An orange drink you won't have for breakfast!

My history with Mandarine Napoleon is only a couple of decades of intermittent tastes. Only recently was I able to extract a bottle of the stuff from my local beverage outlet, and I was able to get a second bottle for a friend as a gift. Not exactly a 2fer, but good enough.

That important first smell is a rapturous one of freshly sliced orange. For those who love oranges, this first sniff and then full inhale will do more for intoxication than any other orange concoction that I'm aware of. That smell of freshly cut oranges is a wonderful portent of things to come, but savor it first...

Next up is the first sip. I generally like to have Mandarine Napoleon on the rocks, but even straight up in a brandy snifter this beverage will tantalize the taste buds. Definitely orange, but also spices and a bit of sweetness that lingers on the palate. Just by sipping one would expect this drink to be on a breakfast tray when you're at a hotel. One of these on that tray and you'll definitely float out of the room. To continue, the orange flavor has no acidness or overt acidity to it, thus making it almost pure orange essence. The spices are like a wonderful blend of cardamom, allspice and nutmeg all rolled into one. There is a bite to the spices, but not a harsh one and it rapidly diminishes across the palate to a warm, gentle glow like a cooled baker's oven.

The aftertaste is rather light and is mostly spices and sweetness with most of the orange flavor totally disappearing. Although the sweetness is not cloying when drinking the aftertaste and finish have a sweetness like that of honey, which isn't bad but not as exciting as one would like with this drink.

Mandarine Napoleon is, of course, an after dinner drink to be had either iced or gently warmed in a snifter. Don't let the house 'start' warming your glass for you as they almost always get it too hot to comfortably handle. From room temperature to your body temperature may take 5 minutes or so, but the sniffing and the smelling for those 5 minutes is well worth the wait!

I would heartily serve this with fruit compotes (or even put some into the compote itself), fruit tarts, citrus cakes and confections, angel food cakes, and any other light tasting dessert that would blend well with orange like dark chocolate. Only serve this for breakfast on a day where nothing else is planned!