Caneflower cocktail

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (139 ratings)

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 12 oz Cachaça
34 oz Bittersweet orange-red aperitivo
12 oz Elderflower liqueur
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 7/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 5/10

Review:

Rust coloured and bittersweet with cachaça and elderflower.

View readers' comments

Variant:

Comte de Sureau

History:

Adapted from a recipe created in 2009 by Jeffrey Morgenthaler in Portland, Oregon, USA. Jeff's original recipe calls for a "generous twist of lemon" rather than orange. On JeffreyMorgenthaler.com, he says this cocktail was "Inspired in part by a gorgeous cocktail created by my good friend Gonçalo de Souza Monteiro, the Comte de Sureau."

Nutrition:

One serving of Caneflower cocktail contains 191 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.3 standard drinks
  • 22.41% alc./vol. (22.41° proof)
  • 18.5 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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16th February at 00:19
No, just no. Too much elderflower liquor. Overly floral and not pleasant to drink
Garth Stanish’s Avatar Garth Stanish
16th January at 08:10
As noted by others, defintely on the sweeter side and I think the elderflower gets a bit lost ( I was using the gorgeous no8 distillery elderflower liqueur) but for all that, a pleasant drink.
Shara Dale’s Avatar Shara Dale
27th October 2024 at 04:29
This is infinitely better when the juice of half a lime is added.
Prior to adding the lime, it was overpoweringly sweet and bitter, and difficult to discern any specific ingredient other than the Cachaça.
Once the lime was added the flavours really opened up, and the Elderflower and Aperol were no longer overpowered.
It went from being an absolute slog to drink, to one of my favourites.
20th June at 19:04
Thanks for the tip with the lime - tried without and although I quite liked it, definitely on the sweet side. Lovely with the lime added. :o)
Justine Fehley’s Avatar Justine Fehley
10th April 2024 at 01:04
Accidentally made this reversed proportions of Aperol and elderflower, but still turned out pretty great. Will have to try again with the original recipe.
Jeff Newcastle’s Avatar Jeff Newcastle
29th October 2023 at 20:37
Followed recipe to the letter and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a sweet drink but didn’t spoil my enjoyment. (In fact I’m probably going to make another one right now) Looking forward to trying the Comte de Sureau next.
Ian Lessels’ Avatar Ian Lessels
22nd July 2023 at 21:48
I took my first sip with some trepidation. I really wasn't sure how those varied ingredients were going to work but it's a terrific cocktail
Avery Garnett’s Avatar Avery Garnett
16th July 2023 at 19:19
Went with 1 dash orange bitters as I like a sweeter drink but wanted to try to balance it a little. Very tasty.
Wes O'Morrow’s Avatar Wes O'Morrow
14th June 2023 at 13:20
This drink is sweet but lovely, much better than I expected (used Capucana Cachaça and Luxardo Aperitivo). I tried with lemon bitters as well, and that helped balance the drink (also tried a lemon twist but the aroma was not as good as with the orange twist)
Kjell Eriksson’s Avatar Kjell Eriksson
7th September 2021 at 15:36
I’m just now sipping this drink, and thought I’d rate it because it wasn’t all to my liking. And I found that I had already done that! And I gave it a 4! I had to revise that down to 3.5, it’s too sweet for my palate. Next time I will follow some useful suggestions below from fellow discerning drinkers and add a touch of lime or lemon juice, and maybe cut the elderflower a little. And perhaps go for Campari instead of Aperol. We’ll see. Trial and error, eh?
Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
7th September 2021 at 16:36
Perhaps also worth checking the sweet to dry scale above. 5 is heading towards being on the sweet side. I applied this, along with the gentle to boozy scale, on most cocktails now and I'm adding to the ones it's missing on as part of my program of remaking all old recipes to check. I now also check comments before making a cocktail as so useful. Many thanks for commenting!
Martin Schwartz’s Avatar Martin Schwartz
13th June 2021 at 01:37
I liked this cocktail. I used Rosso Amaro (a Campari wannabe) which worked quite well. I'm not a fan of elderflower but the St. Germain really made the drink. It's now in the rotation.