19 Brandy Cocktail Recipes
Brandy was the sophisticated choice of the nineteenth century, and the cocktail canon still shows it. Distilled from wine and aged in oak, brandy keeps a fruit character that grain spirits lack: dried apricot, raisin, baked apple, layered over the vanilla and spice the barrel adds. Cognac is the reference point, a grape brandy from a strictly defined region of western France, graded VS, VSOP and XO by age. A VSOP is the sensible cocktail bottle. Armagnac is rougher and more rustic. Beyond grapes, apple brandy and Calvados bring orchard fruit that is superb in autumn drinks, and pisco is unaged, floral and the backbone of the Pisco Sour. These drinks tend towards the rich end: the Sidecar, the Brandy Alexander, the Brandy Flip. They handle cream, egg and sugar without collapsing, which makes them a natural after dinner and a reliable answer when the weather turns.
