La Maison Cointreau

This week, the historic French house that created triple sec descended on a stunning townhouse in Manhattan’s West Village. La Maison Cointreau was hosted by Mr Alfred Cointreau – the 6th generation of the family business – and also included a full kitchen cocktail set up where guests could mix up their own tipples with mixologist Kyle Ford and industry maven Julie Reiner.

The tour started in the library – with the classic Cointreau cocktail the Sidecar, of course – where Alfred showcased his impressive collection of antique cocktail books. We also saw a demo of their app in which a number of seminal tomes have been digitized. Watch out for more on that coming soon. (In the meantime, Greg at Cocktail Kingdom can probably procure hard copies of just about anything you can think of.)

Next we did a blind tasting of a number of orange liqueurs – Combier, Grand Marnier, standard triple sec and Cointreau – and then it was time to mix up some of our own drinks in the kitchen/apothecary.  Julie Reiner – proprietress of Clover Club, Flatiron Lounge, and the late Lani Kai – was on hand to share her favorite Cointreau cocktails – the Corpse Reviver #2 – here’s the recipe courtesy of the Bartender’s Choice app, our personal favorite for drink recipes:

3/4 oz gin
3/4 oz lemon
3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
3/4 oz Cointreau
rinse absinthe

Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake with ice. Strain into a coupe, garnish with a lemon twist.

Then Cointreau’s master mixologist Kyle Ford (our great friend who is also half of Ford Mixology Lab) put us to work with an incredible spread of alcohol and fruit.

With my partners in crime Theo Lieberman (of Lantern’s Keep and Milk & Honey) and Emily Cavalier (of Midnight Brunch), we mixed up some Jasmines:

1.5 oz gin
1/2 oz Campari
1 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz lemon

shaken with ice and strained into a coupe, and a few Fine & Dandys: