I was reading the December Edition of the Australian Bartender Magazine and stumbled upon an article written by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Gary Regan wherein he writes about a cocktail made with not only cheese, but ham and tomato to create the Ham, Cheese and Tomato Toasted Sandwich Martini. It sounds amazing, and I would love to get in contact with David Stanton and learn where he got his inspiration.

For some history, I attempted to make a cheese cocktail quite some time ago. It tasted alright but was really fatty and not that pleasant to look at.

For quite some time now I have been chasing a crazy cocktail, a cocktail of which one of the main ingredients is Brie. Finally I have finally done it, while it’s not something I will probably ever make again, it was tasty but the process of making it just isn’t that workable.

Brandied Brie

• 45ml Remy VSOP brandy
• 15ml Grand Marnier
• 30ml apple juice
• 2 wedges of Brie, one for garnish

Put the brandy in a brandy glass and set on fire. Using a toothpick or a fork, melt one of the wedges of Brie over the flame letting the melted cheese drop into the brandy. When all the cheese has been melted add the Grand Marnier and the juice and leave to cool. Strain into a champagne flute and garnish with Brie. Optionally replace the apple juice with champagne.

There is a couple of things to note, the glass that you melt the cheese into is not going to be easy to clean. Best bet is to soak it with some detergrent. Secondly, a regular strainer is also going to be really hard to strain, so best off using some sort of disposable filter. These 2 problems and the fact that the fluid itself doesn’t look very appealing kind of make this quirky drink a bit of a let down. Well worth trying once though.