SC - Brandy use in cordial making

[James F. Johnson]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 3/6/00 10:45:36 AM Eastern Standard Time, tori at panix.com
> writes:
> 
> << Of the modern brandy choices (of which there are way too many), which is
>  a good choice to use for cordials? >>
> 
> I would say cognac or Napoleon would be ideal but use any brandy that you
> feel comfortable with and which produces in your opinion a good finished
> products. I have tasted cordials made with the least expensive types of
> brandies and with the most expensive types. Both seemed tasty. ;-)

A similar discussion a while back on the Hist-Brewing list pointed out
that 'aqua vitae' tends to be the _local_ distilled spirit during
historic times and later became geographic specific. There was no
citeable source provided for this, but seems reasonable (uisge, aqua
vitae, vodka all relate to 'water'). It was suggested to use the
traditional spirit of whatever region from which the recipe came from.
I've been using inexpensive domestic vodka for my experiments with a
Barenjaeger clone, and bought a fifth of inexpensive French brandy for a
blackberry-honey-brandy cordial with seems quite nice, except the honey
is dominate right now. 

I would suggest the same as for cooking wines. If the taste is either
neutral or supportive in straight form, use it. If it tastes bad
straight, don't use it, and give consideration to a flavour that may not
compliment the other flavour of the cordial.

Seumas