Hey,
I tried some Calvados in the past and really liked it. I am thinking about buying a bottle and wanted to get your opinion. Do you have any recommendations?
Since I liked the Christian Drouin Hampden Angels a lot going for the Caroni, Long Pond etc Angels might be a logical next step. But I don’t wanna spend that much money on my first bottle.
Has anyone tried the Christian Drouin standard range or has any other suggestions?
Hi,
Dont know Christian Drouin but i always have a bottle of chateau du breuil in my shelf.
Last nice one was from VIARD
Just my 2 cents 
I haven’t tried an awful lot of Calvados but in my opinion Christian Drouin is already top class. Although expensive.
In general though older Calvados are significantly better. In my opinion the younger standards are a bit underwhelming once you tried older ones.
Nonetheless if you liked the Hampden finish you will like the other finishes, too.
Edit: Chateau du Breuil is good value for money. But generally speaking I like Christian Drouin better.
You can also try Michel Huard. But again the older the better or there is a good vintage.
Da hatte @Alex_Kunath leider recht… Der holt mich nicht wirklich ab. Im Vergleich zu den Angels von Drouin finde ich diesen sehr alkoholisch und dadurch eindimensional.
Der frische, apflige Geruch im leeren Glas gefällt mir aber.
Calvados can be so difficult because it’s not that easy to find reliable reviews and much of the low-to mid-range is underwhelming.
Luckily there exists a phenomenal calvados cocktail that I highly recommend if your bottle does not quite cut it as a sipper. This is one of my standard house cocktails so I figured I’d share it here.
Mojito Normand
•Fill half of highball glass with crushed ice
•Cut small wedges out of half a lime and put in glass on top of ice
•Muddle lime into crushed ice with spoon or muddler
•Add in:
4 cl strong calvados (I currently use Christian Drouin Très Pomme 53%)
1 cl lime juice
1.25 cl sugar syrup+ finely cut mint
OR
0.75 mint syrup+0.5 sugar syrup
Optional luxury twist: add a splash of either elderflower liqueur OR rhubarb bitters
•Swizzle up with either barspoon or swizzle stick
•Fill glass up with more crushed ice
•Top up with sparkling water and gently stir up one last time with a straw before serving
Enjoy! Always good to have something fun to do with your bottles!
