Grand Marnier , a proprietary brand of curaçao made in France from bitter oranges and cognac, has long been one of the most prestigious liqueurs on the market. Its roots date to 1827, when the Lapostolle family founded a cognac distillery in Neauphle-le-Château. In 1876, Julia Lapostolle married Louis-Alexandre Marnier. Soon after, the family founded the House of Marnier Lapostolle. In 1891, Marnier created a premium curaçao for the famous Café Royal in London, replacing the neutral spirit customarily used for a final infusion of orange peels with aged cognac purchased by the café. Soon after, he repeated the process for restaurateur Louis Auguste Paillard in Paris, who suggested Marnier distinguish the bottle of his “Curaçao Royal” with a red ribbon and then sued him (unsuccessfully) when the brand, which Marnier was now selling to the general public, became successful. By 1899, it had become so successful that Marnier changed its name to Grand Marnier, to avoid comparison with ordinary curaçaos.
Marnier’s original formula, which according to the family remains unchanged, uses peels of the bigarade, or Seville orange, which are both distilled and infused in young cognac to make the standard Cordon Rouge. There is also a Cordon Jaune, based entirely on neutral spirits, and a number of rarer expressions, such as the rarified Quintessence, which features a blend of cognacs that are up to a century old.
The Mimosa, the staple of brunch and daytime drinking, is believed to have been invented at the Paris Ritz in 1898; the original version combined champagne with orange juice and Grand Marnier. See Mimosa.
Grand Marnier was served on the Titanic, where passengers would have been offered a sip of the liqueur at the end of their meals. An unopened bottle recovered from the Titanic’s crash site is now on display at the Titanic Belfast museum.
More recently, the popularity of AMC’s Mad Men put a spotlight on nuclear-era cocktails. The B-52, named after the US long-range bombers, is a mix of Grand Marnier, Kahlua, and Bailey’s Irish Cream.
See also cognac.
Clarkson, Janet. Food History Almanac: Over 1,300 Years of World Culinary History, Culture, and Social Influence. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
Gelman, Judy, and Peter Zheutlin. The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook: Inside the Kitchens, Bars, and Restaurants of Mad Men. Dallas: BenBella, 2011
Pouillet, E., et al., eds., Annales de la propriété industrielle, vol. 44. Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1898.
By: Elva Ramirez