Cointreau Recipe - Wanted.

by **Divey** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:55 am

Can someone steer me in the right direction of a Cointreau recipe please.

by **Jesiah** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:27 pm

http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpbb3 ... p?f=5&t=62

There is a good recipe here!

by **Divey** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:39 pm

Thanks Jesiah, much appreciated. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

by **Linny** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:28 pm

Jesiah wrote:http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=62

There is a good recipe here!

I recieved a Cointreau bottle , and was thinking of making a copy to fill , since i have a small still (3-5L) i can easily try... :?
since im only after a 1L , but my minimum to run is 3 L ... so if i soak the zest of 4 or 5 oranges to 1.6 L of 80% ABV , dilute it to 40% to give 3.2L .... the wash calculator predicts i should get around 670ml @ 92% (which sounds about right going off other runs) i will only have to add 870ml of water/syrup to water down to 40% ABV drinking .... but will end up with about 1.5L total ,,,, i guess ill have to have a taste day again ,,,, damn lol

Has anyone made this , if so ,,, for the spirit run , what cuts do you suggest ? i read that the heads hold alot of the orange flavour ... i think i might have to cut in jars and mix later .

by **emptyglass** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:55 pm

Take 1 litre of 40% neutral.
Add and disolve 1 to 1 1/4 cups of sugar.
Place in large jar, suspend 1 orange or 2 mandies above the surface of the sugared neutral. Don't let them contact the fluid as that can cause bitterness.
Come back in 3 months.

I'm about 2 months in, havn't pulled the lid off yet, but its looking nice.

by **emptyglass** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:12 pm

I popped the lid tonight and wow!
I'm very pleased with the result, considering how simple the recipie is.

I used mandarine, and its real nice to me, I like mandie's. Going to try this method with some orange and some lime next... just need another suitable jar.

by **BackyardBrewer** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:28 pm

Try this, it's simple and an absolute knock out.
http://m.instructables.com/id/44-Orange-Liqueur-Recipe/

by **Urrazeb** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:46 pm

Jesiah wrote:http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=62

There is a good recipe here!

I cant get the link up.. :shock:

by **Unna240** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 3:10 pm

I'm also chasing a Cointreau recipe would macerating fruit work better or filling my gin basket with dry/fresh orange peel etc work better?
Thanks in advance

by **WTDist** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 3:30 pm

can it be made like limenchello but with orange or mandarins? and adjusted to taste? this is how i was going to try it.

From the tried and Proven for limenchello

1 Litre Neutral 80%-95%
14 Lemons
1kg Sugar
1 Litre Water

1) Using a potato peeler remove the rind from the lemons - trying not to take any white part
2) Put the rind into the neutral for 7-10 days
3) Dissolve sugar in the water (you will need to heat the water to dissolve)
4) Strain the neutral into the sugar solution and mix
5) Allow to cool and bottle

maybe just substitute lemon for orange/mandarin? if you want 40% start off with azeo maybe? im sure you could calculate it so you get what you want.

I think it would work. i macerated some mandarins the other week and it tasted alright. not enough for a nice drink but i was just experimenting with extracting oils from citrus

by **WalterWhite** » Mon Nov 16, 2015 4:21 pm

Hey WT that's a great idea but it would actually just make an Arancello (the Orange version of Limoncello)
I have had great success with the above Limoncello recipe so this week I am going to try an Arancello. I only use 600 - 750gm of sugar though as I like the lemon to be the dominant flavour without too much sweetness.
I also really like the idea of one of the recipes linked for Cointreu type liquor. Placing 44 coffee beans in an orange and soaking in high proof likker for 6 weeks ... Will give it a go for sure

by **Unna240** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 4:13 pm

Not quite what I was asking guys thanks anyways.
From what the internet can tell me Cointreau is made of high proof sugar head spirit with a mix of sweet orange peel and bitter orange peel would macerating it be the best way to make it or to vapor infuse it with a mix of both peels with a gin basket? I'm going to try it I was just curious whether anyone else has?

by **scythe** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 5:04 pm

I would macerate it.
Then you can mix it to your taste, where as if you end up too bitter by using a gin basket all you can do is re-distil.
So ideally you make two tinctures one sweet and one bitter then have at it till your happy with it.

by **Woodsy71** » Tue Nov 17, 2015 8:08 pm

Indeed Scythe

I'd be throwing together a few tinctures too. Playing around with ratios of what you believe to be the main botanicals.

