Sub lime for the lemon and aged Trinidad rum for the rye and you have a Native Trinidad Sour (with very good effect, IMHO — the rum I’ve been using, Plantation Trinidad, really compliments the drink nicely).

Drop the Angostura to 2/3 oz, add 1/3 oz Fee’s Whiskey Barrel Aged, drop the rye and instead use 3/4 oz applejack (bottled in bond, please), and you’ll end up with what I’ve dubbed the Trinidad-Jersey Sour.

Enjoy

Thanks for documenting your tasting – it’s a huge help!

I’ll look a bit more into carrying Monin locally. I know their Pomegranate is supposed to be excellent as well.

Thanks for the research!

Cheers

A) Bottle: The Teisseire bottle is made of thin metal that dents very easily. Minus. But it has a really nice pour spout. Minor plus. The Monin bottle is glass, which I prefer to the Ferrara plastic bottle.

B) Ingredients: Monin is made with water, sugar, and almonds, and that’s it. Big, big plus. Teisseire adds “glucose-fructose syrup” (written in French — HFCS?). Minus. Ferrara adds artificial coloring, citric acid, and preservative. Big minus.

C) Smell: Monin and Ferrara hands down over Teisseire. The two winners smell almost identical so I won’t go any further there.

D) Taste, straight: Monin and Ferrara, again, hands down over the one-dimensional Teisseire. Both orgeats are complex and sightly tangy, the Ferrara just a tiny bit more so, but I might attribute that to the fact that I was aware that it contained citric acid as an additive. I liked them both equally well.

E) Taste in a drink: Again, and not surprisingly, Monin and Ferrara win here too. I made three Trinidad Sours, one with each orgeat. The Teisseire version was overly bitter, and the orgeat was simply not rich enough to bring out the great hidden flavors of the Angostura. Monin and Ferrara performed more or less equally well, creating a smooth and delicious drink.

Overall: Monin will be my choice from now on if I can find it locally. I paid only $7 for the bottle online, but shipping was $13, so I suspect that locally it will be only a dollar or two more than Ferrara. It tastes equally great and lacks the artificial color and preservatives in the Ferrara so there is no contest. Anyone want a bottle of Teissier orgeat, slightly used? I’m willing to part with it for just half the going Amazon rate! Act now, this offer won’t last…

As an aside, does anyone know if syrups without preservatives should be stored in the refrigerator? The Monin label says nothing about it, but I assume that sugar syrup can’t last long at room temperature if some bacteria finds its way in there.

I can get them in even smaller bottles for travel or tasting if there was enough interest. Just drop me a note.

Also – if there are brands of any items that folks really like, please let me know. I really try to stock the best I can and am always want to know what folks are enjoying.

Cheers!

I just stumbled across Cleve’s earlier comments in this forum saying that Fee’s falernum is good stuff, so I think I’ll go with that one.

Cleve also recommends going to Italian stores for orgeat made without HFCS. The orange flower water idea is nice, and I already have some of that.