Chambord Liqueur Royale de France

When I think of unique liquor or liqueur bottles; the first one coming to mind is almost always Chambord. For many years Chambord's easily identifiable bottle has stood out on the shelf. The gold belt over the deep purple liqueur and interesting globe shape make it very easy to recognize.

Before this liqueur review I had never tried it outside of a cocktail, so let's take a deeper look.

Background:

Chambord liqueur is said to be inspired by a raspberry liqueur once produced in the Loire Valley of France in the late 17th Century. To this day many delicious  liquors are produced in that valley, such as Cointreau, Triple Sec and Royal Combier.

The original liqueur inspiring Chambord was supposedly introduced to King Louis XIV during one of his visits to the Chateau de Chambord. Royalty in those times always had the best of the best and it was common for many fine spirits to be had with lavish meals.

Chambord's website says they craft this liqueur from the world's finest raspberries and blackberries, Madagascar vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel, honey and cognac. This is all done on the premises of a traditional Loire Valley Chateau south of Paris.

Their creation process includes steeping of blackberry and raspberry blends in French spirits for four weeks. Then they perform an extraction of the current infusion and a second layer of spirits is added to the fruit to capture essences of the whole fruit blend. The second infusion sits for two weeks before it is drawn off and they press the fruit to get the natural sugars and juices. Finally all of the infusions and juices are married with proprietary blends of cognac, all-natural extracts of the ingredients mentioned previously as well as un-specified spices and herbs.

The result is of course a complex set of fruit and herb flavors blended with elegant cognac.

Due to the recently ever incresing trend of organics I want to mention that they do specify the ingredients in Chambord are all-natural, but not whether they are organic. This means they are likely not organic. As organic is becoming a huge trend lately and if they were using organic they would probably want to push that. Maybe if I get bored I'll send them an E-mail and ask just in case.

The Royal Test:

As you pour it into a tasting glass you will think dark, very dark red wine, but with the viscosity of maple syrup. With a swirl the deep purple-red adheres to the sides of the glass so you can get a good aroma. The color looks royal in a fancy glass and someone might even think your classy, but we know your not.

The bottle itself is about as Royal as you can get. A gold lettered belt wraps an orb glass and climaxes with a royal crown on top. Research reveals that the style is meant to resemble a Globus Cruciger.

As you lift the Chambord to your nose the raspberry aroma comes on strong and brings up a mix of nearly grapey intense raspberry goodness with lingering hints of citrus and vanilla.

What will your tongue feel? It feels a bit like drinking raspberry honey. Honey, vanilla, maybe some orange, apple and grape. This stuff conjures up visions of a fruit basket. Whereas it is easy for most liqueurs to end up overly sweet, the flavors are so intense that it balances and moderates the sweet.

Final:

Many who have not acquired a love for liquor, liqueurs and wine will claim "cough syrup" or "medicine". Several of my non-alcoholic friends brought this up when I offered them a taste. However for me it smells, feels and tastes much more complex. I think when you are not used to a variety of alcohol based flavors that pretty much any cherry or raspberry type flavors will make a non-drinker think of cough medicine.

Personally I would drink this after or with a very savory meal, or just over a single ice cube. For my taste it is delicious and the honey texture with raspberry bitter-tart is amazing. I look forward to trying a round of cocktails with Chambord as a primary component.

Homemade Lime Liqueur

Anyone who has a drink with me will soon learn that I love lime. I love lime anything really, limes, lime juice, key lime pie, lime candy and any drinks that go well with lime in them. When I was looking through some various recipes for Liqueur, I saw the word lime and knew exactly what I was making next.

I proceeded to browse through the various recipes Gunther Anderson has collected and I found a nice one. I reformatted the recipe so it is a bit easier to read and added in my own directions below.

Homemade Lime Liqueur (Andrew Gnoza) recipe

• 6, Limes (i used persian limes)
• 2, Whole Cloves
• 1/8 tsp, Ground Cinnamon
• 7 oz, Clover Honey
• 12 oz, 100 proof vodka

1. Clean and scrub limes then cut them into quarters and place into a glass container for steeping.

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients, pouring the vodka in last.

3. Shake well to mix.

4. Keep in refrigerator for about 2 weeks, stirring or shaking every 3 days.

5. Strain and Filter. Age for 1 to 2 weeks. The tartness will die down a little.

*note: after straining and filtering I added in 3/4 Cup sugar syrup because it was a little too bitter for my taste.

She put the lime in the coconut..

After a week or so I got this song out of my head and then went in for a close examination.

Visual:

At first the Lime Liqueur is very cloudy, seemingly due to the cinnamon which adds a brownish  hue and the honey which adds a golden color. After aging for about two weeks the cloudiness settles and color is much better. It is definitely a dark lime green (the picture above is before aging), though with a hint of gold\brown due to the other ingredients. The color is more pleasing than the food color ultra-lime greens you would see at the store.

Presenting this liqueur on the rocks only makes it look better.

Nose:

You get a primary honey with a secondary citrus tart that is distinctly lime. There is a bit of spice aroma but it is not a standout.

Home made Lime Liqueur

Taste:

Honestly this is the first homemade Liqueur coming out of my kitchen that I could deem worthy of sipping on after dinner. The mouth feel is just right, not too viscous, not too runny. Honey is surprisingly dominant in this Liqueur, Tart and acid hits you before the bitter rolls in. Normally bitter would give me a sad face but it is somehow welcome in this party of flavors. The cinnamon and clove add a nice spice at the end to round things out.

Final:

I really like this one, but I can still be picky. The lime flavor itself could stand to be more intense, maybe a tad less bitter and more spice. Overall I like it how it is! (it probably would have been great even without the 3/4 cup sugar syrup I added in) The recipe came out pretty good if just a bit bitter. In doing more research on fruit extracts I discovered the bitterness might be due to leaving on the peels and not removing the pith. Next time I will include the only the zest, meat and juice, leaving out the pith.