COINTREAU

Two brothers, Adolphe and Édouard-Jean Cointreau, set up a distillery in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou in 1849 — but it was the next generation's Édouard Cointreau who created the triple sec formula still used today. The liqueur is made by macerating and distilling both sweet and bitter orange peels in copper pot stills, then blending the distillate with neutral alcohol and water to 40% ABV. Clear and crisp in the glass, it delivers candied orange peel and orange blossom upfront, with a clean, dry finish that makes it a natural balancing agent in Margaritas, Sidecars, and Cosmopolitans.