Cocktails with Chamomile cordial
Chamomile cordial is a sweetened, acidified chamomile infusion — apple and hay, soft and quiet. The acid is what separates a cordial from a plain syrup, and the ingredients list says whether a given bottle has it.
How it's used
It brings sweetness and a soft floral note that suits gin, citrus and sparkling drinks alongside lemon, honey and elderflower. Chamomile turns bitter if it is steeped too long, and that carries into the syrup.
Substitutes for Chamomile cordial
Make your own: steep 4 teaspoons of loose chamomile in 1½ cups (360 ml) of hot 1:1 sugar syrup for 20 minutes, then strain. Bottled cordials are usually acidified too, so add a squeeze of lemon per 100 ml and taste. Elderflower cordial works one for one; it is about as sweet or a little less.
Chamomile tea
The unsweetened infusion: the same aroma with no sugar or acid, so the drink needs syrup and lemon from elsewhere.
Elderflower cordial
Honeyed and fuller where chamomile is drier and hay-scented; it carries roughly 400–650 g of sugar per liter.
Storage
Refrigerate once opened and use it inside a month. Chamomile is a delicate infusion and it goes flat rather than off: the honeyed, apple-like note thins out first, leaving sweetness behind. Homemade keeps about two weeks cold.