Then put your lab coat on, play mad scientist and mix away...

Ten will get you twenty that citrus oils give the louche and a sugar syrup, glucose will give you the thicker mouthfeel.

Whatever you do, you won't nail Cointreau.

But i reckon you will come up with something unique that you enjoy :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Good luck mate.

by **Woodsy71** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:09 am

Righto Unna,

I found this post on another forum.

I can't vouch for it's validity, but it does make sense:

After visiting the distillery, I can say that they are using 3 different types of orange peels... There are bitter orange, sweet orange and green orange peels... They are all dried and then put thru the distillation process. The stills being used are specific to Cointreau's needs. They are using a distillate of beet sugar. They also have the least amount of sugar than any other orange liqueur on the market... Try this: Take the 3 types of orange peels, place them in a cheesecloth and suspend them over (not in) an enclosed glass container and let a high proof spirit (preferably beet distillate b/c thats what they use) do the work and pull color and flavor without the peels actually sitting in the spirit. This will take a while (weeks), but be patient. Then, add sugar to taste. I recommend super fine... Cheers!

Now go get 'em :smile:

by **Unna240** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:54 am

No worries thanks woodsy appreciate it mate ill give that a Crack and see what I can do

by **620rossco** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 4:59 pm

Blood oranges from the back yard in a carterhead works well, tripple distilled TPW.
Just be careful when you are diluting as the oils in the spirit will go cloudy.
Cointreau does his when you add ice. :mrgreen:

by **_TK_** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 5:23 pm

Just couple weeks ago I did maceration of 90abv with lemon and oranges peels for 2 weeks, turned very nice, was very pleased with out come, it needed tiny bit of sugar to balance it, but after I watered it down to 42abv - BANG - I've ruined color.. From beautiful lemony crystal clear - to milky, color like orange juice from the box, it is quite bad and do not know if it can be fixed without pot stillin it..
So not sure how to macerate high abv lemon and orange peels and keep this nice color, it might be better idea to use gin basket and get white product ..

by **scythe** » Wed Nov 18, 2015 7:18 pm

That just means that you have a high amount of oil in your maceration.
Louche can be desirable.
Freezing can help.

by **Swisswa** » Thu Nov 19, 2015 1:04 am

This is interesting... From a website explaining the Cointreau process a little

"Cointreau is made by steeping orange peels in high-proof neutral beet sugar alcohol and distilling it. This 'raw alcoholate' is reduced with water, centrifuged, then reduced with more water, more neutral alcohol, and sugar before filtration and bottling.

The centrifuge step was curious to me, so I asked Langlais for some clarification. She told me that this step removes some essential oils from the alcoholate.

But then why not just use less oranges in the first place to have less essential oils?

It turns out that they use the centrifuge (which is a continuous centrifuge, by the way, not a batch process) to remove only certain essential oils. Surprisingly, they are not removing heavy ones that would collect at the outside of the centrifuge (a centrifuge separates by weight), but the lightest, zesty oils.

Langlais said this was so that there is a proper balance between the 'juicy' flavors and zesty ones in Cointreau. If they left everything in, the liqueur would be overwhelmingly zesty."

Though not everyone has a centrifuge (I can see the one in my lab going missing soon...) I would recommend maybe macerating your different orange peels first and blending to find the balance of different orange peel to suit your taste, then try that again in the same ratio through the carter head or gin basket depending on what you have. You might want a few excess oils to carry over into the distillate to get that louching effect Cointreau has.