to classify the flavors of Galliano L'Authentico succinctly, but the stand-out flavor notes are anise and peppermint. As previously mentioned, both of those flavors aren't the most popular among modern-day drinkers. The spirit goes in and out of style at bars, which makes it a better liqueur to enjoy out rather than at home on a regular basis.

Galliano L'Authentico is created with a secret and complex recipe featuring more than 30 herbs and spices to get its flavor. The taste is bold, but almost too overwhelming to make it a crowd-pleasing drink. A bottle can also be pricy and upward of $40 as of March 2023, so it's not worth buying unless you have a particular affinity for the herbaceous Italian liqueur. 

Unless you're bananas about bananas, it's not necessary to keep a bottle of banana liqueur at home. Banana liqueur is a dessert-like spirit that's also referred to as creme de banane in French. A neutral alcohol, usually a sugar beet distillate, is infused with fresh banana extract and sugar to get the exact flavor. It's another liqueur you can make at home, but it's a bit more labor-intensive than some of the others. 

Banana liqueur is most often used in Tiki rum-based drinks or any cocktail you'd want to drink while sitting by the ocean. The issue is that banana cocktails are either really amazing or extremely disappointing. If you don't find craft banana liqueur, the low-cost options can oftentimes be syrupy and overly sweet. A bar that has perfected a banana daiquiri or other banana liqueur-fueled drink likely is the best of the best, so it's one of those liqueurs you should enjoy in the atmosphere of a high-class bar or Tiki joint. 

A cream-based liqueur you can skip at the liquor store is Rumchata. Rumchata is another modern-day spirit; it was invented in 2009 and is made in Wisconsin. The idea is to combine rum with dairy cream and spices inspired by Mexican horchata. The 13.75% ABV spirit contains Caribbean rum, fresh cream, and flavors of cinnamon and vanilla. The brand makes other flavors like peppermint and limon, but the original is the most common. It's a drink that has warm flavors even though it's enjoyed over ice, but it is far from the most versatile liqueur on the list. 

Rumchata is one of those spirits many bartenders consider to be overrated. It's meant to be enjoyed on the rocks or infused in shots, but it's a novelty that doesn't have the staying power on the bar shelf as some of the other liqueurs on the list. It's not that a boozy horchata drink can't taste delicious, but it's probably not best executed straight out of the liqueur bottle. 

Most people who are familiar with sambuca might know it as a licorice-flavored spirit that sometimes is served with a flaming coffee bean on top. Sambuca is a boozy anise-flavored liqueur that is most often used for shots as a digestif after a meal. Sambuca is also served either mixed with coffee or alongside an espresso, which is how the coffee bean comes into play. Some sambuca shots are served with a coffee bean to add flavor to the spirit. If it's on fire, the idea is to "roast" the coffee bean to open up those intense flavors. 

We don't suggest keeping a bottle of sambuca at home at all times because it's a novelty. It's more fun to drink a round of sambuca shots with friends after a nice meal at an Italian restaurant than while watching TV at home. There are a few innovative cocktails you can try to make with the stuff, but it hasn't gained that much traction. Therefore, other anise-flavored liqueurs are more useful to keep on your bar, if that's a flavor profile you enjoy drinking regularly.

Technically, Curaçao is just another version of orange liqueur. It's made from the peels of laraha fruits, a bitter citrus fruit from the Caribbean island of Curaçao, which aren't eaten but used to make liqueur and essential oils. Blue Curaçao is just that same orange liqueur, but blue. The blue isn't a flavor; it's just artificially added color for dramatic effect. It's the surefire way to make cocktails like the Blue Lagoon have that signature striking color. 

Because Blue Curaçao is more for fun than it is practical, there's no need to shell out money to keep it at your bar. Some people even think that blue Curaçao tastes more like candy than a fresh orange liqueur, so it can have a negative effect on some cocktails it's mixed into, depending on the bottle. It's alright if you and your friends only ever get to enjoy bright blue drinks on a night out because there's no need for them to be a regular dinner nightcap. 

One fruit liqueur you don't necessarily need to keep on your bar at all times is a melon liqueur. A popular brand is Midori, a bright-green spirit made out of Japanese muskmelons. Similarly to blue Curaçao, it seems like most of the fun of melon liqueur is in its bright color. The alien green hue will make anyone do a double-take at your cocktail, which is why it's better to enjoy it in a bar setting to get heads turning. 

Melon liqueur often ends up tasting like artificial melons, regardless of how much fresh fruit is incorporated into the product. It's rare to find a bottle that tastes like biting into a perfectly ripe piece of cantaloupe or honeydew, which is why it isn't worth the hassle. It's another spirit that can be limiting when it comes to cocktail crafting. Outside of a riff on a melon martini, it's far from the most multifaceted liqueur you can keep on your bar cart.  

The last liqueur worth skipping on your next stock-up trip to the liquor store is Drambuie. Drambuie is a whiskey liqueur made out of aged Scotch, Scottish heather honey, and plenty of herbs and spices for flavor. The spirit has roots among the 18th-century U.K. royals, making it a popular drink for those Northern Europeans who appreciate its history. However, outside of on the rocks or in a Rusty Nail cocktail, it's just not that useful. 

Drambuie can also be expensive, costing upward of $40 a bottle as of March 2023. The flavor is delicious and full-bodied, so Scotch drinkers can appreciate it. However, it's just not that necessary of a flavor profile to keep at your home bar at all times. There are plenty of other options worth exploring unless Drambuie happens to be one of your go-to drinks. As with all of our recommendations, to each their own.