Grande Marnier is known as a bit of a mixer, this French orange liqueur has some different characteristics than my other favourite orange liqueur – Cointreau. That being said, I prefer my Grande Marnier neat, at the most, I may consider mixing ice in the glass, but normally not. 

The characters of this orange liqueur blend cognac with orange liqueur to produce a much darker liqueur than Cointreau. With the cognac, they are to compound the intensity of orange liqueur for a robust flavoured liqueur. Grande Marnier is 51% cognac and 49% orange liqueur, for me, this is an after dinner drink whilst Cointreau is more of a pre-dinner drink. I do alternate glasses, one of Cointreau and the next of Grande Marnier, normally in a shot glass. 

Created by Louis-Alexandre Marnier Lapostolle in 1880, he learned to distill from his father who was a wine and spirit merchant. Louis-Alexandre Marnier was a distiller of fruit liqueurs, the distillery is based in Neauphle-le-Château, west of Versailles. The idea of Louis-Alexandre Marnier was to blend French cognac with Caribbean bitter orange, I guess outrageous at the time, now it is seen as a brilliant idea. 

Notable cocktails mixed with Grande Marnier are the Mai Tai, Between the Sheets, the El Presidente, Orange Brûlée and the Cadillac Sidecar. I like my Grande Marnier neat, for my tastes, there is no need to mix it as it is already a blended liqueur, just leave it as is, that is the best blend. Whilst a whiskey glass is used for Grande Marnier on ice, a simple shot glass for sipping is my preferred drink.