Mulher De Capote

From the Azores, Eduardo Ferreira Mulher De Capote makes a variety of liqueurs, but I am most interested in trying the blackberry. They make a pineapple, a banana and an anise liqueur, and a brandy. They make a passion fruit (Maracujá) liqueur that has won six international gold medals. 

Marie Brizard Grapefruit

After sampling the Giffard Pamplemousse I tried another from a major liqueur maker. Marie Brizard has been around since 1755, but going by this example is not up to the quality of Giffard. The Giffard grapefruit liqueur I tried was excellent with an intense grapefruit flavour and just the right amount of sweetness. This one from Marie Brizard is not as good. The grapefruit flavour is much less and this brings the sweetness much more forward. Definitely prefer the Giffard. 7/10

Brizard makes a large variety of fruit (and other) flavoured liqueurs: mango, orange, pear, peach, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry, tangerine, pineapple, green apple, lychee, black currant, rhubarb, passion fruit, watermelon, vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate, ginger, anise and peppermint.

Fragoli Strawberry liqueur

Fragoli is an award winning strawberry liqueur from Italy. It is available at the SAQ in Quebec.

Anise

Anise must be one of the most widely used single flavouring for liqueurs and eaux de vie. It is popular in so many countries in Europe and the Middle East.

Anise flavour is from the seed of the flowering anise plant which is grown around the Mediterranean. This is not to be confused with star anise which is from the Far East. Anise has a distinctive liquorice flavour that people tend to either love or hate.

It was originally used for medicinal purposes. According to Pliny the Elder (born 24AD), anise is a cure for sleeplessness, among other things.

Anise liqueurs have the distinctive feature of turning from clear to a milky cloudiness when mixed with water, which it usually is, to cut the alcohol and the flavour intensity.

France - Pastis (e.g., Ricard) & Absinthe
Greece - Ouzo
Italy - Sambuca
Spain - Anísado & Anís del Mono
Turkey - Raki
Bulgaria - Mastika 
Egypt - Arak
Israel - Arak
Jordan - Arak
Lebanon - Arak

It is also found in the Americas:
Colombia - Aguardiente
Mexico -Xtabentún

I have tried Ouzo, Sambuca and also Arak from Jordan. I prefer the latter because it was the driest.


Source: Wikipedia

Crème de Menthe

A popular liqueur, crème de menthe is used in cocktails or straight as an aperitif. Made by a variety of manufacturers around the world.

From Wikipedia:
Crème de menthe is an ingredient in several cocktails, such as the Grasshopper and the Stinger. It is also served as a digestif and used in cooking as a flavoring (see Mint chocolate). It is also a primary component of the popular South African shooter known as the Springbokkie.

The traditional formula steeps dried peppermint or Corsican mint leaves in grain alcohol for several weeks (creating a naturally green color), followed by filtration and addition of sugar.

Grand Marnier

After Cointreau, Grand Marnier is the most popular orange based liqueur in the world. Popular as an ingredient in cocktails and straight as an aperitif.

From Wikipedia:
Grand Marnier [is] an orange-flavored liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of Cognac brandy, distilled essence of bitter orange, and sugar.

G.E. Massenez Crème de Framboise

From the manufacturer of the premier pear liqueur, Poire Williams, is a very fine raspberry liqueur — G.E. Massenez's Crème de Framboise

They make an extensive range of liqueurs: apricot, bilberry (European blueberry), blackberry, chessnut, ginger, green apple, lime & ginger, lychee, morello cherry, peach, plum, violet, wild strawberry.

Bénédictine

From Wikipedia:

Bénédictine is a herbal liqueur produced in France. Flavored with twenty-seven flowers, berries, herbs, roots, and spices, it was developed by wine merchant Alexandre Le Grand in the 19th century, and marketed as having been derived from an original recipe of Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy lost in the ashes of the French Revolution.

The recipe is a closely guarded trade secret, purportedly known to only three people at any given time.

Arak

Arak is an anise-flavoured drink popular in the Middle East. It is unsweetened, so it is an eau de vie, rather than a liqueur. As in the manufacture of brandy, a spirit is first made by distilling wine. Then an anise-flavoured oil, derived from crushed aniseeds from the anise plant, is added to the spirit to provide the flavouring.

As with other anise-flavoured drinks like Sambuca, Arak becomes cloudy when mixed with water.

I tried two brands of arak while travelling in the Middle East: Al-Zumot from Zumot Winery & Vineyards of Jordan, and R.T. Touma & Frères from Lebanon. When trying the Touma, my hosts mixed the arak half and half with water. I see why, given that it is 100 proof!

They are both good, but I prefer Al-Zumot.

Arak Al-Zumot

Arak R.T. Touma & Frères

I was surprised to find distinct differences in the way they are made.


Al-Zumot (from their website):

The Arak is distilled from purified grape alcohol with the addition of these anise seeds in a small alambic pot still (Cognac type).

