Cocktails with Mandarine Napoléon liqueur
Mandarine Napoléon is a Belgian liqueur of mandarin oranges on a Cognac base.
ABV38%
Substitutes for Mandarine Napoléon liqueur
Mandarin peel on a brandy base, so a rebuild needs both: a clear orange liqueur with a barspoon of aged brandy and some mandarin zest lands close. The plain liqueur alone is drier and has no depth under the citrus.
Often confused with
Triple sec
Made on neutral spirit from bitter and sweet orange peel — no tangerine in it and no cognac underneath. It is drier and thinner, so a drink built on the mandarin liqueur loses its round, brandied middle.
Description
It is Belgian, not French, despite the name, and the peel is from small Sicilian mandarins the house imports for it. That is why it reads richer and rounder than a plain orange liqueur, and why it costs more. The cognac is the difference: a triple sec is built on neutral spirit and shows it. At 38% it is strong enough to hold a stirred drink together, which most orange liqueurs are not.
