If we ever, in the course of our tipsy shenanigans, get stopped by the police, we have the perfect excuse. “Sorry officer, but a monk made us do it.”
One of our favourite tipples is Frangelico – the Italian hazelnut liqueur that comes in a bottle shaped like a monk’s habit, with a rope belt around his waist (a nice touch, although we’ve never found a way to recycle it, preferring instead to use it to make mini catapults).
We drink it as an apéritif, a digestif, a main course in its own right, a treat, a sympathy drink – let’s just say we could easily drink a whole bottle, one genteel liqueur glass at a time.
Its silky texture and rich nutty taste make it perfectly palatable to sup neat as an alternative to Bailey’s, in a shot glass with a single ice cube to chill, or in coffee as an after-dinner drink.
The bottle boasts that the 20% vol. drink is made from wild hazelnuts, herbs and berries although the list of ingredients states sugar, alcohol, hazelnut extract, caramel E150d and a mysterious ‘flavourings’. The website offers this: “A number of natural extracts – including cocoa and vanilla – are blended with the hazelnut infusion and hazelnut distillate to create the Frangelico concentrate.”
On World in a Glass’s travels we’ve come across an excellent Frangelico-based cocktail, which perfectly highlights its comfort-giving qualities, and adapted a mocktail to suit our own libationary tendencies.
On a recent Azamara cruise we discovered one of the ship’s speciality cocktails, a Passion Ice Creamy – Frangelico and creme de cacao dark mixed with ice cream. Practically a dessert in a glass.
Earlier this year, staying in the Spice Island Beach Resort on the Caribbean island of Grenada, we ended each evening with one of its speciality Run Down mocktails (blended seamoss, coconut cream, banana and nutmeg) to which we added a shot of Frangelico. Total sleep-inducing loveliness and the perfect post-meal relaxant (although in the Caribbean they say mineral-rich seamoss is an aphrodisiac).
We’ve since found online recipes for making an alcohol-free seamoss (also called Irish moss or carrageen) drink, as well as an online shop which sells Caribbean products to the UK and Europe, but we made life easy for ourselves by picking up a bottle on leaving Maurice Bishop International Airport.
The Spice Island’s signature drink, which is offered to each guest on sweaty, travel-harassed arrival from the airport, is the deliciously crisp and fruity, and very, very welcome, Spice Island Classic – a subtle combination of champagne and sorrel syrup (not the herb, but rather the extract of a flower from the Hibiscus family). But we think the Run Down with added Frangelico (A Tipsy Run Down? A Run Down and Out?) could give it a run for its signature status.
The Frangelico website has its own list of cocktail recipes including the Nutty Irishman (Frangelico and Carolans Irish Cream). Let’s just say, hailing from the Emerald Isle as we do, we’ve certainly met a few of those in our time.
the world in a glass 
Ah yes, goold ole Frangelico. Amaretto is still king of the nut liquers in my book though. When in Croatia I discovered a new one which came close: Orahavoca, made from hazlenut shells. Methinks you will like. Never seen it here though. Congrats on the blog, looking good!