Alfred Cointreau, the 27 year old scion of 150 year old 'Cointreau' liqueur brand

Alfred Cointreau, the 27 year old scion of 150 year old 'Cointreau' liqueur brand 

Alfred considers himself to be among the closest to the family tradition in his generation 

Alfred Cointreau is 27 and probably too young to be in charge of a 150-year-old heritage brand. But as a sixth generation scion of the Cointreau family, he is passionate about his inheritance of the French orange-flavoured liqueur brand, having worked in almost every department and every stage of production. In fact, after finishing business school and a very short stint at a French newspaper, he joined the family business three years ago working with the master distiller. He has a deep interest in mixology and spends a lot of time at the Cointreau archives to gain knowledge about cocktails and the liqueurs and spirits used to create them.

"Not just the name, my brother, sister and cousins have all grown up with the traditions around Cointreau and most of us were given a dash of the liqueur by our grandfather in our baby water during our christening ceremony," says Cointreau who holds the formal position of heritage manager for the brand globally. "Though I joined the company only three years ago at the distillery, I was born and raised in Angers, the small town where it is located and have grown up watching and helping my grandmother Elisabeth carefully prepare family aperitifs with Cointreau when entertaining friends," he adds.

Steeped in Tradition

A brand of triple sec or orange liqueur, Cointreau is positioned as the market leader in the segment. "We are the original triple sec with a 150-year tradition behind us; the distillery was set up in 1849 and from the traditional recipe to the iconic bottle shape, nothing has changed over the years; even though we do introduce limited edition packaging from time to time," says Alfred Cointreau.

He considers himself to be among the closest to the family tradition in his generation having spent his childhood and teenage years in the family hometown and bonding closely with his grandfather Pierre Cointreau from a very young age.

Having honed his skills at the distillery, he knows about the history and heritage of the brand; he now travels around the world as part of his job to promote the brand. "Creating new cocktails with Cointreau is my passion and I like to work with local bartenders in different countries. Sometimes I combine my old family recipes with new ideas," says Cointreau, who also spearheads the Cointreau Academy in Angers and plays an important role in training bartenders there.

Recently in India on his first visit, Alfred Cointreau created a signature cocktail CointreauKini (see Alfred's Heady Mix...) working with bartenders at Delhi speakeasy bar PCO and Indian fashion designer duo Shivan and Narresh. "As a brand, we like to associate with style and glamour and Shivan and Narresh are known for their signature swimwear line. It was great working with the bartenders in Delhi as well as the designers," he says.

"I travel to the US very often and bartenders there can't do without Cointreau, which is probably the most popular cocktail base for them. We have 350 original Cointreau recipes and in the US our liqueur is the base for many new and classic ones including the iconic Margarita, Cosmopolitan and Sidecar," he adds. He likes to experiment with different liquor bases such as whisky, cognac and tequila and play with different mixes in creating his own cocktails.

  Cointreau is excited by the double-digit year-on-year growth in the Indian market. "The traditional whisky market is making way for a cocktail culture here in India as more and more young people are experimenting with new things. Besides the metros, we also find a lot of interest among young people in Tier II and Tier III cities for our brand and have been working with trade and connoisseurs to promote the brand," he says.

Source : By Ishani Duttagupta, ET Bureau