Booze Reviews – In The NUDE: Gran Gala

At Boozeblogger, "In the nude"  means: "Whilst Plasterd"...also: Written Without Pants. Just so you know.

OKAY!

Gran Gala. You sir, are a shameless clone of a more popular booze: Grand Marnier. Sorry dude, I had to say it. Little known fact: If you can pronounce Grand Marnier correctly...then, and only then, are you qualified to drink it. Personally, I pronounced it: "Gran-d Mare-in-er" for most of my drinking life, until I heard someone smarter then me call it: "Gr-awn Marn-YAY!", at which point I hung my head in shame and adopted his way of pronouncing it.

*BOOZER SIDE BAR - you know what's great about doing drunken reviews? Spell Check! Cause it makes you sound approximately %50 less drunk than you currently are

So, Gran Gala is a Gran Mariner clone. Nothing wrong with that. (The distributor who sent me the bottle is now clenching his buttocks very, very tightly right now) Gran Marnier is fucking expensive - too fucking expensive Goddamnit! SERIOUSLY! It's like $40 a bottle, people - and it's a MIXER! Not a nice 12 year old bottle of bourbon! It's an ADDITION to a number of tasty cocktails, yes. But it's not like anyone is sitting around saying "I'll have a GRAN-MARN-YAY on the rocks, please". (Except maybe me.) Ok, full disclosure, I only recently tasted Gran Marnier by itself. Why? CAUSE IT'S $40 A BOTTLE! Plus, the bartender looked at me really funny when I ordered it on the rocks as if to say, "You're a fuckin pervert, aren't you?"

Anyway, Gran Marnier is not something most people drink on it's own. It's kinda like triple sec in that it works great in a cocktail but no matter how much you paid for the particular brand you don't really want to sip it, ya know? The French actually use it for some other interesting things -  such as Crepes (which are awesome BTW). But around these parts we just use it as a mixer in stuff like a nice margarita or....other things (which I should know about cause I'm a Boozeblogger, but can't remember cause I'm boozed). It really can be imbibed (loving that word right now - can ya tell?) as something like a before-or-after dinner thing but "Aperitif drinking" (as it's called) is unusual here in The States.

*BOOZER SIDE BAR The Gran Gala people hate me right now because I'm talking about someone else's liqueur during their entire review but guess what? It's necessary! Because most of you probably aren't all that familiar with Grand Marnier, let alone Gran Gala. Ok, lets give them some face time...

Gran Gala is a liqueur similar to Gran Marnier but not quite the same - in a good way. Here's the thing: amongst cocktail nerds Grand Marnier is something of an institution. In fact, Gran Marnier is so well known that you can't pull out just anything in polite company when making certain cocktails. It's understood that some cocktails must be made with Gran Marnier and until recently that's just the way it was. But Gran Gala is seeking to undermine the tyranny of Gran Marnier and free the cash-strapped peoples of these here United States. What Gran Gala offers is a lower-priced alternative that retains all of the flavor of the original for about half the price.

SO! How does it stack up to the orignal? Very well I'd say. Side by side there are obvious differences. Grand Marnier is made with Cognac mixed with bitter oranges while Gran Gala uses Brandy as it's base. To my mouth Grand Marnier tastes more like a base spirit with some added flavor. Gran Gala on the other hand seems to embrace it's place in the mixing world and is a lot more forward with the sweetness and the orange flavor. Like a said before: in this country, not many people are drinking this type of thing as an Aperitif - so the slightly more sugary/orange-forward nature of Gran Gala is not much of a problem. In fact, I'd say that Gran Gala works better as a mixer than Gran Marnier. Granted: I've only tried it in a few cocktails. But those cocktails have been more palatable and even slightly more complex than when I've made them with Grand Marnier.

Bottom line: Are you interested in taste or status? If a tasty cocktail is your goal then Gran Gala easily does the trick. On the other hand, if you're looking to keep your snobby friends happy then you'll just have to bend over and buy Grand Marnier. OR if you're smarter than the average hipster you could just buy Gran Gala and pour it into that old Marnier bottle you've got. We won't tell.

Our Grade: B+ / $20 / www.grangala.com