Cointreau caps a champion

Thailand came away empty-handed from the inaugural La Maison Cointreau Regional Cocktail Competition at Ku De Ta Bangkok on Tuesday, but no one could deny that a drink called La Vie en Rose – which featured edible lipstick – was a worthy winner.
Mike Cheong of the W Hotel Singapore became the first champion of the Asian edition of the global competition organised by the French makers of Cointreau, the tangy orange spirit. The United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and India also had representatives vying for the title in a series of challenges.
Cheong earned the Certificate of Excellence for his stylish presentation of a “cocktail masterpiece that truly captures Cointreau’s Parisian art de vivre”, and will be visiting the firm’s distillery in Angers, France.
Celebrity guests and the reporters covering the event handed the Popular Vote Award to Vietnam’s Lam Duc Anh, who received a set of Alessi bartending tools.
    On hand was brand-heritage manager Alfred Cointreau, the sixth generation of the family that established the brand Cointreau 166 years ago.
    “We’re very attached to Angers, which is the home both to our family and for Cointreau,” he said. “It’s a tradition that everyone in the Cointreau family is born in Angers. When my mother was pregnant with me, my father made sure to bring her to Angers so that I would be born ‘at home’.”
    He’s the great-great grandson of the firm’s founder, Edouard Cointreau, and developed a close relationship with his grandfather, who taught him the trade, and with his grandmother, an avid cook and a drinks mixologist in her own right.
    “What makes Cointreau a great and lasting brand is the uncompromising quality and attention to detail. Since the recipe was finalized, it has never changed,” said the still-young Alfred. “A bottle of Cointreau today is exactly the same as it was 100 years ago. It’s that reliability that allows the brand to be such a strong presence in many countries around the world.”
    Sugar, water and the rind of top-quality oranges from South America go into the Cointreau that is a standard ingredient of suck popular cocktails as the Cosmopolitan, the Sidecar and the Singapore Sling.
    “You can drink it neat as an aperitif or with ice to freshen up,” Alfred said. “Cointreau is very versatile and easy to use. In this warm climate, if you want something to cool down, take one part Cointreau, mix with soda or sparkling water, pour in lots of ice and drop in a slice of lemon – that’s a Cointreau Fizz. It takes less than two minutes to make!”