The sweet spirit is made from hand-picked elderflower blossoms that only bloom for a month each spring in France; it has been heralded asone of the most influential new cocktail ingredients of the past decade. He is survived by his wife, the former Kaitrin Cramm, and their two children, William and Charlotte. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. The flowers are all picked in the mornings, when temperatures are at their lowest. View Details. Mr. Cooper attributed his success in part to timing. 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. The partnership, which was finalized in 1933, helped transform Jacquins into one of the worlds leading producers of liqueurs and cordials. 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. Tragic news for the bartending community Robert J. Cooper, the creator of the elderflower liqueur St. Germain, passed away on Monday, April 25. 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. Let us raise a glass to his legacy. The drink itself is made from flowers of elderberry plants that grow in France and bloom for just one month of the year. Photo courtesy of Cooper Spirits Company, used with permission. 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. You can create a new homepage by going to "Pages" at the top, click on the "+" icon and select "Standard" page. Cooper, whose family owned Philadelphia liqueur firm Charles Jacquin et Cie, launched St. Germain in 2007. [3][4] The brand was named after Saint-Germain-des-Prs, and the bottle shape is influenced by Art Deco motifs associated with the Belle poque history of this area. The Art Deco-esque appearance of the bottle also serves as a nod to the bustling Parisian quarter the brand hopes to provide an experience reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties, when Saint-Germain-des-Prs was at its creative peak. Asked how much money he had received, Cooper said it was 'more than I expected to see in a lifetime'. Activates category 1 section on 'Solar' page layout (e.g., https://www.mysite.com/blog/category/dog.html). The Cooper family as a whole has been heavily involved in the spirits industry since the early. St-Germain creator Robert Cooper shares why he thinks the brand will truly be an international brand as. This distilled beveragerelated article is a stub. Robert J. Cooper is a third generation distiller who founded The Cooper Spirits Co. in 2006. The younger Cooper struck gold with the perfect storm of professional curiosity and timing, launching St-Germain in 2007. View Paul St Germain results in North Carolina (NC) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. PDT and Death & Co, two prominent New York cocktail bars, opened around the same time he introduced St-Germain. 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. It had behind it the passion and energy of Robert Cooper, who at the time was only in his early 30s. 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 "bartender's ketchup," died. St-Germain creator Robert Cooper shares why he thinks the brand will truly be an international brand as part of . [5] Now you can go to Whole Foods and get elderflower soft drinks., Robert J. 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In broader terms, it helped resuscitate the dormant liqueur business. Note: You can hide this box under "Theme>Theme Options>Automation [Editor Only]". As such, he was hesitant to allow Robert to use their companys resources to produce the spirit. 21:10 EST 28 Apr 2016 Mr. Cooper was a scion of the family that owns Charles Jacquin et Cie, an old cordials and liqueurs house based in Philadelphia. Though he would ultimately settle next to the Pacific, it was Cooper's experiences in Europe that would inspire his most successful business idea. Robert James Cooper was born on Aug. 3, 1976, in Manhattan. 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. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Furthermore, St-Germains multitude of complex flavors allows for mixologists and novices alike to experiment with it, leading to its nickname, the bartenders ketchup or the ketchup of liqueurs.. St-Germain (now wholly owned by Bacardi), an artisanal French liqueur made from fresh elderflower blossoms. The cause of death is unknown. He would have turned 40 on August 3. Please try again, Derek Brown met Cooper when they sat next to each other at the Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR) Educational Program nearly 10 years ago. "What Drinks Should You Use St Germain Liqueur In? If your site doesn't have a Weebly "Blog" page, then create a new "Blog" page. 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). Access all of our expanded, online-only, subscriber exclusive opinion writing. It was Robert Cooper's passionate work that made the elderflower liqueur wildly popular. Years later, he pops up in the court of French king Louis XV but, after a brief bout with serious political influence and infighting, he fled back to England. At the same time St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur was first hitting markets, cocktails and cocktail bars were undergoing a massive renaissance in major cities like New York. In the early 2000s, Robert Cooper was visiting a London bar where he ordered a cocktail that featured elderflower syrup as a sweetening agent. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He didnt fail. Come back to this screen and fill in the input boxes with the URL of your "Blog" page and 3 category URLs from that blog. Each bottle of St-Germain contains up to 1,000 elderflower blossoms, all of which are handpicked annually. Robert Cooper was a businessman who built his company on humility, positive thinking, collaboration, a creative approach to problem solving. Robert Cooper is survived by his wife, Katie, and their two children William Thor and Charlotte Rose. Cocktail bartenders, hungry for new ingredients and flavors to work with, tossed it into every other new drink. 2023 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Instead, a year after its release, St-Germain was already a staple on bartenders back bars. Activates category 2 section on 'Solar' page layout (e.g., https://www.mysite.com/blog/category/cat.html). Top with the club soda or seltzer, as needed to fill. In news that has shocked the global spirits community, Robert J. Cooper, St-Germain founder, has passed away aged just 39. Founded byChristine Sloan Stoddard. A vague, anti-drag bill in Tennessee has bar and restaurant owners worried for their future, By submitting your email, you agree to our, Creator of St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur Dead at39. Now that you know the basics, here are eight more things you should know about St-Germain. 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! 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. It was a good product, and people would have picked it up in time, but Rob was a constant presence. 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 "bartender's ketchup," died. Launched in 2007 by third-generation distiller Robert J. Cooper, St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur kickstarted an elderflower craze that may span the following dec Read more about cookies here. By 2008 it was ubiquitous. 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. SOLAR's 'Blog Automation' feature automatically pulls content from your blog and displays it on other parts of your site. St-Germain was created by distiller Robert Cooper, son of Norton Cooper, the owner of Charles Jacquin et Cie, after trying an elderflower-based cocktail at a London bar in 2001. St-Germain was created by Robert Cooper, the son of Chambord inventor Norton Sky Cooper. 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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. In the wake of that development, Cooper went out on his own to start Cooper Spirits and launch St-Germain. 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. That company introduced the raspberry liqueur Chambord domestically and later sold it to Brown-Forman. Considered a pioneer in the cocktail world, Cooper was lauded by the liquor industry for years before he sold his uber-popular elderflower liqueur, St-Germain, to Bacardi in 2012 for an undisclosed sum. His loss is being widely grieved in the bartending and cocktail world. The elderflower liqueur was an instant success, and chances are that if you like cocktails, you've probably had one that included St-Germain. Those who had the pleasure of meeting him noted his kind personality. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, His death was confirmed Thursday by the New York Times. Mr. Cooper proved to be a savvy marketer. [9] A second iteration, Fleuriste St-Germain, opened in New York City in August 2021, in collaboration with ballet dancer James Whiteside and director Laura Kim. All things ebb and flow.. 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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.