Honey spirits and honey liqueurs may sound similar, but they are made in different ways and offer distinct drinking experiences. Both begin with honey, yet the way it is fermented, distilled or blended creates very different results in the glass. Understanding the difference can help you choose the right bottle for sipping, mixing cocktails, or simply enjoying the character of honey in a new form.
What is a liqueur?
A liqueur is built around sweetness first. It typically starts with a neutral spirit base, then has sugar, fruit, and herbs.
The result is usually thick, syrupy, and low in alcohol by comparison to a spirit.
Liqueurs are made to be sweet. That's the whole point of them, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a different job to the one a spirit does.
What is a spirit?
A spirit is distilled first and flavoured second. Whisky, rum, vodka and tequila all start as distilled alcohol.
When honey is infused into whisky, rum, vodka or tequila, it adds flavour and warmth to an already complete spirit. Rather than building a syrup around a small amount of alcohol, the honey enhances a spirit that would stand on its own, adding another layer of character while keeping the original spirit at the heart of the drink.
The ABV difference
This is where it gets concrete. Honey liqueurs generally sit somewhere between 15% and 25% ABV, sometimes lower. The sugar content takes up room that alcohol would otherwise occupy.
Honey spirits, ours included, sit much closer to standard spirit strength. Our range runs between 32% and 40% ABV depending on the expression, well within spirit territory and nowhere near liqueur levels.
If someone asks about honey spirit ABV specifically, that's the number to look for. Anything markedly lower is very likely a liqueur wearing spirit branding.
How production differs
Liqueur production tends to prioritise the addition of sugar syrups, flavour concentrates, and sometimes artificial sweeteners to hit a consistent profile at scale.
We start with a proper base spirit, Scottish whisky for our flagship, agave spirit for our tequila, and steep it with surplus honey from our own hives until the flavour is right.
How it affects taste
Liqueurs taste sweet immediately and stay that way. There's little complexity beneath the sugar because the sugar is doing most of the talking.
A proper honey spirit behaves differently on the tongue. Open a bottle of our Honey Whisky and you'll get a waft of heather and warm caramel first, then something deeper underneath, peat, oak, the whisky's own character still very much present. The honey rounds it off rather than drowning it out.
How it affects mixing
This is the practical bit for anyone who actually wants a drink.
Liqueurs are usually used in small measures, a splash to sweeten and flavour, because their low ABV and high sugar content would overwhelm a cocktail in larger quantities.
Honey spirits mix like spirits, because they are spirits. You can use them as your base:
- A Bee's Knees uses honey spirit as the entire backbone of the drink
- A Honey Whisky Sour relies on the whisky's full strength standing up to lemon and honey
- A Dark & Swarmy needs a spirit with enough character to hold its own against ginger beer
Try any of those with a liqueur instead and you'd end up with something thin and overly sweet. If you want to see how these differences play out in a glass, our Cocktails blog has the full recipes.
What Beeble is
Beeble makes honey infused spirits. That distinction is why we hold a Great Taste Award, why we're B-Corp certified, and why our drinks work as well in a proper cocktail as they do neat. It's also why we've been able to build a range across whisky, rum, vodka and tequila rather than a single sweetened novelty.
If you're curious how this all started, from surplus honey on hive frames to a bottle on a shelf, our story covers the whole journey.
Whichever one you reach for, knowing the difference means you'll use it the way it's meant to be used. Explore the full Honey Spirits collection and find the one that suits your glass.
