How to Buy Orange Liqueur, Our Taste Test

Welcome to Common Man Cocktails, I’m your host Derrick Schommer and we’re mixing it up or not actually. We’re going to do—this is something a little different we’re doing five show’s a week now so I thought maybe it would be cool to explore other areas besides just doing recipes every single day. Although sometimes I will, sometimes I’ve got question of my own or that other people come up with and one of them was, “What are the difference in all the different orange liqueurs that are on the market?” Now obviously, I don’t have enough sponsorship every single orange liqueur that’s on the market so what I’m going to do is buy what I could find, a lot of this I already had some I experimented with like Tawaka. And what I wanted to do is I’ve got them ordered in cheapest to most expensive these guys are equivalent price they’re both $29.99. Now my price is you’re going to differ I mean New Hampshire where state run liqueur so everything you buy is through this state. So there’s going to be some prices are better than others. So what I did is I priced this all to be in my own state. They’re and then even in the same stores, so therefore they should all be at the same level. If this ones $40 for you this is probably going to be you know $10 less than the base cost if you kind of get what I’m getting at. So what I’ve got is the Triple Sec, now triple sec rings in at $4 or $4 to $6 and they say $4 to $6. This is $68, this is a Blue Curacao this is bitter orange so its not exactly orange liqueur though it’s a bitter orange liqueur, it’s got a orange liqueur but the color is blue, bailey’s have an orange one too so you could check that out. Gran Gala is let’s see we’ve got $15 to $16 so you know $15.50, now if you know this Gran Gala and Grand Marnier you see any similarities probably they got the same type of seal thing going on. These guys are in direct competition with these guys, go to Gran Gala’s website and you’ll see that their even comparing themselves as a higher rating than Grand Marnier. So you know take that as you will. Tawaka is kind of a vanilla orange brandy blend. It can be also used in certain margarita’s will call for this, certain tequila drinks will call for this, it seems to be pairing well with the tequilas. This is the Patron Citronge I don’t know how you say it. it’s orange liqueur from Patron. This little guy here is going to run about $24 and these two guys like I said $30. So from lowest $4 to $30 or $35, or if you go to like the airport you can use to get this a little cheaper or bigger ones for the same price. And so those are all you’re different orange liqueurs that were going to explore. What I did is I pour each of them in a shot glass behind here, this is like magic, right so you’re going to get something to clear, something that are nice in gold. Something that are nice and blue and I mean golden clear. So this are really you’re three primary colors here and my goal really had people say “What’s the difference?” “I don’t know”. Let’s try it so what I wanted to do is I’ve got, I’m going to be doing a little spitting this is going to be like a wine comparison. I’ve got my water to kind of cleanse the palate because there’s just a lot of orange here. but I wanted to explore with the different taste were so that if you're going out looking for one of this fine the one that’s in your price point and find the one that might have the right taste sensation you’re looking for. In my opinion Grand Marnier best in like a margarita for the Common Man Margarita, I used Grand Marnier, Triple Sec its what it is mostly called for when you’re doing if go to the restaurants you probably getting a triple sec. And then sometimes you get Cointreau, sometime you get this if this is they're brand that they're carrying this is the Patron. So the triple sec I just go through it and just smell them all first to give you an idea. This reminds me of Sprite exact same nose as you get on the sprite. If you like sprite and you're looking for something that’s not too high cost, not a bad alternative. Blue Curacao, it’s got a more of an artificial sweetie it’s like that if you were to buy into the rind maybe of an orange and then you put some sugar on it maybe. The other trick is, yeah, I can drink this treat. The other trick it’s blue, so when you’re trying to blue up a drink like, I don’t know a Blue Lagoon Margarita you’re probably going to use that. The Gran Gala, I’m going to actually pull out the Gran Gala and Grand Marnier for a second. Looking both directly at them beside that they can’t pour evenly, they look exactly the same in color so much that I’m almost scared to mix them. You don’t think those look the same. Female: No. The Gran Gala is darker. Really, okay, yeah, you're right it is so, so just a type but darker. It is a little darker not much though. I’m not doing a color test, not I thought they kind of look the same but because it depends on if you have a good background and I don’t. Yes, so that, I guess that’s a little darker. I guess I mean it is Jennifer said so. And I think it kind of smells like a margarita, I don’t know why. It’s got a very, you know what it is, it’s got like orange and salt water smell to it like astringent acidic orange smell. And this is much smoother like a 100% smoother. This smells more like a maybe like an orange brandyiesc or and aged orange something that’s maybe and oaky that’s what it is, it’s and oaky smelling orange. So this I think would me more like Blanco Tequila and this would be like Reposado tequila and the Tawaka which stands alone. Smells like a vanilla—like a orange with vanilla extract. A little brandy smell but there is definitely, that’s the thing about oranges it really comes out in the alcohols. Patron is orange peel not like, like some of these, like—I think the Grand Marnier is more like if you took and orange and you squeezed it the juice if you drank it or you smell that that would be what you’d smell. With this Patron, I smell more like, like if you were to zest the orange and have the little, the little skin pieces spray off into the air maybe also like pledge, pledge. And the Cointreau is like Patron except for it a lot stronger and lot more like in your face orange taste smell. So if I was to take this two and just