{"id":7497,"date":"2012-08-29T19:17:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T18:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/?p=7497"},"modified":"2014-07-28T19:25:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T18:25:56","slug":"product-review-benedictine-liqueur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/product-review-benedictine-liqueur\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Review: B\u00e9n\u00e9dictine Liqueur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Say the word “liqueur” to me and I’m instantly transported back to
\nchildhood Christmases.\u00a0 I’m 8-year old me, beaming as I take furtive,
\ndelighted sips from a thimble-sized serving of my Gran’s festive
\nMalibu<\/a>, carefully measured out by my poor, harangued mother, who must
\nhave been convinced she was setting her daughter on the road to
\nalcoholism with that double teaspoon of illicit booze.<\/p>\n

Fast forward 20-odd years or so and whilst adult-me still looks back
\non those times with fond nostalgia, my more mature and much snobbier
\npalate sticks its nose up at the notion of liqueur. Grown-up me drinks
\nposh gin and dry white wine, and now associates liqueur with sickly
\nalcoholic chocolates, syrupy digestifs and uninspired Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n

That is till I sampled B\u00e9n\u00e9dictine<\/a>, DOM, a liqueur made with 27
\ndifferent herbs and spices, purportedly created from the 500-year old
\nrecipe of French holy man\/undercover mixologist Dom Bernado in the
\nAbbey of F\u00e9camp, Normandy. The story goes that the recipe for this
\nmysterious “elixir” was lost for hundreds of years before its
\nrediscovery by merchant Alexandre Le Grand in 1863, who promptly
\nrolled up his sleeves and brought the concoction back to life.<\/p>\n

Well, my stuck-up, liqueur-loathing self can slink off to a corner on
\nits own, because B\u00e9n\u00e9dictine is absolutely delicious. With a
\nreviewer’s cap on, I first got my nose in there and took an appraising
\nwhiff: at 40%, it unsurprisingly smells incredibly alcoholic but with
\na soft scent of spices underneath that pungent hit.<\/p>\n

Then to the tasting. I first tried it neat, and a trifle-sponge soaker
\nthis liqueur is categorically not: B\u00e9n\u00e9dictine is deep amber in
\ncolour, velvety in texture and deep in taste. There was an initial
\npunch of alcohol but this wasn’t overpowering and didn’t detract from
\nthe underlying flavours. What I was most pleasantly surprised by was
\nthe complexity of the flavour, which brought together butterscotch and
\ncaramel with a blend of herbs and spices and faint fruitiness – but
\nwithout any medicinal traces that you might expect of a drink made
\nwith plants.<\/p>\n

I next tried the liqueur with the simple serving suggestion of the
\n“Big Ben” – tonic water and a slice of lime. I’m generally a Gina and
\nTina (G&T) purist but swapping out the gin for the Benedictine gave
\nthe classic mixer an unusual spin. The acidity of the tonic really cut
\nthrough the sweetness of the B\u00e9n\u00e9dictine, making for a long,
\nrefreshing drink, and a nice alternative for those who don’t have a
\nsweet tooth.<\/p>\n

Although I didn’t sample the B\u00e9n\u00e9dictine mixed into a cocktail, it
\nlooks to be a versatile ingredient. I especially liked the sound of
\n“Benediction” (topped with champagne and a dash of orange bitters” and
\nthe “Be Pamplemousse” (mixed with a generous splash of grapefruit
\njuice) – both drier flavours that I think would contrast well with the
\nhoneyed flavour of the liqueur, and would work very nicely as a
\nwarming cocktail for the coming winter months.<\/p>\n

So thank you for persevering with that lost recipe, Alexandre. Looks\u00a0\"Benedictine<\/a>
\nlike this Christmas a bottle of liqueur will be back under the tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Say the word “liqueur” to me and I’m instantly transported back to childhood Christmases.\u00a0 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, … Continue →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[830],"tags":[858,843,838],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7497"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14472,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497\/revisions\/14472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialandcocktail.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}