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Cointreau

Common cocktails

The White Lady
Cointreau Rickey
Sidecar
Cointreau Breeze

Alcohol Content: 40%

Allergen labels are just a guide, ALWAYS check label before drinking.

Cointreau, the controverted orange Triple Sec.

There’s a lot of controversy surrounding Cointreau. This Orange-based alcohol drink is one of the most appreciated brands of triple sec. But, what is “triple sec”? Triple sec means “triple dry” in French.

There’s even some controversy in that. Some say triple sec means the liquor was distilled three times. Some say it has three times the flavor of orange, so that’s where the “triple” comes in. And some say it’s actually just a name used for marketing.

There was a time when it was also called a Curacao, due to its origins. But this has changed, and now it’s just called triple sec.

Is Triple Sec and Cointreau the same thing?

Something worth noting: Cointreau is a “triple Sec” But if you are thinking that bottle you saw that said Triple Sec. Think Ferrari Vs Ford dont say they are the same or your mixologist might have a heart attack. Cointreau uses a brandy based while most regular triple secs use neutral spirits.

History and Cointreau.

Cointreau has a lot of history behind it. This spirit was created thanks to Curacao. It was actually a variation of it. It was created for the first time thanks to the lack of resources to recreate Curacao in foreign countries. They didn’t use sugar cane alcohol and peels of the Laraha, like the Curacao bitter.

Instead, they used other species of sweet and bitter oranges, and sugar beet as a base to produce it. Because of this, it was called “Curacao Blanco triple sec”. Some say that, to avoid the cheaper market of Curacao, they removed the word from its name, so it stood just as triple sec.

Brandy Baby.

Now, Cointreau is made in Saint-Barthélemy-d’Anjou, in France. The first distillery was created in 1849 by AdolpheCointreau, and his brother Edouard-Jean Cointreau. The first bottles were sold in 1875. Now, it sells more than 13 million bottles each year in more than 150 countries.

There’s another variety of triple sec called Grand Marnier, which is made with peels of oranges, but instead of sugar cane or beet, they use Brandy. This changes the flavor a lot.