All you brandy lovers out there may be interested to learn that St-Rémy, the world’s number one and most renowned French brandy, has just launched a new global campaign to show just how versatile their popular St-Rémy XO is.
With the increasing popularity of cocktails and mixology, St-Rémy is hoping to add their brandy into the cocktail mix and also introduce those who are perhaps unfamiliar with the brand to try it out this summer.
With this in mind, a group of us recently got together on a rare warm and sunny day in London, at the Rail House Café in Victoria to experience this new way of enjoying St-Rémy XO, with a special interactive cocktail class led by Brand Ambassador, Sean Duprey, where we set about creating our own cold brew and warm St-Rémy Café cocktails. The masterclass was then followed by a delicious sit-down brunch, hosted by the St-Rémy team, where we tucked into a selection of Grilled Flatbreads, Yellowfin Tuna Tartare with avocado and crispy shallots and some very tasty Spiced Lamb Skewers.
That was then followed with a Baby artichoke gratin, a delicious Lobster Lasagne and a Caraway Harissa Chicken with Cocoyam mash and fennel gravy. To round off our meal, we were treated to some naughty but nice Hot Brioche Doughnuts with butterscotch, a Chocolate Caramel Torte and some Riding House Macarons.
We were told that recent research carried out by Rémy-Cointreau, shows that coffee is the second most popular cocktail flavour around the world. So, St-Rémy Café has decided to capitalise on this global trend of coffee and cold brew, with the brewing process of immersing ground coffee in cold or room temperature water and leaving it to infuse anywhere between 12 to 24 hours and introduce both the coffee enthusiast and brandy drinker to new and invigorating ways to enjoy St-Rémy.
This is very much aimed at the home consumer as well as those ordering cocktails from bars, as brandy consumers tend be older and more sophisticated in their drinking habit, with younger drinkers tending not to choose brandy as a first choice. However, St-Rémy is hoping this will change by creating some new cocktails based on their brandy and attract a slightly younger consumer.
This has involved the creation of St-Rémy Signature, which is a new blend designed specifically for cocktails and mixing. with Hervé Buzon, St-Rémy Global Brand Director, commenting
“As the leader of the French brandy category we know the responsibility St-Rémy has to drive the category forward”.
With the introduction of St-Rémy’s new hero drink, the XO Cold Brew, a novel new cocktail has been created. It is a straightforward cocktail to prepare by simply combining 45ml St-Rémy XO, 120ml Cold Brew and 30ml Vanilla Syrup in an ice-filled glass and then stir for the perfect refreshing cocktail.
Some of the other new recipes St-Rémy has created include both cold and warm cocktails to hopefully suit every taste. So, for example, the XO Iced Latte and XO Mocha are created as both warm and iced serves, while the XO Coffee is made from just St-Rémy XO, Black Coffee and Simple Syrup.
The idea has been to create low-cost cocktails to encourage on-trade pick up at bars, with coffee providing a natural flavour base which is accessible, easy-to-produce and not tied to any specific season.
As Buzon says:
“The on-trade represents an area of huge growth for St-Rémy. We have worked with international bartenders to understand the pinch point for a modern bar: margins, consumer trends and speed with St-Rémy Café, we believe we are providing an attractive option.”
As a result, St-Rémy Café now offers on-trade venues a choice of occasions where they can serve the new cocktails, so that consumers can enjoy cocktails during the day as well as in the evening, and as an accompaniment to brunch menus.
Although Brandy tends to traditionally be an evening liquor, it pairs extremely well with both savoury and sweet dishes, making it an ideal cocktail base for brunch dishes. And with the brunch trend growing not just in this country, but around the world, it will hopefully grow the on-trade sales, as consumers look for new options and giving them the opportunity to discover and enjoy brandy in a new form.
Buzon concludes:
“After trialling the St-Rémy Café strategy in Canada last year and seeing the positive results, we decided to make it a global strategy. The feedback from many accounts has been very positive, St-Rémy XO Cold Brew quickly becoming their best seller, prompting us to develop the strategy further and share it worldwide.”
In creating this new strategy, St-Rémy believes it will achieve three core objectives: expanding drinking occasions, rejuvenating brand perception and recruiting new consumers through on-trade availability.
For more information on St-Rémy Café, please visit: www.st-remy.com.
Author Bio:
Simon Burrell is Editor of Our Man On The Ground, a member of The British Guild of Travel Writers and professional photographer.
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