St. Germain Cocktail, with a Marketing Twist, at B-Side Lounge, Cambridge

Posted 04/21/2008 at 11:35 AM by Cathy

St. Germain Cocktail

A few months ago I wrote about an elderberry liqueur I’d never heard about, called St. Germain.

I tasted the liqueur as part of the classic St. Germain cocktail – 1/3 liqueur, 1/3 soda water, 1/3 Prosecco – at the housewarming party of a friend of mine who puts a premium on quality ingredients, whether she’s serving food or drinks or both.

It was love at first sip. It practically inspired poetry, or at least an elaborate use of metaphor. Here’s what I wrote:

If the St. Germain Cocktail were a person, she’d be sweet but not saccharine.

She’d be open-minded but not easily influenced.

She’d be effervescent but not bubbly.

She’d be current and fresh, but she’d be grounded in history.

She’d put everyone around her at ease – literally – but she’s got starch in her own spine.

In my book, that’s pretty high praise.

Unfortunately, St. Germain wasn’t widely available on store shelves back then. (Shubie’s in Marblehead and The Spirited Gourmet in Belmont managed to secure coveted bottles for me, for which I will be forever grateful.)

So when DailyCandy.com ran a promotion today in partnership with St. Germain for a free cocktail at participating Boston bars, I jumped at the chance to reunite with a good friend. I was prepared to toast St. Germain’s marketing team for finally being proactive about getting their product to market!

Off we went to the B-Side Lounge on Hampshire Street in Cambridge, one of two Boston area locations participating in the promotion.

One word explains the disappointment I felt, comparing today’s version of the St. Germain cocktail with my friend’s version of it a few months ago. That word, is ICE. As in, way too much of it. As in, we literally spooned the ice cubes out of our glasses and piled them on our bread plates.

What’s so bad about ice? Nothing, on its own. But when it takes up half the volume of the drink in your glass, it’s bad. When it waters down a drink that doesn’t deserve to be watered down, it’s bad. When a drink tastes better at room temperature (as most mixed drinks do) but you can’t get past the icy chill, it’s bad. Chilling a drink tends to mask flavors; ice in a St. Germain cocktail makes it taste bitter, which is bad.

The difference in my experiences, I suspect, has to do with who was serving the cocktail. The first time I had St. Germain was in a home environment, where the liquor wasn’t for sale and the bartender (such as she was) was not one to fudge the recipe. The second time it was in a restaurant, where the liquor was of course for sale. I realize my drink today at the B-Side Lounge was free, but fudging the recipe for the worse as part of a promotional situation is not helpful in convincing potential customers to order the drink again.

I’ll look forward to seeing St. Germain more frequently on drinks menus across town, but I’ll be careful to ask how the bartender will prepare the cocktail. And I’ll look forward to seeing St. Germain more frequently on retail shop shelves around town, but I promise when I mix the drink myself that I will not fudge the recipe. Ever

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