French Liquor Suggestions?

[jsanford]

My girlfriend just left to go to France for a week and i sent her with a wish-list of France-exclusive (or easier to get) liquors i want her to try to find. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to add to my list. I mainly requested apertif/digestif style liquors since that's what i associate France with, but mebbe one of you will have a neat left-field idea.

The list I gave her includes :

Amer Picon
Creme de Violette (specifically the Benoit Serres)
a Pastis of some kind
a Creme de Cassis of some kind
Grand Marnier (i hear the special editions with the beautiful painted bottles are cheap there)

any other ideas? Thanks

[Gillman]

I would suggest a brand of genever gin, a drink traditional in the parts of the north of France and related to similar drinks in Holland and Belgium. (Flanders in France historically is part of a broader region encompassing parts of those other countries). There are two extant genever distillers making these three brands: Loos, Wambrechies and Houlle. All are excellent but try to find an aged expression, not the basic white gin. Black Label Houlle is delicious cold (Carte Noir I should say) and is yellow in colour. Wambrechies makes a whiskey-type geneva which is excellent. Check these names on the Internet and the company sites will come up, in English too I believe (for the U.K. market) but even if not you will get the idea. Any good liquor store in Paris would carry them.

Gary

[Vange]

Liquor: Cognac, Armagnac
Wine: Bordeaux, Burgundy

[MikeK]

In Murray's bible a few years back he gave a good review of a Buckwheat based whiskey made in France. Would be fun to try. I was able to talk the French into shipping me one, and US Customs had no issue with it, but the MA state alcohol folks, after teasing me with just paying the taxes, etc., then pulled the rug out from under the deal and pointed me to their lawyers if I had a problem with that.

[mier]

A bit late but perhaps for the next time try a wine-based liquor named Byrrh from the south both nice as aperative or digestive or just as a sippin drink in the summer.Eric.

[Gillman]

jsanford: what did you receive finally from the trip to France? Were you pleased with the products?

Gary

[jsanford]

She brought me some Amer Picon, a bitter orange liquor not unlike Campari, amazing with just a bit of club soda, a creme de Violet (more for her then me, she loves Aviation cocktails), and a bottle of pastis. Very happy with the presents. Also, the friend she was visiting in France is coming here in a week or two, she is on the hunt for the buckwheat whiskey that MikeK suggested, so i'll post some notes if i get any

[sailor22]

I have thought Buckwheat would make a great whiskey - i'ts naturally smokey and rich. My favorite cooked grain. Please let us know.

[craigthom]

The bitter orange liqueur and soda sounds nice and refreshing.

[Gillman]

Some good choices there. I just tried a buckwheat-based beer, made in Quebec, excellent product (called Coup de Grisou). I think buckwheat was traditional in the west of France including Brittany, where many Quebeckers came from originally. People must still like it there because the whiskey mentioned is made in Brittany I understand. It's very good in brewing, not all that different from barley malt I would say but with a spicy toasty edge. One of the best beers I've had in a while, bottle-conditioned too.

Gary