What is herbal liqueur?
Herbal liqueur is a type of alcoholic beverage that is flavored with extracts of spices or herbs typically consumed for their health benefits.
What is the difference between a liquor and a liqueur?
While Liquor is any distilled alcoholic beverage like spirits made from fermented grains like barley for example, Greenall’s wild berry gin , Liqueur are alcoholic beverages flavoured with the extracts of spices and herbs.
Some alcoholic beverages like baileys strawberry and cream asda contain milk.
What is Herbal liqueur used for?
Liqueurs are used traditionally for the health benefits of the herbs infused in the beverage but now it’s popular as social drink in a wide variety of cocktails.
They are added as the ingredients that usually make such cocktails extra delight to drinkers and served chilled or with ice.
Herbal liqueur recipes
There are herbal liqueur popular in the West African countries of Nigeria and Ghana. The herbs are cleaned, sliced and soaked in spirits then left for days in the spirit before it is filtered and bottled or sometimes sold directly in ‘shots’ from large containers.
There are also herbal liqueurs made in European countries like France, Germany, Italy.
For example, herbal liqueurs of French origin are made by the maceration and/or distillation of numerous botanical herbs and spices to create strong, rich and complex spirit e.g Chartreuse herbal liqueur, Bénédictine herbal liqueur, both originally made from secret recipes by monks as medicinal tonics from a wide variety of botanicals like fruits,flowers, roots, spices and nuts, sweetened with honey.
Italian herbal liqueurs are sweet liqueurs flavoured with a variety of botanicals and coloured yellow with the world’s most expensive spice, saffron or other natural colouring. Examples of Italian herbal liqueur are Strega(female witch) herbal liqueur, Galliano herbal liqueur etc.
How Herbal Liqueur was discovered
It was in the quest to find the best way to drink herbs that humans developed herbal liqueurs. After trying various ways of taking herbs including the method which makes sick people on herbs so obvious, our ancestors found a method of taking herbs after their active constituents have been extracted directly in an alcoholic drink instead of water. Almost similar to how we now invented the nicotine pouches like Nordic spirit nicotine pouches for smokers in place of cigarettes smoking to supply nicotine to the body.
This transfers the health benefits of the herbs into the alcoholic beverage and when drank to get well, it is used to justify the old saying “alcohol is the best medicine” because people get well after drinking herbal liqueur.
What is the benefit of the alcoholic in herbal liqueur
The alcohol used in herbal liqueur is ethanol. The ethanol in the alchohol base act as a solvent for the active medicinal substances trapped in the herbs to dissolved and enhance these active ingredients present in the herbs and spices.
Some active constituents in herbs do not dissolve in water and some are destroyed easily when boiled during the extraction phase, to avoid this, alcoholic beverages are used to extract the herbs.
The ethanol has its flavour and taste found appealing by drinkers and when it is drank and absorbed into the body, it helps stimulate appetite and produce a calming sedating effect on the body as it improves blood circulation.
So the benefits of alcohol on the body adds to the health benefits of the herbal extracts present in herbal liqueurs.
What are herbs?
Herbs are medicines derived naturally from plants. They can be taken directly or after processing such as drying or cutting and subseqent extraction in edible solvent bases like water, alcohol or oil.
What is the benefit of having different herbs in herbal liqueur
Although adding a single herb to a herbal liqueur has its own efficacy but adding a range of herbs may exert different and additive health benefits to the drink or extend the efficacies of all the herbs altogether.
When should I drink a liqueur?
When you are considering natural home remedies for some minor health issues such as indigestion, insomnia etc or when trying out new ways to take your usual herbs and spices.
Some herbal liqueur are served at social events to give attendees special treats and increase the options of drinks or cocktails served to guests.
Some herbal liqueurs are part of some cooking or baking recipes.
Can you get drunk on liqueur?
Yes you can get drunk from drinking herbal liqueur or eating foods prepared from herbal liqueur. Most bottles of herbal liqueurs now carry age ratings of 18+, the alcoholic percentage per volume in the drink and outright warning not to drink it if you intend to drive or operate a machine afterwards.
