This is expensive but tastes so
good in cocktails! Toast of the Day: “Happy feast
day, Saint Germain. Viva Le France!”
St-Germain is a liqueur made from elderflowers which
are handpicked from the Alps and transported down to the distillery by
bicycle. The elderflowers are in bloom for only four to six weeks in the
spring and must be harvested quickly. The liqueur is complex with hints
of passion fruit, peach, pear, and grapefruit zest. It can be
sipped neat but is far more magical when used in cocktails as St-Germain
Cocktail and St-Germain Martini.
Who was St.
Germain-des-Pres (AKA: Germanus of Paris)?
He was born in 496 AD of Gallo-Roman
parents, and he became the abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Symphorian near that town. He was
hard-working and austere, and his alms-giving was so generous that his monks,
fearing he would give away everything, rebelled.
As he happened to be in Paris, in 555, when Eusebius, bishop of
Paris, died, King Childebert detained him and he was consecrated
bishop of Paris. He died at Paris in 576.
He was canonized in 754 AD, and his
relics were solemnly removed into the body of the church, in the presence
of Pepin and his son, Charlemagne, then a child of 13, and the church was
reconsecrated as Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
For nine centuries, in times of
plague and crisis, his relics were carried in procession through the streets of
Paris.
A district of Paris is named for his
church.
He feast day is May 28.
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