Gabriel Boudier has been making liqueurs in Dijon since 1874, and the house is best known among bartenders for a range built to hold its own in a cocktail rather than simply taste sweet. Cacao Noir is the dark chocolate expression, made with roasted cocoa beans sourced from the Ivory Coast.
It pours a deep bronze brown with ruby lights. The nose is emphatically cocoa, all dark chocolate and roasted cocoa nib with a hint of vanilla. The palate follows through with intense roasted cocoa, smooth and only lightly sweet, closing on dry cocoa powder with a faint peppery warmth.
There is more bitterness here than in most chocolate liqueurs, which is precisely why it works so well behind the bar. It gives real chocolate depth to a brandy alexander, an espresso martini or a chocolate old fashioned without turning the drink into dessert. Equally good poured neat over ice after dinner.