Spirits / Calvados / Calvados Cocktails
Calvados Cocktails
Stuck in the Digestif Rut
For the past 20 years, Calvados has been stuck in an after-dinner drink category known as digestif, a spirit (consumed following a meal) whose alcoholic power helps aid the digestion of the food one has consumed. Yet in a world that has strict laws with regard to drinking and driving and in which people drink more wine at the table, the digestif has become the ugly stepchild of the spirits world.
"I have to drive."
"I have to get up early for work."
"It's late."
Excuses commonly heard. Not to mention that a glass of well-aged calvados at a restaurant can be expensive. So with people drinking the digestif more infrequently, more calvados stays on the shelf and less is purchased by the restaurant. Let's face it: if a restaurant orders a bottle of calvados, 15 or so customers must order a glass before the bottle is finished. With most bars at restaurants having often a hundred different spirits for customers to choose from and with after dinner consumption down anyway, it might take a year (if not more) before any particular bottle is terminated.
What continues to infuriate the French is the fact that whisky continues to outsell calvados, armagnac, and cognac in their own country by a significant amount. A couple of factors are responsible for this. The first is the exoticism of consuming something from another country (even if it is your hated cross-channel rival)—the “grass is greener” type-of-thing. But the more important factor is that whisky can easily be consumed before or after a meal. It can be served in a cocktail or neat, straight up or on the rocks, with water or without, in a shot glass or snifter. It can be a chic pre-dinner drink ("Two fingers of Chivas on the rocks, please.") or a classy post dinner tipple ("Can you bring a round of Caol Ila to the table?") One doesn't commonly hear, "Calvados on the rocks... in fact, make it a double!" from the pre-theatre crowd bellying up to the bar.
But there's also a new kid in town that is starting to cut into the sales of whisky. Alcool blanc—clear alcohols like vodka, gin, and rum—have captured the youth market and are becoming more popular in cafés in France and restaurants around the world. Why have these alcohols become popular? They are relatively inexpensive for starters. Vodka can be made from grain or potatoes and does not require the expense of oak aging. The cost of a bottle that houses it is often worth several times more than the product itself. But money aside, vodka and rum have also become popular because they largely take on the character of the fruit juice they are commonly mixed with, which are cocktails that are generally sweet and fun to drink.
So in trying to give calvados a before/after dual purpose (like whisky) and also to have cocktail appeal (like clear alcohols), creative barmen have been able to invent delicious drinks using young calvados or clear calvados as the principle ingredient. Now, instead of having to wait until the end of a meal when the refusal of a digestif becomes easy, before-dinner drinks can introduce consumers to the Norman nectar that would never have been consumed before.
Calvados Drink Recipes
In that vein, here are some examples of drink recipes that use calvados:
Widow's Kiss
Lonsdale
The French Tickler
Widow's Kiss - Mixed Drink With Calvados BrandyThis cocktail is actually a take on the classic Widow's Kiss by Erik Adkins at The Slanted Door in San Francisco, who wanted to create something "both sexy and sad, like the kiss of a widow." Its complex flavors combine orange, clove, and ripe apple.
Calvados Brandy Drink Recipe - Lonsdale Prepared by Thad Vogler at Bar Agricole in San Francisco. It really picks up on the bitter green apple skin flavors of the farmhouse calvados, which blend beautifully with the herbal side of basil and the slightly sweet notes of honey and apple juice.
The French Tickler - Calvados Drink RecipeConceived by AJ Ferrari of Bourbon Steak, San Francisco. Floral flavors of late summer envelope fresh apple and savory elements in this richly-flavored cocktail.
More calvados drink recipes are in the book Calvados:The Spirit of Normandy by Charles Neal, published in 2011 by Flame Grape Press.
For the past 20 years, Calvados has been stuck in an after-dinner drink category known as digestif, a spirit (consumed following a meal) whose alcoholic power helps aid the digestion of the food one has consumed. Yet in a world that has strict laws with regard to drinking and driving and in which people drink more wine at the table, the digestif has become the ugly stepchild of the spirits world.
"I have to drive."
