Fruity-licious
cocktails are on the menu with this month’s
in-the-spirit. We thought it was about time we
looked more closely at some of the ingredients
used in our fabulous cocktail recipes and were
amazed when we realised how many of the liqueurs
we regularly use in our cocktail recipes have
fruit has their main flavour.
Cocktail liqueurs are made with many different
ingredients – from aniseed to cacao beans,
mint and other unusual herbs and spices, to flower
essences as well as fruit. The fruits can be
those we recognise as well as the slightly more
exotic.
Our sponsors De Kuyper cocktail liqueurs produce
a vast range of liqueurs which are made from
the highest quality raw materials. These ingredients
are freshly harvested and are stored in traditional
stone jars before they are used in order to preserve
the maximum flavour. The fruit raw materials
are
usually sliced and macerated (that means soaked
to you and me!) in pure alcohol to extract all
their flavour and colour. Then depending on the
individual recipe, natural herb essences, brandy
and sugar is added.
Using De Kuyper
Cherry Brandy as an example,
the cherry kernels are also used as part of the
distillation
process which gives it an incomparable almondy
flavour. One of the more unusual ingredients
that you may not have realised was actually a
fruit
is the Curaçao. This is a small bitter orange
type fruit which comes from a small island in the
Caribbean called Curaçao. Curaçao
liqueurs are made with the dried peel from the
fruit which gives a unique tangy flavour. Triple
Sec (literally meaning “triple dry”)
is also made from the Curaçao fruit and
is distilled three times which gives a drier tasting
liqueur but still with the juicy orange flavour.
There are many cocktail liqueurs which are referred
to as “Crème de .. “. This is
a French term which refers to the main flavour
of the liqueur – not that it contains cream!
For example there is Crème de Cassis (blackcurrant
flavour), Crème de Bananes (banana flavour) – all
of which use fresh fruit as their base.
So with fruity flavours as our inspiration – we
are delighted to recommend the following fruity
cocktail suggestions which are sure you will enjoy
trying out as much as we did testing them out on
your behalf!
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