the Cointreau and the Patron, I probably lean more to the Cointreau just because the flavor’s is a little more powerful. If you’re looking for, if you’re making a margarita that you don’t want a lot of orange and then I’m kind of using the margarita because I like a little like a half ounce of orange in margaritas. I think I would go with Cointreau over the Patron. Because I like that little extra dimension but this would be more subtle, I think. So let’s try some of this, this is the Triple Sec, now you can get different brands this is Bols Triple sec and that is one of the cheaper brands by cheaper, I mean by about 2 box so $4 instead of $5 or $6. It’s smells like, it taste like candy. Very much like a if you were to go to the store to the candy store, you pick up and orange candy, Triple Sec is orange candy. All right you should try this Curacao, I like that better, I’ve always like Curacao so that’s not too surprising. It’s a candy a lot the texture is better, it’s got a better texture to it, it’s got less candy more bitter so, it’s almost like a upscale candy. And a little extra dimension not pure sugar, kind of adding something else in the party. Now the Gran Gala, again I think I’m going taste this, no let’s just do it one by one go up the scale. Wow, that is intense, that’s made with brandy. Triple orange liqueur made with very special old brandy 40% alcohol. What’s this sucker? 40% alcohol, this burns you’re tongue, this is like, it’s like an orange on fire in your mouth. Not exactly what I was expecting, good. Not nearly as smooth, it was just like it gets so hard and if there was any smoothness I missed it all. Let’s do the Tawaka now, now this is an Italian I believe, Liqueur Italiano 35% alcohol by volume, so it’s a little less Tuscany. It’s still got a little burn in the nasal passages but much, this might, these guys actually have a lot in common, you’ve got the brandy based. This one doesn’t burn as much, this one is much more smooth. I can almost—I think, I could drink this straight. Put a little ice on there and you would be good to go. I think that’s definitely better than the Gran Gala and the Tawaka, they do have a lot of similar properties. This one is a little more bite to it with the orange a little more acidic this is a little more like ice cream. I like ice cream, so my tongue is on fire from this Gran Gala. There if you look at that it looks just like every other Patron. It could be this could be tequila, you know Blanco Tequila. It’s not too bad, actually it’s pretty good, it’s got a lot of orange to it, not as candy tasting. Imagine maybe Triple Sec remove all that sugar fined candy replace it with like a Florida orange. This is just like Florida orange and it does still have a little burn to it, so you're still going to get a little fire on the tongue. Not to bad, overall thus far I think the Tawaka would probably be the best it is just $21, $22 this isn’t too bad this is $23 so I think I might lean towards that one but this is still a pretty good value. Let’s go with the Cointreau. Now this I don’t know it’s really value play here because I think most people already own this but if you don’t and you have one of this other ones I don’t know if you really go out and buy it. See that’s cool that is it’s very smooth like ultra smooth. Not a lot of burn, just a little fire on the tip of the tongue, great orange after taste, unless these guys don’t really bring a lot of after taste. They kind of bring it, right up front, the sweet—right on the front of the tongue and they just disappear leaving you with just in some cases under cases nothing. That lingers, so over all in a cocktail the Cointreau, I think gives more dimensions to what you could be really working with. Let’s try Grand Marnier, I think I got something in my eyes. Grand Marnier almost has like a brandyiesc , flavoring to it, triple orange French and then now I’m telling you for that one we got a little burn after. A lot more this is more like an orange juice-type of attack. It’s not the peal. Like with the Cointreau I’m thinking peel with this I’m thinking the inner of the orange the juices. Again and very good taste, very smooth definitely this guys here bring the most smoothness, this guys little more candy, this guy is just kind of stands out, its just, it’s just want to attack you with fire and pain. I mean you’re getting $15 when I’ve tried this in a margarita this the two—I typically use in a margarita and I’ll switch back and forth to just to really appreciate the differences in my personal opinion. That has a lot more smooth factor a lot needier kind of orange. This one doesn’t bring, it kind of hide itself a little more in the drinks so you’re not getting too much and since you’ve already got all this other flavors fling around you're not getting that fireball burn to it, it just kind of sips into okay. So overall those were the different brands that you can really choose from there’ll be other ones out there but overall I didn’t want to say this because I was kind of hoping to go this direction. I still think if you want to make a really good cocktail you want to impress people you're going to want to stick with this crowd here. The Tawaka might be a little more specialized, it’s got the little vanilla hints in there but it adds a completely new dimension. I’m thinking that maybe using this in a margarita; see what it does to the margarita. This guys if you're looking at these three and your price is definitely a problem go to the Patron. If you’ve got a little extra cash I’m going to Grand Marnier Cointreau because I just like the innards of the orange a little better than the zest. But that is a personal thing take smell the zest of an orange cut it open smell the inside, smell the zest what you want you really kind of lean towards those you need the ones you want to choose in that direction. Hopefully, what I’ve kind of explained here gives you and idea of what you could do with different orange liqueurs. If you kind of like this format, this type of show please go to EverydayDrinkers.TV let me know what you think of this episode. I’m thinking to doing one on tequila going through repasado and stuff. So if that sounds like a great idea let me know, I’m your host Derrick Schommer and were teaching you how to drink orange liqueur.