"I have to get up early for work."
"It's late."
Excuses commonly heard. Not to mention that a glass of well-aged calvados at a restaurant can be expensive. So with people drinking the digestif more infrequently, more calvados stays on the shelf and less is purchased by the restaurant. Let's face it: if a restaurant orders a bottle of calvados, 15 or so customers must order a glass before the bottle is finished. With most bars at restaurants having often a hundred different spirits for customers to choose from and with after dinner consumption down anyway, it might take a year (if not more) before any particular bottle is terminated.
What continues to infuriate the French is the fact that whisky continues to outsell calvados, armagnac, and cognac in their own country by a significant amount. A couple of factors are responsible for this. The first is the exoticism of consuming something from another country (even if it is your hated cross-channel rival)—the “grass is greener” type-of-thing. But the more important factor is that whisky can easily be consumed before or after a meal. It can be served in a cocktail or neat, straight up or on the rocks, with water or without, in a shot glass or snifter. It can be a chic pre-dinner drink ("Two fingers of Chivas on the rocks, please.") or a classy post dinner tipple ("Can you bring a round of Caol Ila to the table?") One doesn't commonly hear, "Calvados on the rocks... in fact, make it a double!" from the pre-theatre crowd bellying up to the bar.
But there's also a new kid in town that is starting to cut into the sales of whisky. Alcool blanc—clear alcohols like vodka, gin, and rum—have captured the youth market and are becoming more popular in cafés in France and restaurants around the world. Why have these alcohols become popular? They are relatively inexpensive for starters. Vodka can be made from grain or potatoes and does not require the expense of oak aging. The cost of a bottle that houses it is often worth several times more than the product itself. But money aside, vodka and rum have also become popular because they largely take on the character of the fruit juice they are commonly mixed with, which are cocktails that are generally sweet and fun to drink.
So in trying to give calvados a before/after dual purpose (like whisky) and also to have cocktail appeal (like clear alcohols), creative barmen have been able to invent delicious drinks using young calvados or clear calvados as the principle ingredient. Now, instead of having to wait until the end of a meal when the refusal of a digestif becomes easy, before-dinner drinks can introduce consumers to the Norman nectar that would never have been consumed before.
Calvados Drink Recipes
In that vein, here are some examples of drink recipes that use calvados:
Widow's Kiss
Lonsdale
The French Tickler
Widow's Kiss - Mixed Drink With Calvados BrandyThis cocktail is actually a take on the classic Widow's Kiss by Erik Adkins at The Slanted Door in San Francisco, who wanted to create something "both sexy and sad, like the kiss of a widow." Its complex flavors combine orange, clove, and ripe apple.
- 2 ounces Adrien Camut Calvados - 6 Year Old
- 1/2 teaspoon Benedictine
- 1/2 teaspoon Green Chartreuse VEP
- Gum Arabic (or rich sugar syrup)
- 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
- A thin orange peel served in the drink
Calvados Brandy Drink Recipe - Lonsdale Prepared by Thad Vogler at Bar Agricole in San Francisco. It really picks up on the bitter green apple skin flavors of the farmhouse calvados, which blend beautifully with the herbal side of basil and the slightly sweet notes of honey and apple juice.
- 2 ounces Domaine du Manoir de Montreuil Calvados - Reserve
- 2 ounce Biodynamic Apple Juice
- 1/4 ounce honey
- 3 leaves of fresh basil
- 3/4 ounce lemon juice
The French Tickler - Calvados Drink RecipeConceived by AJ Ferrari of Bourbon Steak, San Francisco. Floral flavors of late summer envelope fresh apple and savory elements in this richly-flavored cocktail.
- 1 1/2 ounces Adrien Camut Calvados - 6 Year Old
- 3/4 ounces Dollin White Vermouth
- 1/2 ounces house made fennel pollen syrup
- 1/2 ounces fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 ounce egg white
- 1 dash each Fee Brothers lemon bitters and Angostura bitters
More calvados drink recipes are in the book Calvados:The Spirit of Normandy by Charles Neal, published in 2011 by Flame Grape Press.