Cocktails with Rhubarb liqueur
Rhubarb liqueur is a liqueur built on the tart, vegetal character of rhubarb stalks.
ABV20%
Substitutes for Rhubarb liqueur
Rhubarb brings acidity and a green, stalky bitterness at once. The acidity is easy to cover; the second half is next to impossible, and that is what you have to live with.
Often confused with
A pale liqueur in the same tart-fruit register; it covers the acidity and leaves the green, stalky side of rhubarb missing.
Rhubarb without the alcohol, and sweeter. It returns the flavor and not the strength: make that up with neutral spirit and cut the sugar elsewhere.
Description
Rhubarb is a vegetable used as a fruit, and that is exactly how the liqueur behaves: it brings acidity where a fruit liqueur would bring sugar. The stalks carry malic and oxalic acid, which is where the sharpness comes from, and the leaves are genuinely toxic and never go anywhere near a bottle. The green, stalky note underneath the tartness is the part that no other liqueur has, and it is the reason to keep a bottle rather than reach for something else tart.
