Below I have one of my own St-Germain cocktail recipes and a link to 30 St-Germain cocktail recipes by Simon Difford, a friend of mine in the UK. Back in late 2006 or early 2007 when I was a full time food and beverage writer (I have since retired as such after more than 650 published articles for various newspapers, magazines, etc) I ran into him one day at Astor Wines in NYC as he was looking over the spirits and liqueurs. We got chatting and he told me about St-Germain, how he had a part in developing it with the owner of the brand, Rob Cooper (who I later became friends with at the US/NYC release of St-Germain and we ran into each other 5-6 times a year at events like MMC, TotC, etc. He has since passed away in April 2016. He sold St-Germain back in 2012 to Bacardi for a HUGE sum of money. He also brought back some other vintage styles of spirits/liqueurs.), and that he hoped it would be on the market soon. A week or so later a bottle came in the mail, so when it was released I had a review all ready that hit the press before it was available. That delivery was by what many booze writers call “The Booze Fairy” (UPS and Fed-Ex). By the time I stopped writing (my hands got too full due to partnering with a winery and opening a brewery, then moved back to NY to open a distillery) I had over 700 bottles of various spirits, etc. that I gave away to friends when I moved back to NY, keeping only 125 for my collection. I ended up doing a review of St-Germain, and predicting that it was going to be very popular. Boy did I understate that! It won a ton of awards and became one of the most popular liqueurs of present times.
Here’s the link to Difford’s recipes at his online magazine.
Here’s the recipe to my Elderflower Fizz which I put as part of my menu at the Harvard Club NY for the opening of their new rooftop cocktail bar in summer 2014. It was part of a group of five “Fun & Fizzy” summer cocktails on the menu. (I created a huge cocktail list for the club. I reworked 40 Classic cocktail recipes to present day tastes for the Harvard Club to use at all their bars, and created 16 new cocktails specifically for the rooftop cocktail bar.)
Elderflower Fizz - created by JMF
1.5 oz. ST-Germain liqueur
.75 oz. lemon juice
.5 oz. Simple syrup
1 dash Angostura Orange bitters
4 oz. Seltzer
2 sprays of Orange Blossom water
Shake all except seltzer on ice and strain into a Collins glass (12+oz.) Add seltzer and stir gently. Add ice to fill. Spray top of drink with Orange Blossom water. Serve with a straw and lemon peel garnish.
