Xanté is all about sex appeal and marketing. It starts with their tag line and description of Xanté as "unimaginable pleasure." It continues with their advertising on the bottle itself, with the back of the label describing the liqueur as a ménage a trois of results between cognac, French oak, "penetration of pear," and a tender mating process (maybe they actually meant a ménage a quatre since they mention four elements?). Even many of the names of Xanté cocktails listed on the pamphlet that comes with the bottle and their website are double entendres or come-ons: All In, Lady in Bed, XTC, Wild Honey, etc. It's all a bit over the top and eye-roll inducing. Perhaps it's necessary to get you over the hump of trying to lay down 40 some big ones to buy a bottle (hmm, this double entendre stuff is contagious).
So how does it taste? Well, unimaginable pleasure is hard to live up to. It's certainly quite nice, with a strong flavor of pears married with cognac and vanilla notes on the finish. I wouldn't consider this an essential purchase.
There aren't a lot of cocktail recipes that look particularly inspiring at the Xanté site, though if I were to try one, it would be the Bigger Ben:
- 2 part(s) Xantè
- 2 part(s) Cointreau
- 2 part(s) Lemon Juice
- Fresh Ginger
Muddle fresh ginger. Shake and double strain into a well-chilled glass.
Xanté is available at a decent number of Washington liquor stores, mostly on the west side of the mountains. It seems highly appropriate that it's available at the Grand Mound liquor store in Rochester, WA.
