Cordials

The words overlap and get used loosely. A cordial is a sweetened concentrate, usually fruit based, diluted before drinking. Squash is much the same thing under a British name. A bar syrup is generally unflavoured or lightly flavoured sugar used for sweetening rather than for flavour, so it is doing a different job again. Ready to drink means the dilution has already been done for you. None of the four should be poured at the same rate, and treating them as interchangeable is how a drink ends up cloying.

Kola tonic is a dark, spiced, sweet cordial and a fixture behind South African bars. It is not cola and it does not taste much like it. The profile sits closer to a spiced fruit syrup with a slight bitterness underneath. Mixed with lemonade or soda it becomes a drink in its own right, and it is a long-standing partner for cane spirit and for gin.

Carbonated mixers do most of their work by lengthening a drink and carrying aroma up out of the glass. A cordial does neither. It adds concentrated sweetness and colour in a very small pour, which changes the balance of a drink without changing its size. That is why cordials get measured in millilitres alongside the spirit rather than poured freely as a top.

Roughly one part cordial to four or five parts water or soda is a sensible starting point for a soft drink, adjusted to taste rather than treated as a rule. In a cocktail the pour is far smaller: something like 25 millilitres of lime cordial against a 50 millilitre spirit measure is a common build. Add less than you think you need and correct upwards, because you cannot take it back out.

Check the label, because formulations differ. Cordials are heavily sweetened and sugar acts as a preservative, so many keep for weeks after opening. Refrigeration is still the safer habit once the seal is broken. A cordial that has thrown a haze, changed colour or smells fermented should go in the bin.