Parfait Amour Cocktails

I have a bottle of hardly touched Parfait Amour (Marie Brizard brand) in my liquor closet, so I thought I'd see what I can do with it.

You might have trouble finding Parfait Amour; I couldn't find it locally or even nearby locally, but I finally located a bottle in Indianapolis.  It's a deep purple liquid with a very sweet vanilla flavor.

The first cocktail I made with it is probably the classic PA drink, the Parfait Amour Cocktail--equal parts gin to PA with half a measure of maraschino liqueur.  This is very sweet, almost too much for me.  The flavor of the maraschino does manage to poke through.

I wondered how this would be with a little acidity, so for my second attempt I squeezed a half of a lemon, not quite squeezed dry, into it.  This made the drink into a sweet and sour concoction.  It was OK, a lot better that the no-lemon version.  Amaretto might make for an interesting stand-in for the maraschino.

The second drink I tried was the Jupiter Cocktail, which was one of the cocktails on my drink-a-day calendar 2 years ago when I started this blog.

This calls for 1 1/2 oz gin (I used Bombay), 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1/4 oz PA, and 1/4 oz orange juice.  I don't tend to drink OJ and I didn't want to buy even a small bottle at the Kwikee Mart just for 1/4 oz.  I did have on hand some orange sherbet, so I spooned about a tablespoon into my shaker.  You just want the orange flavor, after all.  I also drizzled in a little more of the PA than the Internet Cocktail Database recipe calls for.

This tastes like a sweetened up martini.  The color isn't particularly attractive (sort of a greenish-brown); I can hardly imagine ordering it out.  It's an OK drink to try once, but unless you have a mixologist with a magic touch, it's not a drink that's going to win people over as a martini or mimosa replacement at brunch. 

I'm going to continue with a few more PA cocktails this week, some calling for yellow Chartreuse and pastis, and even egg white.  I'm girding my loins.