"grand marnier" news and stories

This year marked the 8th year of New Orleans' Tales of the Cocktail -- a sort of bartender sleep-away camp complete with classes, swim time, and sneakin' into places that will not make your mom proud. With hundreds of bartenders, journalists, bloggers, and cocktail enthusiasts in attendance, Tales is a marketing extravaganza. Many spirits companies take advantage of the week, holding cocktail competitions, since they have a ready-made large audience already gathered.

Everything from wine to whiskey wanted to be in the newest cocktail creation - Yellow Tail wine, got in on the cocktail competition whirlwind by sponsoring an event, Catdaddy Mountain Moonshine organized a Bar Chef Challenge. This competition title made me laugh, pairing the high-brow title "bar chef" with a commercial bottle calling itself moonshine.

The United States Bartenders Guild (USBG) hosted a margarita competition sponsored by Milagro tequila. Fifteen bartenders from different cities competed. Abigail Gullo, from NYC, may not have been the judges' number one pick, but her lavender margarita won the approval of the crowds for the People's Choice trophy.

Recipes from the winners after the jump...

Seattle bartender Evan Martin won $1,250 with his tiki punch that a group of four judges declared as the official cocktail of this year's Tales of the Cocktail July 21-25 event in New Orleans. Over 150 drink recipes were submitted. Who knows whether all 150 recipes were actually created and tasted as often times with these types of competitions a few eye-catching recipes are culled from submissions to make the competition a little easier on the judges.

Judge Jeff "Beachbum" Berry admitted judging so many drinks wasn't easy, saying, "Often it came down to the originality of the garnish..."


The winner dressed itself with a garnish that looked like a guy hanging off of the drink with a cherry head, pineapple leaf arms and citrus peel dangling legs.

By the time you assemble all these ingredients you may want to spear yourself as a garnish.

Find the winning Tales of the Cocktail recipe after the jump...

The original Grand Marnier Liqueur, also called Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge (Red Ribbon), is 40% abv / 80 proof is sold in a unique clear brown bottle shaped like a cognac pot still. The aroma is a musky orange zest with a strong blend of spices, vanilla, and cognac. The taste is a stronger version of the smell with a focus on the slightly musky, bitter oranges well mixed with the herbs and spices, rounded out with vanilla notes, and followed through by the taste of cognac.

Like many old and fine liqueurs there is a history behind its creation. In 1827 Jean-Baptiste Lapostolle founded a distillery, his grand daughter married Louis-Alexandre Marnier in 1876 and Louis-Alexandre joined the firm, which changed its name to Marnier Lapostolle. He created what was originally called Curacao Marnier. His friend Cesar Ritz, who later started the Ritz hotels, tried the liqueur and said you should change the name to Grand Marnier, "a grand name for a grand drink." Since then six+ generations of the family have been making Grand Marnier, the most widely exported French liqueur with a bottle is sold every two seconds worldwide. Some interesting facts: Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph ordered 12 cases after trying it at the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo, the great chef Escoffier loved Grand Marnier and used it when he created Crepes Suzette and the Grand Marnier soufflé, it was even stocked on the Titanic and a bottle was brought up from the wreck.

Called the Grapefruit Cooler, this drink has a festive pink color that makes it perfect for the holidays. The recipe comes from Epicurious.com: Pour 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice (fresh juice is far preferable) into a glass with ice, add two tablespoons of Grand Marnier, a pinch of salt, and then add 1/3 cup of sparkling water. Top with lime or orange wedge. I'd serve with something salty like cheese and crackers or some kind of flatbread.

Source

For brunch on Sunday, I made this wonderful baked french toast from Allrecipes.com. It was luscious. The bread had a candied, crunchy-crisp top—almost like it had been bruléed— while underneath it had a creamy, pudding-like quality.

I made some slight changes to the original recipe. I used a crusty Italian loaf instead of baguette, rice syrup instead of corn syrup (which I normally do in recipes calling for corn syrup), and I added a little orange zest to the milk mixture and let it soak overnight.  Next time I will also add some Grand Marnier to the glaze on the suggestion of a friend.

Make sure to serve it hot from the oven when it is puffed.  You have a about two minutes before it collapses like a soufflé.

[photo: Stefania Pomponi Butler]