This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. The Cooper family as a whole has been heavily involved in the spirits industry since the early 1900s when Maurice J. Cooper, a merchant of imported food and beverage, partnered with the Charles Jacquin et Cie cordial business. The flowers are all picked in the mornings, when temperatures are at their lowest. [1] It is made using the petals of Sambucus nigra from the Savoie region in France, and each bottle is numbered with the year the petals were collected. The St. Germain brand was acquired by Bacardi in 2012. The cause of his death is so far unknown. Cooper Spirits sold St-Germain to spirits giant Bacardi in 2013, but Cooper continued to work with Bacardi as a brand guardian, and his company brought back several other historic spirits, including Hochstadters Slow & Low (a bottled rock and rye cocktail) and Crme Yvette, a mixed-berry liqueur. In addition to being a great aperitif to throw in a spritz, St-Germain is considered to be a great modifying liqueur, altering the flavor profile of the liquor it is added to. Sad news for the spirits world today: The creator of the wildly popular St. Germain elderflower liqueur, Robert J. Cooper, died Monday at the age of 39 in Santa Monica, Calif.,according to the New York Times. Cooper died April 25 in California at the age of 39, leaving behind a wife and two. Fort Collins.
), Now the owner of multiple D.C. bars and the president of beverage consultancy Drink Company, Brown says St-Germains success was hugely due to Coopers dogged work. He was an avid surfer and loved collecting esoteric wines from obscure regions. Anyone can read what you share. To print a list of all the drinks in which St-Germain appeared over the years would probably require at least the full Food section. [5] St-Germain was launched in 2007 by Cooper Spirits Co,[6] a company founded 2006 and headquartered in New York. Robert J Cooper, the creator of elderflower liqueur St-Germain the he sold to Bacardi back in 2012, has died at home in Santa Barbara, California, aged 39. The cause of death was not immediately known. It was lucky, he said. Cooper worked his drink on to bar menus by getting it into the hands of young, influential mixologists, and sponsoring cross-country bartender swaps at famous institutions. After all, if youre a chef, do you want to build your reputation on your use of ketchup? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. View Stephanie Tara St Germain results in Charlotte, NC including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. Around the time that St-Germain was introduced, the craft cocktail revolution was gaining traction and a new, creative crop of bartenders were eager to experiment with exotic ingredients. Activates category 2 section on 'Solar' page layout (e.g., https://www.mysite.com/blog/category/cat.html). Robert J. Cooper is a third generation distiller who founded The Cooper Spirits Co. in 2006. Access all of our expanded, online-only, subscriber exclusive opinion writing. PDT and Death & Co, two prominent New York cocktail bars, opened around the same time he introduced St-Germain. Robert J Cooper, Creator Of St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Dies At 39. 13:17 EST 29 Apr 2016. He didnt fail. The Times notes that it became so ubiquitous, some took to calling it "bartender's ketchup." He was 39. The sudden death of the St-Germain founder was confirmed by Robyn Greene, senior vice president at family-owned business, the Cooper Spirits Company, in a statement to the New York Times. The native New Yorker passed away Monday in Santa Barbara, Calif. His death was confirmed Thursday by the New York Times, though the cause was not known. Robert J. Cooper, 39, the founder of the award-winning St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur, died this week of unknown causes. interview. So many spirits get launched, and many of the ones that fail are decent but never get the market penetration Cooper got with St-Germain. Staying true to his legacy of liqueurs, he also reintroduced Crme Yvette, a berry-violet liqueur, from his family's Charles Jacquin et Cie imprint. The UCLA Santa Barbara grad introduced St-Germain in 2007 to great fanfare. Mr. Cooper proved to be a savvy marketer. This gave Cooper an in to introduce mixologists to St-Germain, which was instantly a hit. The cause of death is unknown. Read more about cookies here. St-Germain, packaged in a striking Art Deco bottle, landed like a thunderclap in the then-burgeoning cocktail world. Dennis Michael St. Germain Mr. St. Germain, age 51, of Charlotte, passed away on July 21, 2008. By 2008 it was ubiquitous. By his account, his father, Norton J. Cooper, gave him the cold shoulder when he suggested creating an elderflower liqueur like the ones he had encountered in bars in London. Nearly a decade ago, as the cocktail renaissance was gaining steam, a lot of drinks started developing a particular flavour note. Though he had never viewed elderflower as a cocktail ingredient, the floral concoction changed his perspective. Cooper was quick to credit bartenders for the success of the spirit, and rightfully so: They fell hard for St-Germain, which can elevate a mediocre sparkling wine, complement the tang of fresh citrus and blend beautifully with the botanicals of gin. St-Germain creator Robert Cooper shares why he thinks the brand will truly be an international brand as part of . He curried favor with influential young mixologists, sponsored cross-country bartender exchanges in which New York bartenders would guest-bartend at San Francisco bars and vice versa, hired prominent bartenders as brand ambassadors and held an annual Jazz Age lawn party on Governors Island. Add the champagne or sparkling white wine, then the elderflower liqueur. I'm just a nice lady who likes cocktails and traveling. With St-Germain, many Americans encountered the flavour for the first time. Beloved by bartenders everywhere, St-Germains delicate floral notes and natural flavors of pear and honeysuckle make the liqueur a savvy addition to a number of cocktails as well as a great stand-alone aperitif in simple spritzes. He is survived by his wife Kaitrin and the couple's two children William and Charlotte. Now you can go to Whole Foods and get elderflower soft drinks., Robert J. Cooper, 39, Creator of Popular Elderflower Liqueur, Dies, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/business/robert-j-cooper-39-creator-of-st-germain-elderflower-liqueur-dies.html. This