If You Like St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur, You'll Love These Aromatic Alternatives

Casa D'Aristi Huana Guanabana Liqueur

“I love to use Casa D’Aristi’s Huana Guanabana liqueur,” says Alex Cuper, beverage director of El Che in Chicago. “Guanabana is a really cool tropical fruit that has a floral, elderflower-ish quality to it.”

The restaurant’s bar team uses this Yucatan-made bottle as a St-Germain substitute, while also introducing guests to a new product. “It feels very unique to us,” says Cuper.

Another selling point to Cuper is that “they don’t add sugar. Instead, they use the natural fruit, pulp, and skin to flavor the liqueur,” he says. “It makes the liqueur feel less saccharine and artificial.” 

Fiorente Elderflower Liqueur

Geof Anderson, who heads the bar program at RingSide Steakhouse in Portland, Oregon, finds that Fiorente Elderflower liqueur is a “terrific alternative to your standard St-Germain. The taste is well-balanced, delicate and floral,” he says. 

This liqueur offers wild elderflowers grown in the Italian Alps alongside aromatics such as mint, lime, and lemon. 

Anderson likes to use Fiorente in a Hugo Spritz, “though I have a twist. Rather than using soda water in the Spritz, I add a few dashes of Underberg, which contributes Alpine spice and a bit of licorice.”

Thatcher’s Elderflower Liqueur

“St-Germain is definitely a bar staple, and it has a very distinct flavor,” says Michael Vollmer, assistant director of food and beverage at Chicago’s Kimpton Gray Hotel. While he says that it’s not easy to replicate its exact flavors, Vollmer has found an alternative he loves, Michigan-made Thatcher’s Elderflower Liqueur. 

“It comes through with a light, fresh flavor while providing delicate aromatics, which helps add interesting nuance to traditional cocktails,” says Vollmer. “It’s also organic, gluten-free, cocktail-friendly, and very easy to experiment with.”

Italicus di Bergamotto

“Hailing from southern Italy's Calabria region, Italicus has got to be my all-time favorite botanical liqueur,” says Justin Parramore, beverage manager of Chicago’s Petit Pomeroy. 

“There's something special about sitting on the patio with a glass of Italicus topped with a light white wine, sparkling mineral water, and a slice of lemon,” says Parramore. “It transports you to the Italian countryside.”

Made with Italian bergamot, Italicus comes packaged in a cerulean blue bottle with a gilded top, which offers a similar Art Deco appeal to St-Germain.

“That beautiful Art Deco-looking bottle, modeled after the columns of ancient Rome, carries within it a perfectly herbaceous liqueur with notes of fragrant bergamot, bright citrus, and earthy botanicals,” says Parramore. “Beautifully sweet and floral, it’s great in the place of any aromatic spirit in cocktails, and makes for a particularly great Negroni Bianco.”

The Bitter Truth Elderflower Liqueur

Keith Meicher, beverage manager at Chicago’s Sepia, swears that the best alternative to St-Germain is the elderflower liqueur from The Bitter Truth, a brand created by cocktail historians Stephan Berg and Alexander Hauck.

"This liqueur has a rich floral sweetness with notes of delicate elderflowers, making it fragrant and refreshing,” says Meicher. 

Meicher finds the elderflower liqueur from The Bitter Truth less sugary than St-Germain, which allows it to blend seamlessly into cocktails and not overpower other ingredients. “The artisanal bottle design also adds a touch of elegance to any home bar,” he says.

Giffard Elderflower/Fleur de Sureau Liqueur

From the folks who brought bar modifiers like blue Curaçao, crème de cacao, and crème de violette, comes a bright, fresh, and floral elderflower liqueur. It’s made in Angers, France, from tiny elderflowers harvested by hand every spring, which are then dried and macerated in a neutral alcohol.

It offers the same amount of alcohol and underlying citrus notes as St-Germain, plus floral notes of honey, saffron, and lychee.