The first distillation of the seeds is limited to 12 hours maximum so that the undesired heavier oils are not extracted. For this reason, only small batches can be distilled. A second and third distillation extracts the heart of distillate.

The heart of distillate is obtained in the final third distillation process; this distillate has a sharp flavour, which is blunted by maturation in clay jars.

Finally comes the secret of our baked clay jars: the triple distilled Arak has a sharp flavour that is blunted by maturation in clay jars. These jars have been hand crafted in the small town of Beit Shabab for more than 2000 years. They are fired for months to get the required porosity, which allows the Arak to “breath”, slowly incorporating the distillate molecules, micro oxidation and let the undesired oils evaporate.

After at least a year of aging, we are left with only 70% of the original quantity through evaporation satisfying the “thirst of the Angels”, and resulting in the nectar Arak Zumot.

R.T. Touma & Frères (from a retailer's site):

This one is made exclusively with whole aniseed and never with star anise, anise oils or extracts.

The winery ferments grape distillate and then distills it four times with various amounts of water and aniseed added at each stated. It's bottled at a hefty 100 proof.

Galliano

Galliano is a smooth, yet spicy liqueur with bold vanilla and anise flavours.

From Wikipedia:
Liquore Galliano L'Autentico, known more commonly as Galliano, is a sweet herbal liqueur, created in 1896 by Italian distiller and brandy producer Arturo Vaccari of Livorno, Tuscany and named after Giuseppe Galliano....

Galliano has numerous natural ingredients including star anise, Mediterranean anise, juniper berry, musk yarrow, lavender, peppermint, cinnamon, and Galliano's hallmark vanilla flavour. Galliano uses vanillin for flavouring and sugar and glucose syrup for sweetening. Caramel and tartrazine are used to achieve Galliano's bright yellow colour.

The original blend is formulated at 84.6 proof (42.3% by volume), while a blend with a more prominent taste of vanilla is produced at 60 proof (30% by volume).

Galliano is sweet with vanilla-anise flavour and subtle citrus and woodsy herbal undernotes. The vanilla top note differentiates Galliano from other anise-flavoured liqueurs such as sambuca, Pernod, or anisette. It is used both as a digestivo (meant for drinking after heavy meals), and as an ingredient for cocktails, most notably the Harvey Wallbanger, Yellow Bird, Golden Cadillac, and Golden Dream.

Chartreuse

Chartreuse is a very old liqueur created by monks. It comes in both green and yellow and is a staple in many cocktails.

From Wikipedia:
Chartreuse is a French liqueur available in green and yellow versions that differ in taste and alcohol content. The liqueur has been made by the Carthusian Monks since 1737 according to the instructions set out in a manuscript given to them by François Annibal d'Estrées in 1605. It was named after the monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France. The liqueur is produced in their distillery in the nearby town of Voiron (Isère). It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers. It is one of the handful of liqueurs that continue to age and improve in the bottle.

Curaçao

Curaçao is a traditionally orange flavoured liqueur. It comes in a range of colours including white, blue and green.

From Wikipedia:
Curaçao is a liqueur flavored with the dried peel of the Laraha citrus fruit, grown on the Dutch island of Curaçao.

Spanish explorers brought the bitter Seville orange to the island in 1527, the progenitor of the Laraha. Although the bitter flesh of the Laraha is unpalatable, the peels are pleasantly aromatic.

Senior & Co, a company started in Curaçao, is the only company that has always produced its liqueur from the peels of the Laraha. The Jewish family, Senior and Chumacairo, started selling their liqueur in 1896 in their pharmacy in small quantities. In 1947 they bought the Landhuis... Chobolobo in Willemstad, where the distillery has since been housed. As this company is the only one that uses Laraha fruit from Curaçao, it affects the word "genuine" on its labels.

Absinthe

This potent, anise flavoured spirit is not really a true liqueur. It was, for years, banned in most countries because of the toxic quality of one of its essential ingredients: wormwood, considered to have hallucinogenic properties. Today, while it is commercially available in many parts of the world, it is difficult to find “true” absinthe.

From Wikipedia:
Absinthe... is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium ("grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs.

Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour, but may also be colourless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the green fairy). It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a liqueur, but it is not traditionally bottled with added sugar and is, therefore, classified as a spirit. Absinthe is traditionally bottled at a high level of alcohol by volume, is normally diluted with water before being consumed.

Absinthe originated in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland in the late 18th century. It rose to great popularity as an alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early 20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers.

Absinthe has often been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen. The chemical compound thujone, which is present in the spirit in trace amounts, was blamed for its alleged harmful effects. By 1915, absinthe had been banned in the United States and in much of Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria–Hungary, yet it has not been demonstrated to be any more dangerous than ordinary spirits. Recent studies have shown that absinthe's psychoactive properties have been exaggerated, apart from that of the alcohol.

The classic way to serve absinthe, drizzled over a cube of sugar.