The Eclisse Liquorice Experience

This week’s Food and Wine Friday feature takes a look at an interesting and original drink, an Italian liquorice, ‘licorice’ if you are from the USA, based liqueur .

Eclisse liquorice Drink

Christmas is just around the corner, so if you are stocking that drinks cabinet for the festive season, then giving someone you know this liquorice drink may give you top marks for originality, as long as they are liquorice lovers.

Eclisse - Liquorice Liquer

I Like Liquorice

If you like liquorice, like me, then you might like this liquorice based tipple known as Eclisse (‘eclipse’ in English, if you were curious).

Eclisse is made with pure Calabrian liquorice and I can certainly vouch for the fact that you can taste the main ingredient.  A sip of this thick and syrupy drink will leave you with a distinctly liquoricy after taste.  If you like liquorice, then you will love this.

Franciacorta, the Company and the Area

This unusual liqueur is made by an Italian company called Franciacorta Distilleries, and wine aficionados may well be familiar with this name as it is also an area of northern Italy, not too far from Brescia and Lake Iseo, which is well known for the production of red and white wines, not to mention the Italian version of champagne, known as ‘spumante’.  I prefer Italian spumante to French champagne.  Aside from the flavour, spumante seems to be less bubbly, than, er, bubbly.

Little France

Incidentally, ‘franciacorte’ could be translated as ‘little France’ in English, and legend has it that ‘franciacorte’ got its name after one Carlo Magno decided to name it so in order that he could respect an oath he had made.  Apparently Magno swore to celebrate a saints day in France, but when he realised that he would not be able to make it back in time, he conveniently, as you do, renamed the area in which he found himself to ‘Little France’, thereby, in a round about sort of way, solving his little problem.

Eclisse Chocolate Liqueur

I don’t know what it is about Italy, but for some reason it seems to encourage lots of creative thought, and has done so for centuries.  Such creative thought probably led to Franciacorta, the company, deciding to market liquorice, chocolate, and cappuccino flavoured liqueurs, no doubt.

Available Everywhere, almost

Should you wish to sample this liquorice liqueur, then you might be pleased to note that Franciacorta exports it’s interesting range of products to some 50 odd countries worldwide.  This means that those who find themselves in the USA, Russia, Japan and Australia might well be able to lay their hands on some original tipples, such as Eclisse or even try some spumante.

Franciacorta Distillery

Danger!

I should perhaps point out that those with high blood pressure should avoid Eclisse, as it will not do them any good.  The Eclisse bottle carries a warning to this effect.

Italians often resort to pure liquorice when they think their blood pressure is low.  Crafty Italians will no doubt use ‘low blood pressure’ as an excuse to guarantee themselves several wee drams of this dark and sophisticated liquorice drink!

Try It!

If you fancy something a little different, then Eclisse is well worth trying, as are many of the Franciacorta company‘s products.  They’d make excellent, and original Christmas gift ideas.