Napoleon Sidecar

 

If you are just flipping through your bar book, this recipe will strike you immediately as grand for a variation on a Sidecar. That is not to say that it isn't, but subbing in a liqueur called Mandarine Napoleon for orange flavored brandy sounds like an imperial move. 

I've read somewhere that after you have finished your Cointreau and are done with triple secs in general, the next bottle of orange liqueur you need to get is Mandarine Napoleon. It's just that I can't get it where I live. So I knocked it off with cognac, lots of mandarin orange juice and peels, sugar and a whiff of cardamon seeds. I don't recommend this approach, but it is lovely and, while it took a month of steeping, was almost worth the wait. 

I think what greatly helped this cocktail was the use of Martel single distillery cognac. I'm so happy to have found a good deal on this cognac, a littler wilder tasting than ultra smooth blends but a no-brainer buy when lesser quality brandies often cost more.

I found this recipe on Difford's guide 

• 1 1/2 oz. cognac (Martel VS single distillery used)
• 1 oz. Mandarine Napoleon (homemade used)
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• lemon slice

Coat the rim of a cocktail glass with sugar by rubbing it with a lemon slice and dipping it into a saucer covered with sugar. (Do this ahead of time so you can chill it.) Combine spirits, sugar syrup and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into the cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon slice.