BackBar - Booze Culture Distilled

Cointreau! What are you playing at? I came across a bottle of Cointreau the other day that came with a free promotional gift. This is all well and good if it were a 50ml bottle of a lesser known liquor they're trying to push or perhaps a coaster that doubles as a bottle opener (thank you Moosehead for that one!). But it wasn't…

What it was was a mini, translucent, hot pink, cocktail shaker which as putrid and tacky as it was, was by no means the worse part of this gift. This shaker came complete with the recipe for one fantastically named 'Cointreau-politan' laid out on it's side. Clearly not satisfied with 0.5oz they get in arguably the most popular cocktail in the last 20 years, they decided to take a bigger bite of the pie.

So, somewhat intrigued, I decided to try out this new recipe. Following exactly the measurements laid out for me, I added my generous 2oz of Cointreau and the specified cranberry and lemon juices and poured out what I already figured to be a rank drink. I was not disappointed! So, I took my first sip and sure enough this grossly unbalanced, pathetic excuse for a cocktail, that was barely fit for the drain I proceeded to pour it down, became the second worse cocktail I've ever tasted. The first, incidentally was an, albeit accidentally prepared, dirty vanilla vodka martini, which you have to try to fully understand where I'm coming from.

Cointreau for me never had to try. For years it's proudly sat on great bars and parent's liquor cabinets alike, as well as being an integral ingredient in tons of the world's best cocktails. Which begs the question of why would they come up with such pathetic marketing strategy that could only serve to tarnish such a solid image and reputation. Besides the fact they're French (ooh!), I can only think to attract a younger demographic, but by forcing crap drinks down their necks? Really?

Sort it out Cointreau, you're better than that. At least the shaker's recyclable.

N.D. 

Check out The Craft of Cointreau.

Written by P L on Wednesday, March 03 at 07:33 PM
Tags: Cointreau, cocktail, brand

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