Grand Marnier substitute

[winemaker81]

At Christmas I tasted Grand Marnier for the first time. I liked it enough to buy a bottle ... then I started thinking -- how to I make this?

On the bottle it says it's cognac and orange liqueur, so I adapted my limoncello recipe to try a small batch.

I washed and zested 2 large, ripe oranges, and place the zest in a sealed jar with 3 cups of a middle-of-the-road cognac. After 60 days I strained it and filtered through coffee filters, then sweetened.

Sweetening was an experiment. I poured Grand Marnier to use as a yard stick and added more and more 1:1 sugar syrup to the cognac base until it tasted right. My final result used 3:1 cognac/syrup. I'm very pleased with the result.

Nope, I didn't duplicate Grand Marnier. I would have to use much better cognac and carefully selected oranges to achieve that goal. However, I'm pleased enough that I'm going to start a 3.5 liter batch in the near future.

 

[BernardSmith]

I like your approach. Rather than attempt to replicate or clone classic liqueurs you make a version that you like with the ingredients you have. I try to do much the same - and so my Drambuie is made with honey, heather and some herbs and spices but does not taste like store bought Drambuie. But it nevertheless tastes very drinkable. That said, I am not convinced that Grand Marnier necessarily uses a better cognac than the brandy you chose but they probably use zest from bitter oranges

 

[winemaker81]

Thanks! My intention is mostly "inspired by" rather than "replaces", and this was a fun challenge.

The Grand Marnier bottle is 80 proof, 51% cognac / 49% orange liqueur, so I had to figure how to do that. I brainstormed but couldn't think of anything more applicable than the limoncello recipe. I figured if that didn't work, I'd not be much out of pocket. Although I figured the product would be good for mixing, if nothing else.

Note that my result is 60 proof, which is actually good. While I like 80 proof liquor, most of the people I know don't, so this result is more palatable for others. And I enjoyed it. This afternoon I taste tested again -- while the Grand Marnier is better, my result is far closer than I expected to get. This is a win!

Next batch I'm going to buy small oranges so I have more zest, and I'll pick through the oranges to ensure they're ripe. I'll see what I can do to find specialty oranges -- if I can find them I may not use all bitter orange, but it may be that a mixture of types will produce a more interesting flavor.

Bernard -- post the drambuie recipe. I'm interested in trying it, and I'm sure others are as well.

 

[BernardSmith]

This is from my notes:
750 ml scotch
1 oz heather tips
1 cinnamon stick (about 3 inch)
Zest of 1 orange
1 t of vanilla essence (home made)
about 200 ml of heather honey diluted in about 150 ml of water

I steeped the heather, cinnamon and zest for about 15 days in the vodka, strained the vodka and added the vanilla. I added the honey syrup to taste. I may have increased the amount of honey to about 300 ml. I was looking for a sweeter liqueur.

I believe that traditional Drambuie is made with angelica root but I could not obtain any in time for this project. And I believe that Drambuie was a drink that was made for Bonnie Prince Charles (1720 -1788) who drank scotch as if it was water, but who apparently thought that the whisky he could get his hands on was all but undrinkable - so someone created this sweet version of whisky.