St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

Rating: 21/23 The bottle is incredibly unique. The ornate shape and colors combined with the odd contents make me think that someone unearthing this in 50 years would grimace and say "they had terrible tastes back in the day." N: Floral, fruity, sweet, and slightly tart. No alcohol, but the sweetness isn't sickly either. I get lychee and a bit of lemon, but I know there's more there. It's enticing and refreshing, and it draws me in. I could nose this for ages. There's honey in there as well - how did I miss that at first? I'm sure that this smells very much like elderflower, but I'm not sure what elderflower actually smells like. It's a fantastic nose. P: Tart, but sweet. Floral (some rose water, but not entirely), honey, the faintest vanilla, lychee, lemon. Nothing artificial and no sense that sugar was just dumped into this. There's maybe some nuttiness like toasted almond mixed with walnut, but not much. A bit of melon too and perhaps a tiny bit of grape jelly. No alcohol either. It's fantastically refreshing and incredibly complex. Viscous and sugary, but not as much as I remembered. F: The floral and fruity flavors linger for ages with the tartness grounding everything so that it isn't sickly sweet. The palate is better, but this is a finish that I could savor for ages. It's terrific. So, this is super viscous and sweet. It's kind of too much to drink on its own, but it goes great with some sparkling water. Add a little gin in there and you've got yourself a tasty and refreshing summer cocktail. Liqueurs can be hard to rate because I need to assess them both in terms of mixing and neat, whereas for most spirits I just rate them neat. In this case, neat is simultaneously out the window, but also sort of reduces to the mixed case. What do I mean by this? I mean that this isn't like many liqueurs that are used to add a flourish or fill out well-established cocktails (e.g. how orange liqueur fills out a margarita, but is not a dominant flavor). In this case, the liqueur is best playing a dominant role with a light spirit pairing with it and increasing its proof. I'm sure that there are some fruity cocktails that this enhances, but I don't have a whole canonical list in front of me, so from experimentation I've found that this works with variations on soda and light spirits. Yeah, I've seen some recipes for things like punches with lots of fruit juice and a little bit of St. Germain, but it's fantastic enough in the cocktails I've tried that I don't feel a need to try all of those to rate it. So the complexity, balance, and quality of the flavors are all top notch. This is an awesome liqueur, particularly now that I've figured out what to do with it. mixed into a toned-down state so that it is sippable without being overwhelming (e..g mixed with water), this is a big step up over the likes of Grand Marnier and Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao. It's hard to find other liqueurs to compare with this. Therefore, I'm sort of arbitrarily slotting this into the 21 bucket. Amazing! It could be as low as a 19, but I can't see it going below that. Really, I think it's at least a 20. I can imagine a 22 as well, but when I sip it I think "this is amazing, but I'd get sick of it if I tried to sip it all day", so it isn't a 23.

Appearance: Pale straw. Aroma: Lychee syrup with suggestions of peach liqueur, citrus peel, jasmine and muscat grape juice. Palate: Intense but crisp sweetness based around lychees, honey-water and elderflower. The sweetness is balanced by elegant acidic notes led by grapefruit and a touch of sweet lemon. There is a light spice touch like lemon and ginger tea and the overall sweet character is more akin to honeysuckle nectar than sugar syrup. The texture is viscous but avoids being cloying on the finish. Finish: Medium/long. Lychee, peach, gooseberry and grapefruit. The nose on this is comparatively simple and very direct. I have a suspicion that all the subtle sweet notes I found are merely different characteristics of elderflower. The palate is crisp, commanding and straightforward with a character like an acidic, fruity young white wine. Complex liqueurs such as Benedictine and Chartreuse were originally created for neat consumption, either as tonics or for pleasure, although most if not all such liqueurs have now found their way into mixed drinks. In contrast, I'd classify this elderflower liqueur with other tightly focused liqueurs like triple sec and maraschino that were designed specifically as cocktail ingredients to add one sharply defined spice note in cocktails. This can be enjoyed as a neat liqueur but if you are taking it that way I highly recommend serving it chilled straight from the fridge, or even freezer. This highlights its crispness and counterbalances the sweetness. I also love the very cool art moderne bottle and it's almost tempting to give it another quarter-point just for that. "Very Good" : 87/100 (4.25 stars)

