The Fond de Culotte appears too easy a drink to be shrouded in such thriller. A mixture of the French gentian liqueur Suze and crème de cassis (black currant liqueur) completed with a lemon twist, the cheekily named Fond de Culotte really started life as a Suze-cassis, or “Suze-cass” for brief, and the origins of the title appear to be all folks find out about it.
“‘Fond de culotte’ in French interprets actually as ‘pants’ backside’ in English,” says Rose-Manon Baux, inventive director at Le Syndicat, a bar in Paris’ tenth arrondissement that serves solely French spirits. “The title of the drink is definitely a play on phrases,” Baux says. “The Nineteen Thirties slogan for Suze was ‘l’apéritif qui ne s’use pas,’ or in English, ‘the aperitif that by no means wears out.’” Additionally, pronounced shortly, she explains, “Suze-cassis” feels like “ne s’use qu’assis,” which implies “It solely will get worn out in case you sit down.” That phrase is harking back to one other, long-forgotten phrase: “person ses fonds de culotte” that means, “to wear down the seat of your pants [somewhere],” or, to have spent a very long time in a spot.
Gaël Allier, head mixologist at Le Royal Monceau, agrees that the Fond de Culotte title originates from an affiliation with the Suze slogan, however admits he hasn’t heard of the “fond de culotte” expression, maybe as a result of it’s fallen out of style. “Perhaps it was a typical expression at the moment that we don’t use 100 years later,” he says. “However the Suze-cassis has all the time been well-liked in French bistros and café tradition, and I do assume that the wordplay put the drink into the dialog and received folks speaking about it in these institutions.”
Even much less is understood in regards to the origins of the drink itself. I reached out to Paris’ prime bars, historic venues, aperitif specialists, cocktail ebook authors and even representatives at Pernod Ricard, the group that now owns Suze, however nobody may inform me about how, precisely, this two-part drink got here to be. Some, nevertheless, have urged that it might have been created by Suze’s personal advertising and marketing crew to advertise the liqueur. Others, like Franck Audoux of the Paris bar Cravan, see it as a twist on a Kir, an aperitif comprising crème de cassis and white wine.
What everybody does know is that it’s previous, which may clarify the thriller: It’s not all the time simple to seek out archives on a drink that dates again a century or so. In his ebook Consuming French, David Lebovitz describes the cocktail as “a really autrefois (old school) café drink in France.” Whereas Suze is well-liked at cocktail bars world wide, in its native France, youthful generations haven’t been gravitating towards it. Lebovitz additionally notes within the ebook that, when he requested French folks about Suze as a part of his analysis, most replied that they knew of it from their grandmother having a bottle stashed at the back of the drinks cabinet.
Nevertheless, extra native bartenders are actually reaching for a bottle of the once-forgotten gentian liqueur, and extra persons are ordering it. On the Experimental Cocktail Membership, orders of Suze, notably in a Suze-tonic, are on the rise. The influential bar all the time has two to 3 kinds of gentians, and so they’re typically served with cassis. The bar’s personal Fond de Culotte—which is offered off-menu—swaps out the Suze for Gentiane des Pères Chartreux, which the crew thinks dials down the bitterness to provide the drink extra stability.
Most bars that serve the Fond de Culotte replace the basic by lengthening with bubbles for a lighter and all-around extra refreshing model. At Le Royal Monceau, Allier attracts inspiration from the Americano, and provides a few dashes of orange bitters and soda water to “make it a contemporary and extra fashionable aperitif.” Candelaria bolsters its model with gin, and, in lieu of conventional cassis, calls on fermented cassis wine. The take is completed with white tea flavored with peach and apricot earlier than being force-carbonated.
Again at Le Syndicat, Baux likewise feels that the Fond de Culotte must be retooled for the trendy palate. “A conventional Fond de Culotte may style overly bitter these days, and with its medicinal flavors, outdated,” she says. “We goal at renewing what it may very well be, highlighting the fruitiness of such a drink and turning it right into a carbonated highball that pays tribute to the French aperitif custom.” To make its model, Le Syndicat “jacks” Suze with frozen blackberries, utilizing the tactic of infusing spirits with frozen fruit for a quicker infusion with extra intense shade and taste. Bartenders mix that with crème de cassis and one other conventional aperitif, St Raphaël Le Quina Rouge, which Baux says provides “light notes of bitter quinquina, chocolate and oxidized fruits.” Including it, she says, “helps bridge the three dimensions of a Fond de Culotte: dry bitterness, spherical fruitiness and underlying cassis tannins.” Lastly, it’s topped with membership soda and a lemon twist.
Whereas the drink stays a thriller, it additionally stays a basic mixture for bartenders to mess around with. Every of the bars talked about has put its personal inventive twist on the drink, however, true to its mysterious nature, every solely provides the drink as an off-menu serve—if you recognize, you recognize. And for a cocktail with such an elusive backstory, that couldn’t be extra becoming.
