Calvados, The Modern, Sustainable Spirit
Calvados has long been the underdog of French spirits. “Even in France, people quite liked it, but the image was dusty and old fashioned,” says Xavier d’Audiffret Pasquier, co-founder of Maison Sassy. “Our mission is to bring calvados back to life. We want to almost promote calvados like a gin, as a very modern spirit.”
Outside France, calvados has always been popular was the bartending community. Tim Etherington-Judge says “First, it’s delicious. It has a very approachable flavour profile, not complex like a mezcal. But also, as a cocktail nerd, if you go back to some of the historical cocktail books, like The Savoy Cocktail Book or The Flowing Bowl, calvados is a regularly used ingredient.” Coupette is a calvados bar in London that is helping to introduce the spirit to a new generation of fans. Their most famous cocktail creation is named Apples, and the recipe is simple. Each month a different calvados is mixed with the juice from a different variety of apple and carbonated. The result is stunning and in 2019 was named Cocktail of the Year.
The scope for calvados to continue to modernise is immense now that every spirit brand aims to brag about is sustainability credentials. In a 2021 report by Business Wire, 85% of people indicated they had shifted their purchase behaviour to be more sustainable in the last five years. There is no doubt that calvados has a case for being the world’s most sustainable spirit. This is what Etherington-Judge set out to create and Avallen was the result. “We went right back to the raw materials that are used to create alcohols and instead of using the usual metrics of cost and flavour, we put the environment first. Based on four metrics – carbon emissions, biodiversity, water consumption and pesticide and fertiliser use – we analysed the ingredients and that research led us to apples. The trees are carbon sinks, they support biodiversity in the traditional orchards of Normandy, there is no artificial irrigation, and there’s very little pesticide and fertiliser use within the orchard. From an environmental perspective, the orchards of Normandy are fantastic.”
We at Brandyclassics have searched high and low to find an exceptional calvados brand to champion and the result is Toutain. Full of appley flavours, it’s the best we have ever tasted.
Read the full article on Modernising Calvados, written in Drinks International here.