Boulard Calvados Pays d'Auge 50cl (500ml) bottle. Calvados Boulard has a history of over 180 years and is still a family-run business. 

Calvados is the famous apple brandy named after the particularly fruitful part of Normandy.

The tradition in this part of France is to sip a glass of Calvados alongside your black coffee. But it can also be enjoyed as an aperitif, taken in between courses, or added to a sorbet as a means of cleansing the palate. In fact, Calvados can be enjoyed at any time of the day or night.

Calvados was enjoyed by fictional characters Inspector Maigret, and James Bond (On Her Majesty's Secret Service).

Boulard Calvados uses 120 varieties of apple picked in season from the Boulard orchard. One bottle of Calvados uses around 10 litres of cider from 12 kilos of apples selected from four categories: the bitter-sweet and rich in tannin form the base, the bitter variety for structure, sweet for the sugar (which gives the alcohol content), and acid for freshness and balance. Next, the apples are pressed into a juice that� fermented into a cider.

The cider is heated and the aromatic vapour is collected in a double distillation process. The longer the ageing process, the smoother the drink, but after two years in oak casks (which give its amber colour) and a blind taste test conducted by committee, the spirit can be sold as Calvados.

Fragrance: Offers a great deal of harmony between the fruit (apple) and the delicate hint of vanilla (wood) and dried fruit. Hints of tannin from the Le Troncay oak (with slow extraction of tannin).

Taste: Powerful, intense, displaying a great deal of harmony. Hints of apple tart and dried fruit, in particular prune.

Every year Normandy hosts the Calvados International Cocktail Competition, which unites Europe� best professional barmen to create new Calvados-based cocktails.