Cocktail Recipes

The King of Italy

|| Rosemary, grapefruit, spices | French-Italian style ||

Recently, Difford’s Guide ran a Mandarine Napoleon challenge. I’ve never entered a cocktail competition before, but this one was perfect for me. You just submit the recipe from home, and there are separate categories for home enthusiasts like me, and for professionals.

The challenge parameters consisted of: at least 15 ml of Mandarine Napoleon and only using common ingredients (there was a list, but also you get judged on replicability). The liqueur itself is obviously made from mandarins. I’ve never had it before, and it was low on my list of liqueurs to try. Not many cocktails call for it, and I wasn’t sure how much it would add to all the other orange liqueurs I already have. So if nothing else at least the makers of Napoleon managed to make me buy 2 bottles!

It’s actually quite a nice liqueur, and different enough from the ones I already have. It’s almost 40% ABV, the mandarine is a bit brighter than your triple secs and there are some spice notes that are really nice. 

The cocktail I’m sharing with you now is not the one I submitted in the end, but was a close contender. After a lot of experimentation (and failures, a lot of work went into this!) I actually had 4 reasonably good drinks. This one was my personal favourite, but I didn’t submit it because, firstly, it wasn’t as accessible, and secondly because the drink is really elevated by one ingredient that was off limits!

So here you’re getting my favourite version (up to now). The main flavour idea here is to go big on the Napoleon, contrast it with woody flavours and play into the spices. We were being judged on the name as well, so always back of my mind was if I can make a thematic name with the ingredient. Specifically, I know orange, rosemary, cassis and grapefruit make a surprisingly nice combination if well balanced. On top of that, any of the existing cocktails with Napoleon have vermouths and amaro’s. So I picked Italian as a theme. 

Here are the specs:

  • 40 ml Mandarine Napoleon
  • 20 ml Carpano Antica Formula
  • 10 ml Tanqueray No. 10 Gin
  • 10 ml Amaro Nonino
  • 1 tsp Creme de Cassis
  • 3 drp Bittermens Tiki bitters

Stir and strain into a double rocks glass on ice (one big cube if possible). 

Express oil of a grapefruit peel, then add that and a rosemary twig as garnish. 

You can add the grapefruit and rosemary to the mixing glass as well (know as a regal stir, how appropriate!)

Before you ask, yes the brands are important. I tried it with a few others and it didn’t balance out well, in the sense that it got a little boring because the spice and herbal notes are a little lost. Tanqueray 10 includes rosemary and grapefruit so it’s obvious why that works. Antica Formula and Nonino are characterful but with a broad palate that if not subtle is at least not dominated by any particular flavours. 

The ratios are also important. In particular if you’d increase the amaro and gin you end up with something that’s “simply” a sort of Negroni variation. Not bad, but also that Negroni character overpowers the stars here, which would be Napoleon, rosemary and grapefruit.

The creme de Cassis and Tiki bitters are probably surprising. The Cassis I can’t quite explain, it’s a pairing I found in the Foodpairing book. The Tiki is more obvious, because the Napoleon has some tropical spice and cinnamon notes. Don’t overdo it with either of these!

The garnish for this is also important. The rosemary and grapefruit combination is heavenly, every sip of this drink starts with a huge noseful of it. Express the grapefruit zest over the drink first. I recommend placing the grapefruit in front of the rosemary, for aroma balance.

The Italy part of the name of this drink is quite obvious now. Italian ingredients. But what does it have to do with Napoleon, and who is the king of Italy anyway? Well, Napoleon Bonaparte is the King of Italy! Or rather, we was in any case. Early in his emperorship he also gave himself the crown of Italy, and later he made his son the King of Italy. So it all fits together, and what makes it even better, you can use the rosemary and grapefruit (take a really big swath) to make a sort of roman crown, like what you often see of paintings of Napoleon himself!

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