Jun. 24, 2009 - Issue #714: The Rural Alberta Advantage

Living Proof

The heat is on

Poire William can take the edge off summer

Summer cocktails should be light and cold and refreshing. A lot of summer drinks are sweet and fruity, and there's nothing wrong with that, but things can get too sweet and veer into syrupy affairs that do nothing to quench thirst or counteract the heat. One way to avoid crushing sugar trips is to keep the fruity flavours in the alcohol itself so that you can mitigate it when mixing. Poire William, pear-flavoured brandy made mostly in France and Switzerland, is excellent for this kind of treatment.

Brandy is made by distilling wine into something heavier and stronger, and it's no different for pear brandy. There are two ways that Poire William is made. It can be distilled from the pears themselves, or, as is often the case, pears can be used as flavouring in an already-made product. You can occasionally see bottles of Poire Williams with a whole pear in them. In this case, the pears were grown inside the bottle, and the bottle was then filled with brandy that has since become steeped in pear flavour. Poire William is named after the pear the French call Williams' Bon Chrétien. This is the same as the North American Bartlett, which is what makes its smell so familiar. If you open a bottle of Poire William and breathe deeply, all you will smell is pear. There's no hint of alcohol, no notes of caramel or oakiness or anything else. It's just beautiful, luscious, ripe pear.

On first smell, you might be tempted to just tilt the bottle straight into your mouth. Although this might not be the worst way to drink Poire William, I suggest resisting. The alcohol itself tastes sweet and pearlike, but its flavour is richer and heavier than its scent suggests. If you'd like to drink it straight (and it does make a great after-dinner sipper), chill it or serve it over ice in small glasses. It's worth taking the twenty minutes to slowly sip it.

It doesn't take much to mix a cocktail with Poire William. Its alcohol content, somewhere around 30 percent, is lower than vodka or gin, but it's high enough to stand alone in a drink. When mixed with juice or soda water it's all sweetness and light, and its pear aroma is refreshing instead of heavy. Try it in a variation on the classic cocktail Jack Rose, which is usually made with apple liqueur, or try adding soda to it with a bit of lime to add some tang to make a Poire Fizz.

If you're looking for some summer refreshment, stay away from sweet-sweet mixers. And stop complaining about the heat. We've only got two months of it left. V 


Recipe

Poire Rose

This drink uses lemon juice to cut the sweetness of the combination of Poire William and grenadine. The grenadine (don't use too much!) adds a lovely rosy glow.

Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker, shake, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

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