Product Review: Bénédictine Liqueur

Say the word “liqueur” to me and I’m instantly transported back to
childhood Christmases.  I’m 8-year old me, beaming as I take furtive,
delighted sips from a thimble-sized serving of my Gran’s festive
Malibu, carefully measured out by my poor, harangued mother, who must
have been convinced she was setting her daughter on the road to
alcoholism with that double teaspoon of illicit booze.

Fast forward 20-odd years or so and whilst adult-me still looks back
on those times with fond nostalgia, my more mature and much snobbier
palate sticks its nose up at the notion of liqueur. Grown-up me drinks
posh gin and dry white wine, and now associates liqueur with sickly
alcoholic chocolates, syrupy digestifs and uninspired Christmas gifts.

That is till I sampled Bénédictine, DOM, a liqueur made with 27
different herbs and spices, purportedly created from the 500-year old
recipe of French holy man/undercover mixologist Dom Bernado in the
Abbey of Fécamp, Normandy. The story goes that the recipe for this
mysterious “elixir” was lost for hundreds of years before its
rediscovery by merchant Alexandre Le Grand in 1863, who promptly
rolled up his sleeves and brought the concoction back to life.

Well, my stuck-up, liqueur-loathing self can slink off to a corner on
its own, because Bénédictine is absolutely delicious. With a
reviewer’s cap on, I first got my nose in there and took an appraising
whiff: at 40%, it unsurprisingly smells incredibly alcoholic but with
a soft scent of spices underneath that pungent hit.

Then to the tasting. I first tried it neat, and a trifle-sponge soaker
this liqueur is categorically not: Bénédictine is deep amber in
colour, velvety in texture and deep in taste. There was an initial
punch of alcohol but this wasn’t overpowering and didn’t detract from
the underlying flavours. What I was most pleasantly surprised by was
the complexity of the flavour, which brought together butterscotch and
caramel with a blend of herbs and spices and faint fruitiness – but
without any medicinal traces that you might expect of a drink made
with plants.

I next tried the liqueur with the simple serving suggestion of the
“Big Ben” – tonic water and a slice of lime. I’m generally a Gina and
Tina (G&T) purist but swapping out the gin for the Benedictine gave
the classic mixer an unusual spin. The acidity of the tonic really cut
through the sweetness of the Bénédictine, making for a long,
refreshing drink, and a nice alternative for those who don’t have a
sweet tooth.

Although I didn’t sample the Bénédictine mixed into a cocktail, it
looks to be a versatile ingredient. I especially liked the sound of
“Benediction” (topped with champagne and a dash of orange bitters” and
the “Be Pamplemousse” (mixed with a generous splash of grapefruit
juice) – both drier flavours that I think would contrast well with the
honeyed flavour of the liqueur, and would work very nicely as a
warming cocktail for the coming winter months.

So thank you for persevering with that lost recipe, Alexandre. Looks 
like this Christmas a bottle of liqueur will be back under the tree.