Cointreau (, , ) is a brand of orange-flavoured triple sec liqueur produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is consumed as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known

cocktail A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...

s. It was originally called Curaçao Blanco Triple Sec. Despite the orange bottle, Cointreau is colourless. Cointreau also produces Cointreau Noir, a blend of 70% Cointreau and 30% cognac from the House of Rémy Martin. Though the term ''Cointreau'' is usually used to refer to the triple sec liqueur itself, the specific term ''Cointreau L'Unique'' may be used to distinguish it from related products, such as the aforementioned Cointreau Noir.

Production

Cointreau Distillery was set up in 1849 by Adolphe Cointreau, a confectioner, and his brother Édouard-Jean Cointreau. Their first success was with the cherry liqueur Guignolet, but they also found success when they blended sweet and bitter orange peels and pure alcohol from

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

s. The first bottles of Cointreau were sold in 1875. An estimated 13 million bottles are sold each year, in more than 150 countries. Ninety percent of production is exported. Cointreau & Cie SA was family-owned until 1990, when it merged with

Rémy Martin Rémy Martin () is a French firm that primarily produces and sells cognac. Founded in 1724 and based in the Communes of France, commune of Cognac, France, Cognac, it is among the oldest cognac producers still in existence. and one of the "big f ...

to form

Rémy Cointreau Rémy Cointreau is a French, family-owned business group specialized in the production and distribution of alcoholic beverages. The group's products include cognac (Rémy Martin, Louis XIII), triple sec ( Cointreau), the Greek spirit Metaxa, rum ...

, now a publicly traded company. The production methods and recipe are a

family secret A family secret can be defined as "events or information that members hide from each other or those outside the family." Family secrets can be shared by the whole family, by some family members or kept by an individual member of the family. Anecdo ...

, but public tours of the facility are offered. Photography is restricted in many areas to protect the production process from being copied.

Cocktails

In addition to being consumed neat (or often on

ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

), Cointreau is used in many popular

s. The official IBA recipes for the Corpse Reviver #2 and the

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

include Cointreau. When mixed with water, Cointreau exhibits the Ouzo effect.

Publicity

In the 1980s, Avirex, now Cockpit USA, issued an A-2 limited-edition leather flight jacket featuring Cointreau Original Margarita

nose art Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of an aircraft, usually on the front fuselage. While begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, the practice evolved to express the individuality often constrained by ...

on the back of the jacket. In early 2008, the

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

entertainer Dita Von Teese became the new face of Cointreau's "Be Cointreauversial" advertising and marketing campaign, a campaign created in 2003 by the New York advertising agency KraftWorks.Kraftworks NYC

References

{{reflist Products introduced in 1875 French liqueurs Orange liqueurs

Production

Cocktails

Publicity

See also

References