For over 140 years, the French family-run company Giffard has been a mainstay of the global bar and gastronomy industry. The brand was founded in 1885 in the city of Angers in the Loire Valley, where pharmacist Émile Giffard created his first product—the mint liqueur Menthe-Pastille. This refreshing recipe, based on mint essential oil, quickly gained popularity and laid the foundations for the family business, which is now run by the fifth generation.
Today, Giffard stands at the crossroads of tradition and modern mixology. The core of its portfolio consists of premium liqueurs, syrups, and fruit bases designed for professional gastronomy. The syrups are developed with an emphasis on a high proportion of natural extracts and authentic flavour, making them widely used in bars, cafés, and patisseries.
The range includes fruit flavours such as strawberry, raspberry, mango, and passion fruit, as well as gourmet and aromatic varieties such as basil, lavender, rose, salted caramel, hazelnut, and gingerbread. Uses range from cocktails and mocktails to coffee specialities and homemade lemonades, as well as desserts and confectionery applications.
A key part of the range is the Fruit for Mix series, which contains over 50% fruit. These concentrated fruit bases are designed to deliver intense flavour, colour, and texture without the need for fresh fruit. They are used in cocktails, smoothies, slushies, and homemade lemonades. The range includes flavours such as mango, strawberry, raspberry, passion fruit, peach, yuzu, and banana.
Giffard liqueurs are created through the traditional maceration of fruit, herbs, and spices, sometimes supplemented by distillation to achieve a smoother and more complex aromatic profile. The range includes citrus, fruity, spicy, and exotic varieties—from orange and lemon to peach and raspberry, and even ginger and vanilla.
Production still takes place in Angers, a region with a long tradition of growing fruit and herbs. An emphasis on ingredient quality, respect for nature, and family values remain the brand’s key pillars. Thanks to a combination of over a century of know-how and contemporary innovation, Giffard has become a standard feature in the repertoires of bartenders, mixologists, and baristas in cities such as Paris, London, New York, Berlin, and Singapore.
Giffard thus remains an example of a brand that has managed to combine its historical heritage with the demands of modern gastronomy—without losing its authenticity, while placing a clear emphasis on functionality in professional settings.
Source: Premier Wines & Spirits