You may need to ask your pharmacist for the likely effect of your routine drugs along with alcohol to see if it does not increase the chances of getting drunk faster or overload your liver.
Examples of brands of herbal liqueur.
Orijin bitters
Alonso bitters
What is orijin
Orijin is a Nigerian alcoholic beverage produced by Guinness Nigeria PLC.
It is sold in in dark-green plastic bottles and cans.
This drink is marketed as bitters with a fairly intoxicating alcohol percentage. Orijin is an alternative alcoholic beverage like because it is packaged like can beer and similar in appearance and ABV strength.
Is Orijin beer?
No. It matches the definition of herbal liqueur and therefore not a beer although it is marketed and sold by a brewery company known for its popular beer brand like Harp.
Also,orijin does not contain barley or hops, so has a different taste marketed as “a bittersweet blend with flavours of African herbs and fruit”.
What does Orijin bitters do in the body?
It became very popular as a decent alternative to the regular herbal liqueur being hawked in major Nigerian cities.
The African herbs and spices extracts in Orijin have been used as ancient herbal remedies known for their acclaimed set of medicinal benefits, such as treatment of kidney and bladder dysfunction, regulation of blood pressure, management of indigestion, menstrual cramps, ulcers, gastritis, insomnia, stress, depression, excessive weight and sexual inadequacies.
Is Origin an alcoholic?
Yes. Orijin Bitters is made to be a very strong alcoholic drink, with an ABV of 30%, so when you need to drink orijin, do so in moderation.
While its manufacturer does not outrightly market it as having any particular health benefits like typical herbal liqueur , the drink does contain chamomile and thyme known for having strong antioxidant effects and other health benefits.
Does Orijin bitters make you last longer in bed?
It is not marketed as a sexual stimulant but a significant amount of social drinkers of alcohol consume orijin to lower inhibition, stimulates urge and erection in males while some females have suggested that it makes them perform and enjoy sex better.
In a study, out of the 22 male participants, only one argued that he does not know about using alcohol for sexual purposes. As with the women, the men also discussed how they use alcohol to lower their inhibition or boost their confidence in order to initiate sexual relationships.
Is orijin bitters safe ?
Yes. It is safe for consumption. Beyond the warning that you drink it moderation, no other public health concern has ever been raised about orijin.
It is safe to suggest that the working principles in bitters prepared from herbs is in orijin too and thus makes it good for lcleansing your liver and digestion a great way to keep your digestion working normally
When was Orijin launched
Orijin Bitters was launched in Nigeria in 2003 as an indigenous African drink infused with extracts of African herbs and spices. It is manufactured locally in Nigeria by Guinness Nigeria Plc, owned substantially by Diageo.
How does Orijin taste?
Origin has a ‘bitter-sweet’ taste unlike other herbal liqueurs.
What are the ingredients in Orijin bitters.
The ingredients of the drink include neutral spirits, sugar, citric acids, trisodium citrate, caramel and secret recipe from spices, fruits and herbs including naartire, chamomile, thyme, cinnamon and orange.
What are the Health Benefits of orijin?
Guinness does not directly market orijin as a health drink but its marketing as a ‘bitters’ connotes that the manufacturer wants the drink bought and consumed for the health benefits associated with bitters.
It states on the container that it contains African herbs and spices known traditionally for their health benefits, for example, Chamomile present in orijin, is a herb used to cure stomach pains and anxiety.
From the consumer’s review, some attest to getting some health benefits after drinking orijin
What are the side effects of orijin?
The sugar in it can raise your calories and frustrate your weight loss plan and blood sugar control plan.
Consumption of orijin for long, like most alcoholic beverages,may raise the chances of hemerrhoids.
It has as much as 30% ABV so you can experience hangover if you drink too much of Orijin Bitters.
Can you drink orijin bitters straight?
Absolutely! You can drink orijin bitters directly from its container or serve chilled or with ice.
It can also be an ingredient you can add to your recipe of cocktail drinks, cooking and baking.
How To Get Herbal Liqueur For Free
Orijin is a premium quality herbal liqueur and bitters. It is both healthy and retains its alcoholic beverage effect though mildly.
Check out the discount we have for you on Orijin below
