Elderflower Liqueur Cocktails

St Germain elderflower liqueur is one of my favorite liqueurs: I love the way it smells as well as the way it tastes. So I was very excited to see that Ten Speed Press was going to publish a book dedicated to it. When I was finally approved for the book, I instantly fell in love with the way that the book was organized. The authors cleverly divided the chapters according to a daily chronology of drinking: brunch, daytime, aperitif, dinner, nightcap. Of all the possible ways to organize – by season, by primary flavor profile, by date invented, et cetera – this seemed to be the most useful as I most definitely am aware of what time of day it is when I reach for my bottle of St Germain. Given that there were thirty recipes with St Germain, I was concerned that many of the recipes would just notionally use the St Germain as an afterthought or an accent to make it into the book. That was not the case. The presence of St Germain in these recipes varied from just a ¼ ounce accent in a gin cocktail to 1½ ounces dominant liqueur in a royale cocktail. Without being too scientific about it, it seemed like most of the cocktails had about ¾ ounce St Germain. Quickly glancing through the Index, it seemed that gin was the most frequently used base spirit, with only one cocktail using vodka. While reading the book, it seemed to me like there were a lot of cocktails using Aperol; according to the Index, there were only three.

Of the thirty recipes in the book, I found over a dozen that I was interested in. I narrowed that down to eight recipes based on what I had on hand in my crazy liquor cabinet, what I was willing to acquire for the cabinet, and what syrups I was willing to make in support of the cocktail recipe testing effort. It took me about a month to test all the different recipes, with some help from a really good girl friend who was visiting from DC. Near the end of the process, I finished my small bottle of St Germain and replaced it with a bottle of less expensive Italian elderflower liqueur.

St Germain Cocktail

Of course, the first cocktail that I had to test in the book was the St Germain Cocktail. I really enjoyed the Epicurious recipe for a St Germain Spritz that I tested during my Summer Spritz Project at the end of January. It tasted and smelled like drinking straight St Germain, but did not feel as syrupy. So I was curious how this recipe would compare.

I don’t know how it was possible, but I actually liked the book’s recipe better than the Epicurious recipe. The book had very precise measurements for the St Germain, the prosecco, and the club soda; the Epicurious recipe measured the St Germain and the prosecco, but gave the generic instruction to “top off with club soda.” The Epicurious recipe also used twice as much prosecco as the book recipe did. As a result, the cocktail made from the book recipe was neither as diluted nor as fizzy as the cocktail made from the Epicurious recipe. It wasn’t as generous as the Epicurious cocktail, but that was okay.

My only complaint was that the recipe was difficult to find in the book. I would have put such a classic recipe up first in the Brunch chapter; however, the authors buried it back on page 90, second to last in the Aperitif chapter.

A few weeks later, when my really good girl friend from DC was visiting for the long weekend, I didn’t skip a beat in suggesting that we have a St Germain Cocktail to accompany our Cajun/Creole Feast. Although the New Orleans thing to do would have been to mix a proper Sazerac, I had to drive again later that evening, so it was best to keep the cocktails in the low octane range. Since my girl friend wasn’t sure if she had ever had St Germain, this was the perfect format for her to experience the liqueur. She really enjoyed it!

We finished my small bottle of St Germain in our cocktails during our Cajun/Creole Feast. I tried to replace it with another small bottle of St Germain from my small local liquor store, but they only had the big bottles. So I cheated, and I checked a larger store a few towns over, which only had the big bottles of St Germain. So I cheated yet again, and checked the beverage mart across town. They had a St Germain gift set with the big bottle, but they also had a super cheap bottle of elderflower liqueur, an inexpensive large bottle of Italian elderflower liqueur, and an inexpensive large bottle of American organic artisan elderflower liqueur. After some thought, I bought the Italian bottle, which was closest in price to a small bottle of St Germain.

To test the taste of the Italian elderflower liqueur, I mixed it with prosecco and club soda in the same proportions as a St Germain cocktail. It was amazing! I actually liked the flavor of it better than St Germain. For some reason, it seemed richer than St Germain. According to the tasting notes that I looked up on the Internet, it was supposed to have hints of mint and honey, but I didn’t notice those.

