Chocolate Liqueurs run the gamut from clear and boozy to creamy and mild. The result makes planning your cocktails a bit of a trick. Add the wrong chocolate liqueur to a drink, and that clear white chocolate martini can end up cloudy or brown. Add cream to the wrong drink, and things can curdle. Once you get past just figuring out what liqueur you need, then you have to figure out which one doesn’t suck. In the long line of their liqueurs, we have never had issues with Giffard, so does their Giffard Creme de Cacao Blanc work for your cocktail needs, or is this a leftover tootsie roll in the liqueur aisle?
Giffard Creme de Cacao Blanc
- Proof: 50 (25% A.B.V.)
- Notes: Lactose free, Gluten free, Vegan, No preservative
Sight: Essentially clear, but highly viscous.
Smell: The nose has a mild to moderate burn, but is layered with milk chocolate bars, vanilla, and hints of tootsie roll. The chocolate notes seem layered and more than just one milk chocolate element. It has a mild earthy note.
Sip: Unsurprisingly it’s sweet, thick, and very smooth. The flavor milk chocolate bars mixes with vanilla, and has a creamy chocolate milk like texture. The touches of vanilla and white chocolate keep that tootsie roll note going a bit. Subtle dark chocolate notes are in the background.
Savor: The finish is smooth and sweet with plenty of chocolate hanging around.
Giffard Creme de Cacao Blanc is wonderfully chocolate laden, and delivers it with the required amount of sweetness. Although you wouldn’t want to sip on this straight (due to all the sugar), it’s clearly setup well for making drinks with. The flavors are thankfully very real, and avoid some of the artificialness you see in cheaper products.
In Cocktails
In a Grasshopper it adds a wonderfully chocolate background, and gives the mint a clever foil. It ends up rich and chocolaty without being overwhelming sweet. Similarly, Giffard plays particularly well in more complex applications, like the the 20th Century. The cacao element gives an earthiness without making the gin fight with the chocolate. This balance with the citrus shows how well it plays with other ingredients. It even works well in my mother’s chocolate martinis.
In Review – Giffard Creme de Cacao Blanc
Giffard Creme de Cacao Blanc is a wonderful choice for a creme de cacao, especially a white one, for your bar. The price point in the mid-to-high $20 range provides good value with lots of solid flavor. While you could go cheaper, you should prepare to taste more sugar and more alcohol. For these reasons, this is our current go to creme de cacao blanc.