We did get the sense that whatever it began as had oxidized somewhat: there was not much citrus present in the nose or taste, and we sensed some sherry-like characteristics. Plenty of alcohol was present—the bottle said 70 proof, and I doubt it was any lower than that. It’s hard to say exactly what it tasted like. Prune brandy liqueur? That makes it sound worse and more specific than it was, though. Also interesting is that it was a drier liqueur than we expected—more triple sec than curaçao, and perhaps even less sweetness than that.
We wrung two miniature cocktails out of the sample: a Gift of the Gods (equal parts dry gin, dry vermouth and Forbidden Fruit) from Tarling, and the Tantalus Cocktail (equal parts Forbidden Fruit, brandy and lemon juice) from McElhone. The former was more the successful drink, and it even unraveled a bit more citrus character from the liqueur, but alas, there was overall nothing to get excited about, here. Oh well.
Interesting experiment. Those dives in dusties, and cocktails made with them, rarely pay off in terms of flavor or revelation, but the journey is always fun.
Way back in the early noughts, Forbidden Fruit was one of those white whales, largely, I think, due to Dr. Cocktail. When Rob Cooper got (ostensible) Crème Yvette back on the market, I remember he said he was looking into bringing back Forbidden Fruit, too, but noted that it was not likely to be profitable.
Oh, it is the Chambord bottle, or rather, Jacquin discontinued Forbidden Fruit and recycled the packaging for Chambord, which was vastly more profitable.
I’d love to read some reports about the Lee Spirits version. My first concern is that it’s explicitly based on white grapefruit, whereas Forbidden Fruit was originally based on shaddock (pomelo). Similar, yes, even related, yet not quite the same thing.
My second concern is they claim it “tastes the same” side-by-side with the original Forbidden Fruit, but what samples do they have? The most recent product was from the seventies (~50 years old) but more importantly, it was CRAP. The Forbidden Fruit product went through two phases. The original product was in the “hand grenade” bottle, but toward the end of its life, it was reformulated and sent to the bottom shelf in a more generic bottle (we used to have pictures of both on cocktaildb from Dr. Cocktail’s collection). So, if Lee Spirits was developing off the original formula, they were using samples significantly more than 50 years old. What could possibly go wrong?
Anyway, there’s one other problem: Forbidden Fruit was not a particularly successful product in its day. There’s not much evidence it was a particularly compelling product for any purpose. I have a hunch that any industrious individual could whomp up a superior pomelo cordial, Kevin Kos-style, without great effort.
Cracked the Lee Spirits Forbidden Fruit earlier this week. I tried making a bootleg recipe a few years ago which was very nice—I think Robert Petrie’s of Bob’s Bitters. The Lee has plenty of pithy freshness, but not nearly as many citrus or honey top notes as I expected. Most of the recipes I tried seemed to need more sweetness—adding honey syrup is a big help—but most reports indicate that the original was not all that sweet either. Neither did the spices play much of a role in the Lee profile. I concur; make your own the way you like it.