A Scented Stretch

Since I still had an open bottle of Canadian Riesling, the second St Germain cocktail to be tested was A Scented Stretch. The bartender behind this drink believes that a successful aperitif needs “a good amount of complexity;” therefore, he used six different ingredients in a four ounce cocktail. Despite the complex ingredient list, the recipe was simple: combine the white rum, lemon juice, St Germain, white wine, and honey syrup with crushed ice, add soda water, stir gently, and garnish with Maldon salt, lemon wheel, and Thai basil.

Quite astonishingly, I had all the ingredients for the aperitif. The challenge was to decide whether to use the hot honey syrup that I already had in the refrigerator or to make a miniscule batch of 3:1 honey to water syrup for this drink. As I surveyed all the interesting jars and bottles in my refrigerator, I decided to throw caution to the wind and use the existing hot honey syrup.

The aperitif was good; however, it was not a St Germain cocktail. The St Germain was just a small fraction of the overall cocktail. The cocktail had a strong lemon taste, with just the faintest hint of chile from the hot honey syrup. The lemon completely overpowered the sweetness and fragrance of the St Germain. Perhaps the lemon would have been more muted had I mixed the cocktail with crushed ice or followed through with the recommended garnishes.

Flapper’s Delight

It wasn’t until I tasted my version of A Flapper’s Delight that I realized how similar it was to A Scented Stretch, which I tested a few days earlier. The only change I may have (accidentally) made to the recipe is that I may have aggressively muddled the mint rather than gently muddled it. Although A Flapper’s Delight was a simpler drink than A Scented Stretch – just gin rather than a combination of rum and white wine, a simple syrup rather than a honey syrup, lime juice rather than lemon juice – the measurements were eerily similar. Not surprisingly, the resulting drink tasted strongly of lime juice, with a slight undertone of the muddled mint.

This daytime drink was good; however, like A Scented Stretch, it was not a St Germain cocktail. According to the headnote, the cocktail is “[f]inished with a splash of club soda and a dash of lime;” yet both club soda and lime juice are used in greater amounts than St Germain. Again, the sweetness and fragrance of the miniscule half ounce of St Germain in a 4½ ounce cocktail was overpowered by the greater amount of citrus.

Tiger Beat

A cursory look at the ingredients – St Germain, Lillet, lemon juice, bison grass vodka – vaguely reminded me of the White Noise Spritz, which was one of my favorites from the Summer Spritz experiment. The White Noise Spritz was just St Germain, Lillet, and club soda, so I had high hopes that the addition of the bison grass vodka and the lemon juice would not disrupt the beautiful balance of the St Germain and the Lillet.

Since the Tiger Beat required the odd bottle of bison grass vodka, it took a while before I was able to test the drink. When I first looked for bison grass vodka at the small local liquor store, it was out of stock. It was supposed to be on the truck arriving on Tuesday, but got back ordered to the truck arriving on Friday. And then it got back ordered again to the truck arriving the following Tuesday. Eventually, I did get the call that the truck had come in and the bottle was waiting for me behind the counter. I was so excited!

I know I should have tried a straight shot of bison grass vodka to discern the particular flavor it was adding to the drink, but I was too excited to try the mixed cocktail. Because I had run out of ice (again), I stirred the ingredients in a mixing glass rather than shook them with ice in a cocktail shaker. I didn’t bother with straining, never mind double straining.

The Tiger Beat was a delicious brunch cocktail. Unlike A Scented Stretch and Flapper’s Delight, the citrus did not dominate the drink. This was a scant 2½ ounce cocktail with equal parts St Germain, Lillet, and lemon juice. So the sweetness of the St Germain had a chance to shine through the other ingredients, especially since the Lillet was so complementary.

