If Midori has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 6 recipes to try it in.

What is Midori?

Midori is a bright green, melon-flavored liqueur made by the Japanese distiller Suntory. The name means "green" in Japanese, and the neon color is the whole signature: nothing else in the liquor cabinet looks like it.

The flavor is sweet honeydew and muskmelon, candy-like rather than subtle, built on a neutral spirit base with added sugar. It bottles at a gentle 20 to 21 percent alcohol by volume, well below a whiskey or a gin.

That sweetness and low proof make it a mixing liqueur, not a sipping one. A little goes a long way in both a glass and a batter.

How to Use Midori

Midori earns most of its fame behind the bar. It powers the Midori Sour and the Japanese Slipper and tints countless tropical drinks a glowing green, with a half-ounce often enough to flavor and color a whole cocktail.

In the kitchen it does the same two jobs at once: melon flavor plus that vivid color.

It carries the filling of a no-bake Midori Cheesecake and a chiffon-style Midori Pie, and it folds into the batter and glaze of a Midori Cake, where the green tint survives baking better than most natural colors would.

Because it is already very sweet, treat it as part of the sugar in a recipe, not just a flavoring. Reduce other sugar when you pour in more than a splash, or the dessert tips into cloying.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Melon liqueur leans tropical. It plays well with pineapple, citrus, coconut, and vodka or white rum in a drink, and with cream, white chocolate, and lime in a dessert. A squeeze of lemon or lime is almost mandatory, since the acid keeps the candied sweetness from going flat.

The most common mistake is pouring with a heavy hand. Midori is potent in flavor and loud in color, so too much turns a cocktail syrupy and a cake a lurid, artificial green. Start small and build up.

The second is expecting a boozy kick. At around 20 percent it is half the strength of most spirits, so a drink built on Midori alone is mild; recipes usually pair it with vodka or rum for backbone.

Substitutes

There is no exact stand-in for the color, but other melon liqueurs come closest in flavor. Brands like De Kuyper Melon and Bols Melon pour the same sweet honeydew note, though often paler, so the green may need a drop of food coloring to match.

For the flavor without the alcohol, melon syrup or a splash of honeydew puree with a little simple syrup works in desserts and mocktails, plus green food coloring if the look matters.

In a pinch, another bright fruit liqueur such as a melon-forward schnapps will cover the role in a mixed drink, accepting a slightly different flavor.

Buying and Storage

You will find Midori with the cordials and liqueurs, easy to spot by its frosted green bottle. The standard size is 750 milliliters, with smaller 375 and 200 milliliter bottles common for occasional use.

Like most liqueurs it keeps a long time thanks to its sugar and alcohol, but it is not immortal once opened. Store it upright in a cool, dark cupboard away from sunlight, which can fade that signature green over months.

Sealed, it lasts for years. Opened, it stays good for about a year or two before the bright melon flavor starts to dull, so buy a smaller bottle if you only reach for it now and then.

Quick facts

In Chinese

绿

British (UK) term

Midori

en français

Midori

en español

Midori

Recipes using Midori

There are 6 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 6 recipes