Parfait Amour is a French term for perfect love, and indeed this liqueur is closely associated with Valentine's cocktails. Its deep violet color and floral flavor profile make it an excellent choice in flowery cocktails.
What is Parfait Amour?
Parfait Amour is a purple-colored liqueur with a floral taste. However, there's no clear definition of ingredients, nor is the flavor profile further specified.
The liqueur is predominantly produced in Europe. -In France and the Netherlands, to be precise. Each brand producing Parfait Amour has its own recipe with a different base and flavoring elements.
All different versions of this liqueur share a similar yet distinct floral flavor profile and the iconic deep violet color. Depending on the brand and production method, the ABV of Parfait Amour ranges between 24% and 30%.
Ingredients of Parfait Amour
Although Parfait Amour and Parfait Amour look pretty much the same, depending on the brand, the taste can vary. Because each producer uses their individual base and combination of flavoring ingredients.
Below you can find a short summary of the ingredients for the most influential brands.
DeKuyper Parfait Amour
DeKuyper's take on the floral liqueur uses a spirit as a base. The liqueur is a blend of various distillates.
Vanilla distillations and citrus distillations are blended with a neutral base spirit and then flavored with lemons, coriander seeds, and violets.
Bols Parfait Amour
The Dutch brand Bols claims to have invented the floral liqueur. It's based on Curacao orange liqueur and flavored with rose petals, vanilla, and almonds.
Marie Brizard Parfait Amour
The third product is coming from France. The base of this liqueur is distilled with fresh and sweet oranges from Spain.
The resulting distillate is then flavored with orange blossoms and infused with vanilla pods from Madagascar. According to the brand, a bit of food coloring allows for achieving the typical violet or mauve color.
How does Parfait Amour taste
The taste of Parfait Amour is very floral but slightly varies from product to product. It can contain notes of rose petals, violets, lavender, oranges, almonds, and vanilla.
Of course, you can enjoy Parfait Amour pure on ice, but the liqueur is ideal as a component in floral cocktails. On its own, the sweet and potent floral taste might be too overpowering.
Parfait Amour vs Creme de Violette
The dark violet or mauve color suggests that Parfait Amour and Crème de Violette could be the same. -But they're not.
Creme de Violette is more of a forerunner to liqueurs like Parfait Amour and the Creme Yvette. The latter two have a more complex flavor profile with notes of vanilla, citrus, and in rare cases, almonds.
Creme de Violette is more one-dimensional because it's based on violets only. Nevertheless, you can substitute Parfait Amour and Creme de Violette for one another.
Just keep in mind that the flavor profiles are not exactly the same and that, consequently, your cocktail will turn out a little different, too.
Parfait Amour in cocktails
Now it's time for some examples of how to use Parfait Amour in cocktails.
Takumi's Aviation
This twist on the traditional Aviation cocktail is made of only four ingredients: Gin, Maraschino liqueur, Parfait Amour, and lemon juice.
Love Heart
The Love Heart is a prime example of a Valentine's cocktail made of Parfait Amour. All you need to make this pink drink is Vodka, Giffard Fraise de Bois, Parfait Amour, and Brut Champagne.
Purple Cosmo
This purple version of a classic Cosmopolitan cocktail is a refreshing and fruity stirred cocktail. Besides Parfait Amour, you'll need some quality Vodka, cranberry juice, and fresh lemon juice.