A Sweet Tea Sidecar Variation from Hennessy

In “Cointreau and Coganc”, we noted that orange flavors are an excellent complement to cognac. This natural pairing of citrus and cognac led to the creation of Grand Mariner, an orange flavored cognac-based liqueur in 1880. Later, in the 1920’s, the mixing of orange flavored liqueur, Cointreau with cognac resulted in the popular cognac cocktail, the Sidecar.

The standard Sidecar recipe that mixes Cognac, Cointreau (triple-sec) and lemon juice has been embellished and added to by mixologists all over the world. The Rémy Martin Mint Condition adds fresh mint leaves and a couple of dashes of Angostura bitter to the original Sidecar recipe to create a new concoction.

The Hennessy Sweet Tea Recipe

The Hennessy Sweet Tea builds on its Sidecar recipe (one that substitutes Cointreau for Grand Marnier) and adds sugar sweetened tea. Hennessy recommends that its V.S. be used as the cognac in this drink. We also tried it with Hennessy Black and Hennessy V.S.O.P. Privilege and found with the addition of tea that the cognac flavors of each of the Hennessy V.S., V.S.O.P. and Black cognacs were more discernible than in a standard side car.

If you enjoy Hennessy V.S.O.P. or prefer Hennessy Black as your cognac mixer, you may wish to substitute these cognacs for Hennessy V.S. in the Hennessy Sweet Tea recipe shown below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkD_y7qxVMg

Cognac.com Cocktail Corner

To make a Hennessy Sweet Tea you will need:

Cognac

Hennessy V.S.

Grand Marnier

Unsweetened Tea

Simple syrup

Lemon juice

Highball glass