Le Fleur de Lys cocktail recipe

The Fleur de Lys cocktail is a study in elegant simplicity. Crafted by Alexis Taoufiq — a bartender who honed his craft at Le 4e Mur, one of Montréal’s most storied speakeasies — it was born for Good France, the prestigious event celebrating French culinary excellence across the globe. At its heart: St-Germain elderflower liqueur, one of the most distinctive spirits in a bartender’s arsenal, paired with tonic for a result that is floral, crisp, and unmistakably French in spirit. If the Fleur de Lys cocktail sounds like something worth trying, that’s entirely the point.

The story behind Alexis Taoufiq cocktail

So Alexis, where does the inspiration for the cocktail come from?

So, it’s a cocktail that I created with Frédérique Leblanc and we wanted to put forward the France-Québec friendship. So, I took an ingredient of my childhood which is juniper since I am of Alsatian origin and it is an ingredient that one finds in sauerkraut and Frédérique brought the sweetclover which is a herbaceous plant that the we find in Quebec. We worked around the St-Germain, a typical French elderflower liqueur to arrive at the result that we have here.

And the name Fleur de Lys is really something that represents France and Québec no?

Yes, we have a very floral side with the elderflower liqueur and the tonic Fever-Tree Mediterranean.

The Fleur de Lys cocktail recipe

Ingredients

• 1 oz of St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• ½ oz of juniper cordial (recipe at the bottom)
• 1 dash of melilot flower infusion (recipe at the bottom)
• Fever-Tree Tonic Mediteranean

Method

• Mix all your ingredients in the glass
• Decorate with cucumber slices and of juniper berry

To make the Juniper Cordial

1. Make a simple syrup (equal parts of white sugar and water)
2. Bring the ingredients to a simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved (do not boil). Cool.
3. Infuse Juniper Berry in your simple syrup
4. Mix 15 grams of citric acid for 500 ml of simple syrup

To make the infusion of melilot flower

• Put 3 teaspoon melilot flower in 94% alcohol (in a mason jar) and filter

Enjoy!