practice allows producers to ensure that the elderflower blossoms are only just beginning to open, meaning the aromas and flavors of the buds will be at their most prominent. Cooper, whose family owns Charles Jacquin et Cie, a Philadelphia-based spirits distiller and producer founded in 1884, left his family business to pursue the creation of St-Germain, an idea dismissed by his father, Norton J. Cooper. Anticipating high sales, Cooper purchased a number of barrels of Canadian rye and aged them for 13 years before releasing Lock Stock & Barrel in 2013. It was followed by Hochstadter's Slow & Low Rock & Rye - a 19th-century pre-made cocktail made with rye whiskey, orange and honey - and Hochstadter's Vatted Rye Whiskey (which I wrote about). Chris Pleasance For Dailymail.com, The ultimate sign of respect: Revered Buddhist monk is mummified and covered in gold leaf to become a shrine in China, It really is last orders! You can do this by clicking on "Pages" at the top, select the homepage on the left, and under "HEADER TYPE", select "solar". We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. When Robert returned from London and approached his father about creating an elderflower liqueur, his father was immediately skeptical. The couple owned homes in Palm Beach and Aspen as well as their residence in California, and sold their New York City apartment located in the West Village in 2013 for $2.25million. Inspired by his floral-scented success, Robert Cooper was keen to revive previously popular brands from hibernation. He anticipated the boom in rye whiskey by buying barrels of prime Canadian stock and then sitting on the liquid for years before releasing Lock Stock & Barrel, a 13-year-old straight rye whiskey, in 2013. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Robert J Cooper, the man who created the incredibly popular elderflower liqueur St Germain, has died at the age of 39, his business partner has confirmed. You can create a new homepage by going to "Pages" at the top, click on the "+" icon and select "Standard" page. It wouldnt have sold itself. Once you create a new homepage, apply the "solar" page layout to the new homepage. Let us raise a glass to his legacy. In fact Cooper Sr. was so convinced the product would flop he told his son he would hire him back in a year 'when you fail', the New York Times reports. Vermouth was starting to come back, crme de violette came back, but St-Germain was new. . We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Each year when the flowers blossom in late May, farmers spend roughly three to four weeks gathering the blooms that will be used to produce the liqueur. When Cooper unveiled his new idea to his father, also a liqueur magnate, he was convinced the idea was a non-starter. Robert Cooper was also a master of predicting trends and recognized an emerging excitement for rye whiskey. Now owned by Bacardi Limited, St-Germain is one of the most commonly used liqueurs in the world and even garnered a host of media attention after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle . He graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a bachelors degree in English and creative writing. In broader terms, it helped resuscitate the dormant liqueur business. Tragic news for the bartending community Robert J. Cooper, the creator of the elderflower liqueur St. Germain, passed away on Monday, April 25. The freshest news from the food world every day. The comments below have not been moderated, By
It had behind it the passion and energy of Robert Cooper, who at the time was only in his early 30s. Now owned by Bacardi Limited, St-Germain is one of the most commonly used liqueurs in the world and even garnered a host of media attention after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their lemon elderflower wedding cake. Un Jardin a Cythere is inspired by the Greek island of Kythira. Sure, Brown acknowledged but the most popular Beatles songs probably get a backlash, too. The partnership, which was finalized in 1933, helped transform Jacquins into one of the worlds leading producers of liqueurs and cordials. View Details. They wanted something different they could work with that had integrity. The Cooper family as a whole has been heavily involved in the spirits industry since the early. St-Germain was created by Robert Cooper, the son of Chambord inventor Norton "Sky" Cooper. I would see him everywhere D.C., New York, New Orleans supporting the product and getting it off the ground., Elderflower syrup has been a thing in Europe for centuries; Cooper first came across it in bars in England, where he was inspired to develop it into a liqueur. He said, Ill hire you back in a year when you fail, Mr. Cooper once recalled. Robert James Cooper was born on Aug. 3, 1976, in Manhattan. Even if you thought you were too good for St-Germain, you were going to have an army coming in and demanding it., I asked Brown about my impression that the use of St-Germain has been dialed back a bit over the past few years, that there was a mild bartender backlash against its ubiquity. Robert J. Cooper, whose unusual elderflower liqueur, St-Germain, introduced in 2007, was so completely embraced by the cocktail community that it became known as bartenders ketchup, died on Monday in Santa Barbara, Calif. [7] In 2013, the company was sold to Bacardi, and Robert Cooper agreed to work with Bacardi as a "brand guardian" and spokesperson. Cocktail bartenders, hungry for new ingredients and flavors to work with, tossed it into every other new drink. In 2012, Cooper sold St-Germain to Bacardi, yielding him "more than I expected to see in a lifetime." If your site doesn't have a Weebly "Blog" page, then create a new "Blog" page. Please enter a valid email and try again. The cause of his death has not yet been determined; he leaves behind a wife and two children. Born in South Bend, IN he was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, as a Data Systems Tech. Cooper grew up on the east coast before crossing the country to attend college at the University of California Santa Barbara where he graduated with a degree in English with creative writing. Launched in 2007 by third-generation distiller Robert J. Cooper, St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur kickstarted an elderflower craze that would span the next decade and a half and revived a sleepy liqueur industry.