Perique Tobacco Liqueur Posted Jan 9th 2007 1:01PM by Jonathan M. Forester Filed under: Lush Life, Food Oddities, America, Spirits, Liquor Cabinet
The Liquor Snob just brought to my attention that there is a new tobacco based liqueur called Perique Liqueur de Tabac .
Perique Liqueur de Tabac, 31% abv / 62 proof for MSR £22.00. The press release says "Following many months of development, Jade Liqueurs finally releases its much anticipated tobacco liqueur, Perique... The unique terroir of the Mississippi River gives Perique the intense spices and aromas that contribute to the delicate balance of this fine liqueur. Perique (liqueur) is entirely artisanal in its construction, and captures the nuances of this ancient tobacco. Perique is best enjoyed in the same manner as one would a fine liqueur or brandy. Due to the difficulty in procuring this rare tobacco, Perique liqueur is available only in limited quantity."
I am very curious about this liqueur, first because it's a unique liqueur, and you know how I love those, and secondly because it's made with Perique tobacco.
Now I'm familiar with Perique tobacco from when I worked for Mom's Cigars, a wholesale and retail tobacco company and importer, as a cigar and pipe expert. One of the things I did was come up with a few new blends of pipe tobacco for their Scarsdale, NY store. Perique is one tobacco that I used in small amounts mixed with several others in my blends. It's what's called a spice tobacco, and if I remember right real Perique is grown on only around forty acres in Grande Pointe Ridge, St. James Parish, Louisiana. It goes through a protracted fermentation process during the curing and has a peppery, vinegar, and fig like taste, with a black color and an oily texture. You couldn't pack some straight Perique into your pipe and smoke it because it is too intensely strong. Well you could, but it wouldn't be that fun an experience. Trust me, I tried.
Perique as a tobacco style is pre-Colombian. The people who eventually became known as the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians in Louisiana made it by rolling it into apx. one pound rolls and then pressing it into hollow logs with a long poles, securing it with weights, then letting it ferment. They taught their technique to the French Acadians who tried making small amounts of it.
A farmer called Pierre Chenet called the bundles torquettes and developed the technique for what is now called Perique in 1824. He packed the bundles into whiskey casks to ferment in its own juices under pressure. Some false perique is made elsewhere but it doesn't have the same unique, strong, spicy and fruit like flavors and oily texture. Today the only farm that grows and makes it full time is Percy Martin Farms in Grande Pointe Ridge, LA. Just recently they almost went out of business in the late 90's due to bad crops but several businessmen helped get them back on their feet in 1999.
So a Perique tobacco liqueur? Hmmmmm... I can't wait to try it!
Having been born and raised in the New Orleans area, I'm all too familiar with Perique tobacco. When my best friend and I were caught puffing cigarettes under his home in uptown New Orleans, I was forced to smoke an entire pack of Picayune Cigarettes...made from, you guessed it, Perique tobacco. Needless to say, I tossed my guts up for what seemed like days. They don't make Picyune cigs anymore, and I can only guess why.
This stuff is fabulous if used in small amounts in a pipe blend, but in a liquor makes me want to hurl again.
