Tour at Cointreau

Talking about bad preparation… Working in a restaurant, seeing bottles of Cointreau at least twice a week and still not being aware of the fact that Cointreau is a product from Angers. It blew my mind when our teachers told us this. Cointreau, a liqueur that is sold worldwide and is known by almost everybody, and I did not know that it was from Angers.

We were lucky enough to arrange a tour on short notice in English. It only was a 10 minute drive to the company and the first entrance of the factory was already amazing.

Me and my other two classmates were accompanied by two Swiss people. Our tourguy called Thomas first explained us a little history about Cointreau and after that we went to the distillery.

In this part of the factory, the Cointreau itself is made. Cointreau has only one factory in the whole world, supplying 15 million bottles a year, shipped over the whole world. I would’ve expected a much bigger distillery, but clearly this is big enough to supply the whole world, only 10% of the production is sold in France. Every machine is completely copper and is made around the 1930s.

After getting to know more about the history of the Cointreau family and the marketing over the ages, the tasting began. Although it was only 11AM, the cocktails didn’t taste any worse. The bartender helping us made 3 different cocktails and was very detailed in his work. We also got to taste the original Cointreau, Cointreau Noir (70% Cointreau and 30% Cognac) and Cointreau Bloodorange. I was never really a fan of Cointreau, but after the tasting I was very happily surprised.

I would recommend everyone who will every visit Angers, to visit Cointreau too. It is a company with a very rich history and the hospitality is great. Just send them an e-mail for a visit and you may join a tour for only 12.

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