Fabulous Cointreau cocktail and food pairings to tickle your tastebuds at home

Cointreau Australia
News
News
Fabulous Cointreau cocktail and food pairings to tickle your tastebuds at home

Margarita Pairings for All Seasons

Classic pairings between food and drinks make any meal or great nights in more memorable. And while it's common to think about pairing wine with food, did you know that you could also do the same with cocktails? Get your creative juices flowing and enjoy this exciting new trend with a Cointreau-curated selection of cocktail and food pairings. Discover heaven-made flavour matches that you can enjoy anytime.

As chefs and mixologists increasingly blur the lines between kitchen and bar, cocktail and food pairings are a new culinary frontier.

Cointreau has commissioned expert chefs to create quick and simple recipes, each designed to perfectly match a famous Cointreau-based cocktail.

Margarita Pairings for All Seasons

Top Chef Samuel Albert, the winner of Top Chef Season 10 (France), has created five delicious hors d'oeuvres recipes. Each recipe is designed to pair with one of five fabulous Margarita recipes. These are the Original Margarita, Spring Margarita, Summer Margarita, Fall Margarita and (you guessed it) Winter Margarita – perfect for bringing a warming glow to a cold winter night at home. Born in Paris in 2015 at the elegant Victoria 1836 behind the Arc de Triomphe, the Winter Margarita was first mixed for a high-profile guest with a particular affinity for the winter-warming flavour of cinnamon.

For the Winter Margarita, you’ll need:

30 ml Cointreau
30 ml Tequila
30 ml Fresh Passion fruit
5 ml Cinnamon syrup

Rim the glass with some regular salt.
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with ice.
Shake it, strain it and serve it.
Tip: Garnish with an orange twist.

To accompany your Winter Margarita, how about some of Chef Samuel Albert’s absolutely stunning King prawn brochettes flambéed with Cointreau, stir-fried pineapple, and sweet & sour sauce. Delectable sweet, savoury and sour notes contrast perfectly with the warming cinnamon finish of your Winter Margarita. Whip up a batch now, snuggle up for a memorable night in, and enjoy!

You’ll find the full recipe here.

Spring Margarita

Of course, after winter comes spring – and the joys of the luscious rose-tinted Spring Margarita.

This cocktail is inspired by Emperor Shah Jahan’s storied love affair with his Persian wife, Mumtaz Mahal. When she passed, Shah Jahan was so devastated that he erected the Taj Mahal in her memory. This Margarita pays homage to their love by combining orange and rose, symbolizing India and Persia respectively. The cocktail is finished with a delicate pink Himalayan salt rim. This salt is considered one of the purest in the world, a romantic nod to Shah Jahan’s love for Mumtaz.

For the Spring Margarita, you’ll need:

30 ml Cointreau
30 ml Tequila
30 ml Lime
10 ml Rose syrup
2 sprays Rose perfume

Rim the glass with regular or pink salt.
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with ice.
Shake it, strain it and serve it.
Tip: garnish with rose petals.

For a pairing worthy of this romantic beverage, try the perfect union of Beetroot Tartar, Green Peas and Gravlax Salmon with Prawn crackers. Whip up a batch to share with someone you love.

Create your own Aperitivo Hour at home

Create your own Aperitivo Hour at home

If a cheeky spritz is more your style, here’s another perfect pairing. With a delicious and refreshing Cointreau Fizz, you can enjoy Aperitivo Hour and a touch of Parisian chic in the comfort of your own home.

The Original Cointreau Fizz was created by Jean Lupoïu, a famous French bartender in Paris in the early 1950s.

To make the Cointreau Fizz, you’ll need:

60 ml Cointreau
30 ml fresh lime juice
90 ml soda water

Combine all ingredients apart from soda water in a mixing glass.
Top with soda and stir.
Garnish with a lime and orange twist.

And now for a chic and tasty appetizer. To complete the perfect at-home treat, prepare some Mini Salmon and Caviar Bites with a salty tang to contrast your light and refreshing Cointreau Fizz.

You’ll find the recipe right here.

With so many delicious cocktail and canapé & dessert combinations, and more in our new RECIPES TO DO AT HOME section, a new flavour sensation is never far away.

Bon Appetite!

At Cointreau, we believe that if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well. So to make the most of cocktail and food pairings, it pays to know how to make cocktails properly. And there's no better place to begin your journey to cocktail mastery than right here.

Learn how to make cocktails at home like a pro, with easy tips for step-by-step cocktail making. To help you expand your repertoire, we have tutorials from beginner to advanced, cocktails tutorials, masterclasses and practice exercises.

Discover how to make a clean salt rim on glass – one of the critical components of the classic Margarita. Learn how to juice like a pro without a citrus press (and look sharp while doing it). Craft a citrus twist for an eye-catching way to flavour your cocktails with potent and aromatic citrus essences. There are many fascinating tips to learn and practice, from garnishing to stirring to making your own sugar syrup.

With all the expert resources on the Cointreau website, it's like having a master cocktail maker show you the ropes.

We understand that excellence is cultivated through the constant quest for perfection. So, if you enjoy getting creative with flavours and experiencing new sensations, Cointreau is your perfect ally.

What makes Cointreau the bartender’s secret weapon is its incredible spectrum of more than 40 aromatic notes. These act as a 'flavour amplifier', helping to reveal the other ingredients, bringing balance, depth and unrivalled freshness to the mix. As Margarita Sames, the inventor of the world’s favourite cocktail, the Margarita, famously remarked, “A Margarita without Cointreau isn't worth its' salt."

Since its creation in 1848, Cointreau has embodied the pioneering spirit and meticulous craftsmanship of our founder, Édouard Cointreau.

Cointreau is a captivating ode to orange on its own and an enhancer of other flavours when mixed. Understanding these notes and their subtle interplays adds another level to your cocktail mastery. And now, you can explore the full range of these flavours for yourself with the COINTREAU L'UNIQUE AROMA WHEEL.

Spin the wheel here and be amazed at the incredible range of flavours waiting to be unlocked in every bottle of Cointreau. Cointreau is an aromatic feat and owes this impact to a complex blend of orange peel essences. Zesty, fresh, floral, sweet… and even more flavour notes just waiting to delight your palate when you mix the perfect Cointreau cocktail... accompanied by the ideal food pairing, of course.

So if you're feeling the call of a Cointreau cocktail tonight, check out our complete list of cocktails here. From delicious Margaritas and Aperitivo Spritzes with food pairing to match to classics and leading bartenders' creations, you're bound to find something to tickle your taste buds.

Cheers!