Cordial
Pronunciation: [ˈkɔːdiəl] Also known as: Lime Cordial
A preserved syrup of fruit, sugar and acid used as a drink ingredient in bars.
In a bar context, cordial refers to a syrup that combines fruit juice or flavours with sugar and an acid such as lemon juice or citric acid. The sugar and acid make it keep longer than fresh juice. A well-known example is lime cordial, for instance in the Gimlet.
The term is not uniformly defined: in Britain it often means a dilutable fruit-syrup drink, and historically it was also used for liqueur. In the modern bar it usually stands for a house-made syrup concentrate.