Turn Down Service

The hardest part about preparing the Turn Down Service was deciding which of my bottles of Scotch to sacrifice to the experiment. The recipe specifically called for “peated Scotch,” but I don’t have that kind of Scotch in my house because I don’t enjoy it. I prefer Speysides. At first, I was thinking of finishing my Cragganmore, which is a sherried 12 year old single malt Speyside Scotch that I really enjoy. In fact, looking more closely at the bottle, I enjoy it so much that there probably wasn’t two full ounces left. So I set that aside to enjoy another evening. After evaluating the ages and the levels of my other bottles of Scotch, I chose a half full bottle, which was a very nice cask strength Speyside single malt Scotch. But that was a mistake. Fortunately, it was only a two ounce mistake…

The second challenge I faced was finding a tawny port in my house. A lovely Portuguese friend of mine from high school gave me a bottle of port that is clearly labeled as “ruby port.” However, there was an unopened bottle of Sandeman Founder’s Reserve port in my liquor cabinet that gave no indication as to whether it was tawny or ruby. What I should have done was started the experiment by opening the bottle of port and measuring the required half ounce into the beaker to see what color it was. Then if the port was the wrong color, I could have aborted the experiment. Instead, I made my second mistake: I followed the recipe by measuring the Scotch first and by measuring the St Germain into the Scotch second. By the time I discovered that the Sandeman was a ruby port, I was already committed to mixing the drink, so I used it.

Despite the St. Germain and the port, my nightcap pretty much tasted and smelled like the cask strength Scotch. Which was good, because I would have hated to ruin such excellent Scotch with such a frivolous experiment. In hindsight, what I should have done was measure one ounce of cask strength Scotch and one ounce of water, and then kept the measurements for the St Germain and the port the same. But even then, I don’t think the St Germain and the port will make enough of a noticeable difference to improve upon the standard glass of good Scotch. Very little improves a glass of good Scotch, except perhaps a splash of water.

Keystone Highball

After I picked up a really good girl friend from DC from the train station for a long weekend visit, I gave her the choice of which St Germain cocktail she wanted to try as a nightcap. She decided that she wanted to try either the Tiger Beat with the bison grass vodka or a bookmarked one that I hadn’t tried yet. Since it was too late to make the strawberry syrup for the Grievous Angel and she wasn’t feeling the winey smell of the Lillet for the Tiger Beat, she chose the Keystone Highball. Since it required a strong room temperature mint tea, she had time to shower off the train residue while I made the tea.

The Keystone Highball was more or less one part strong room temperature mint tea, one part St Germain, three parts whiskey, and eight parts soda water. There was more to it, but that was the basic idea. Because I had the length of her shower to boil the water, brew the tea, and cool it to room temperature, the tea we used in our drink was the right strength, but it was closer to lukewarm than room temperature. I tried to accelerate the chilling in the refrigerator, but that didn’t really do much. The recipe recommended a specific Kansas City whiskey, which I wasn’t interested in, so I gave my girl friend the choice of Buffalo Trace Bourbon or Bulleit Rye. She smelled both, and chose the rye. I used a lime seltzer water instead of soda water because that was what I had open.

We both unanimously agreed that the Keystone Highball dinner cocktail tasted of rye, to the exclusion of all the other flavors. She said hers reminded her of her grandfather who used to mix Canadian Club Whiskey with ginger ale. (He’s still alive but now prefers to mix his whiskey with Pepsi!) My girl friend experimented a little with her cocktail by adding more St Germain. She was so cute – I encouraged her to just add more in from the bottle, but she wanted to be “scientific” about it and asked for the measuring beaker. In the end, she added another part of St Germain, which nicely pronounced the sweetness of the liqueur and mellowed the whiskey a little. I liked hers better than my original cocktail, but I left mine unaltered to see if how I felt about it changed over the evening. It did. As the drink got cold, it tasted mellower. That made me think that I might have felt differently about the drink had I had ice in the freezer and actually followed the recipe instructions about using the ice.

Al Fresco Spritz

I had run out of St Germain by the time it came to test the Al Fresco Spritz, so I used the Italian elderflower liqueur instead. Unlike the other cocktail recipes I had tested, this recipe made a batch of four cocktails. I measured the first four ingredients – bianco vermouth, elderflower liqueur, gin, lime juice - directly into a sixteen-ounce measuring cup and stirred well. Following the instructions to top with equal parts of sparkling water and sparkling wine quite literally, I measured two ounces of this liquor base into a large wine glass, and topped with two ounces of prosecco and two ounces of club soda. Of course, I skipped the garnishes.

