Grand Marnier

Proprietary French aged orange liqueur in brandy base created by Marnier-Lapostolle in 1891 by request of Café Royal in London. Originally known as Curaçao Royal, the name was changed to Grand Marnier in 1899. The product is essentially a deluxe curaçao liqueur that swapped out the neutral spirit base for aged cognac. The new name was an ironic thumbing of the nose at other French liqueurs of the era, which often began with the word “Petit”. In practice, these aged-brandy-based orange liqueurs do not always upgrade recipes calling for regular curaçao, so constitute their own new category, with Grand Marnier as the canonical example, joined by various imitators. Notable in the Satan’s Whiskers (Straight) Cocktail. Orange brandy is a generic category for orange liqueurs that prominently feature flavorful aged grape brandy as a base, as exemplified by Grand Marnier. This category emerged in the 1890s when the Café Royal in London commissioned a deluxe curaçao from Marnier-Lapostolle that used their cognac as the base, rather than a neutral spirit. Imitators followed as the concept is a natural product extension for grape brandy producers, with good examples produced with great care in alembic stills alongside their brandy components. These products are an up-market evolution of curaçao wherein the flavor from refined aged brandy plays an equal role with orange in the liqueur. As such, these products may be divergent enough from simpler curaçao liqueurs to be a poor substitute in some situations; the essential distinction is how the brandy flavor will play. By contrast, these ingredients generally stand well on their own as a cordial.