Continuing with the French theme, I’ve moved on to another side-by-side tasting of liqueurs: St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur and St. Elder Natural Elderflower Liqueur. It’s a little early in the year to be diving into summery spritzes, but it’s been unseasonably warm lately. First up is the St Germain: Country of Origin: France ABV: 20% Price: $22.99 Nose: Dense, sweet, and heady. Lots of syrupy canned lychee, honey, and some grape and orange leaves. Fruity, floral, and fragrant. Palate: Very light in mouthfeel but syrupy in texture (if you can imagine resolving those two). Intensely sweet, with more lychee, citrus, and floral notes. Very easy drinking given the low proof. Finish: Medium-short. It has a candy-like fruity sweetness, like this was made by macerating a bag of Original Skittles in eau-de-vie. Verdict: For starters (and this has nothing to do with the actual tasting which I try to avoid), but I will say the bottle design looks very classy on the shelf. So as far as presentation, right off the bat, the extra ~$8 gets you a big step up in appearance. Second, while this is excellent neat, it’s also excellent as a mixer – it’s the originator and makeover specialist of many a cocktail. Thirdly, it’s delicious – it handily fills the depth-of-flavor role and it’s easily drinkable when you don’t want to think about it much. 4.25 ~ Excellent

Have you ever tried elderflower liqueur? I was given this bottle of St. Germain likely due to its stunning vintage Parisienne inspired bottle and label. I didn't realize that this brand only came to market in 2007! St. Germain features flowers that are picked in the French Alps over a 4-6 week period in the springtime. My first thought when I smelled this spirit was a cross between a medicinal quality and luminous woodland faeries sprinkling their magic across sprawling land. Yes, really. St. Germain has bottom notes of earthiness and honey that later leave a vague, perfume-like aroma. My initial taste has an unexpected tanginess that hastily transitions to that dark, musty honey sweetness from the nose. Its flavour is reminiscent of lychee in syrup with a bit of floral and lemon compliments. This has a smooth, coating mouthfeel and a slightly dry, palate-matching finish. I could picture this being a fun digestif chilled, but would rather use this to compliment sparkling wine or gin well in a mixed drink. St Germain is certainly unique and seems versatile for cocktail lovers. 8/10

This has its uses, but a little goes a long way. It is very sweet, to me almost syrupy. The aroma is very flowery, and the taste is like a mix of Martinelli's white grape juice and lychee. I find that the supposed elderflower flavor is fairly subtle, less prominent than the grape base. I like sweet things overall, but this is too sweet for me to really enjoy it straight. Its potent flavor is useful in mixing though. When I have some other liquor that I like overall, but that has certain unpleasant elements in the flavor, I will sometimes add a dash of this. It blurs out the less prominent notes in the other flavor while the other liquor tempers the sweetness of the liqueur, and this often results in a taste that is more "average" but still usually pleasant. It is very versatile and can be mixed in this way with all kinds of things. I'm not a maker of complex cocktails but I could imagine this would work well there too. My bottle of St. Germain will probably last me a long time though, as using more than a small amount makes the resulting mix too sweet.

A delightful liqueur. The nose is splendidly floral with notes of elderflower, lychee berry, and grapefruit. On the palate the spirit opens up into a sweet berry affair. It features sweet notes of lychee, cherry, apricot, and a slightly tropical finish reminiscent of the grapefuit in the nose. The elderflower is almost lost in the sweetness of the drink. If anything it is more like an elderflower honey liqueur. A delightful spirit that I'd pair with gin, a tequila, or perhaps a cognac when building a cocktail. It could also be excellent to do a St. Germain wash in a glass before building a cocktail, similar to an absinthe wash.