The Al Fresco Spritz was very refreshing. The lime juice didn’t dominate the aperitif, unlike some of the other cocktails. The fragrance and taste of the elderflower liqueur was clearly noticeable, without being overpowering or cloyingly sweet. Since I still have ten ounces of the liquor base left in the measuring cup, it is a good thing that I am quite fond of the aperitif. I will be drinking it for at least a week!

Grievous Angel

The Grievous Angel required some preplanning because it required approximately ¾ ounce strawberry syrup. The recipe for the strawberry syrup was in the back of the book, and was simple enough. Unfortunately, the trick was remembering to thaw the strawberries before attempting to start the syrup recipe, which I did not do. So I had to postpone my Grievous Angel Experiment by one day as I waited for the strawberries to thaw.

It did seem excessive to require two quarts of strawberries, three cups of cane sugar, and two cups of water to make a syrup that would only be used in ¾ ounce increments and would only keep for one week in the refrigerator. It would not have taken any higher level math for the recipe writers to quarter the recipe for a more reasonable yield for the home cook. Since I was using frozen strawberries that were sold in three-cup packages, I cheated and only used six cups of strawberries - rather than eight cups - because I did not want one cup of frozen strawberries left over in my already Tetris-organized freezer. Finally, the recipe didn’t give any guidance as to what to do after cooling to room temperature, other than that the syrup would keep for approximately one week in the refrigerator. Should the strawberry pieces be strained out? Should the strawberry pieces be left in? Should the strawberry pieces be pureed until smooth? After some consideration of the options, I decided strain out the strawberry pieces so that I could have a clear strawberry syrup. I would use the leftover strawberry pieces in my morning yogurt.

Despite the drama with the strawberry syrup, the Grievous Angel was one of my favorite cocktails from this book because it was so well balanced. Since it was designed as a brunch cocktail, it did slightly favor the sweet side. Although my Buffalo Trace bourbon is usually very present in mixed drinks, it didn’t overpower this one. The strawberry syrup and the Italian elderflower liqueur – I had run out of St Germain by this time – nicely complemented each other and together softened the sharpness of the bourbon. The lemon juice and Peychaud’s bitters were imperceptible, although I’m sure I would have noticed their absence had they been left out. Since the recipe was ambiguous about how much Angostura bitters to add – just “a few dashes” – I did leave those out completely. Being me, I also skipped the expression of the lemon peel and the addition of the sliced strawberry garnish. Even without those embellishments, I would definitely make this cocktail again for myself, or even serve it as a batch cocktail at a ladies’ brunch.

The Verdict

Of the eight St Germain cocktails that I tested from the book, there were four that I would not care to repeat in the future and four that I would very happily repeat in the future.

A Scented Stretch and Flapper’s Delight both tasted so much like the dominant citrus juice in the recipe, to the point where the St Germain was undetectable. The Keystone Highball smelled and tasted like whiskey, even when a mild rye whiskey was used. It got better once the amount of St Germain was doubled. Finally, the Turn Down Service smelled and tasted like Scotch, almost to the exclusion of the St Germain and the port. But that could have been due more to the type of Scotch that I used than to any flaw in the recipe.

The book’s recipe for the classic St Germain Cocktail was excellent, even better than the very similar St Germain Spritz recipe from Epicurious that I tested last month. Despite the very odd bison grass vodka, the Tiger Beat was another terrific cocktail. The Lillet and St Germain were perfectly balanced and the lemon juice was very subtle. The Al Fresco Spritz was another good refreshing cocktail that didn’t allow the elderflower liqueur to be overpowered by the citrus component. This seemed to be the only batch cocktail in the book. Finally, the Grievous Angel was a sweeter strawberry cocktail that didn’t let the whiskey overpower the elderflower liqueur and the rest of the drink. I would happily repeat any of these four cocktails in the future.