Recently in Liqueur Category

Hpnotiq is one of those modern liqueurs that graces the shelves of trendy bars around the world. It has an alluring, mystical blue color, and a sleek and sexy bottle. It has a unique brand name, and spelling, that hits the mark with younger drinkers. It also has the price tag to match. It is often enjoyed by those who like to be “seen”, it is hard to miss the person drinking this fluorescent blue liqueur in a bar. So the question is: Is Hpnotiq more style than substance?  Or is there something flavorful underneath all of the marketing. Did a good product get lost in the marketing hype machine?

At one point in time, before synthetic flavours became all the rage, grenadine was made with real, fresh, pomegranate juice. If you’ve tasted modern commercial grenadine, it tastes more like super sweet vanilla / almond extract. I can almost guarantee that there are no “natural” vanilla flavours in the commercial grenadine. Basically, there is no real comparison in flavour between the two, unless you are like Homer Simpson and think red is a flavour. Actually, he thinks purple is a flavour, but you get the point. Now I’m seeing new promotional material for pomegranate flavour liqueurs and pomegranate flavour vodka. So, is this the second coming of this age old ingredient? Will artificial grenadine syrup start to play second fiddle to real pomegranate syrup?

One of the trends in liqueurs is the cream based liqueur. We have the CEO of cream liqueurs, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and then there are the multiple Irish cream clones including Bushmills,  Carolans, O’Casey’s, and O’Darby’s, among others. Then we have the flavoured creams like Jago’s Vanilla Cream and Dooley’s Toffee cream, both good products with lots of flavour. Also there are tequila cream liqueurs, like Baja Rosa and Tequila Rose and the not so common rum cream. Basically, cream liqueurs are quite popular and Amarula cream is another one that should be looked at and tasted.

The word on the street is that Tuaca is a super premium, brandy based, Italian liqueur. Now, anytime I hear or read the words “super premium” I become a bit skeptical. What is super premium anyway? Premium should be enough of a description, but I digress. Tuaca is a fruit, citrus and spiced brandy which is probably meant to be sipped neat. So that’s the way I approached this product, as a brandy. For me brandy goes into a glass sans the ice cubes and mix, it is enjoyed for what it is.

If anyone else follows some of the Food Blogs, you may have come across the blogging event called “Sugar High Friday”. Well this Friday is liquor or liqueur day, and the topic is to make a dessert using booze. As a bartender that has a great appreciation for food, desserts especially, I figured there had to be something I could contribute. After a little thought I came up with a interesting idea that spans cocktails and desserts. My contribution will be known this Friday, but it did require me to pick up a liqueur that had a green colour. Melon or Mindori was a little too obvious, and the Apple Sour stuff is way to fake for me, but anything that’s bright green is probably going to taste synthetic. Anyway, there is a product produced by Corby that has hit the market called Uphoria (not spelled euphoria), and it is bright green. So, since I purchased a bottle, I figured I should review it.

After doing a review of Lochan Ora, I decided I should compare it to the mainstay Scotch liqueur, Drambuie. With a quick trip to the liquor store to pick up a bottle of Drambuie, I sat down and did a head to head comparison. In my previous Lochan Ora post, it was brought up that Lochan Ora may be out of production. If anyone can verify this, please post a comment or email me and let me know. If no-one knows I’ll make a couple of phone calls to see if this is true. In Ontario, there is still a good number of bottles at local LCBO stores.

For the last week I've been fixated on the Olympics. I was thinking of taking a look at the Olympic cocktail, but it is a pretty boring drink and doesn't even come close to be as epic as the Olympics. It's just brandy, triple sec and orange juice. You might as well put Grand Marnier in a glass of OJ. So, I decided to dig through my liquor cabinet and see if there was anything interesting to write about. The bottle of choice was Lochan Ora, a sweet scotch liqueur, made by Chivas Brothers, which is very similar to Drambuie.