The family started with a cherry liqueur in 1849; the orange one, made with sweet and bitter peels, came decades later, in a square bottle
Before it was the bar's orange liqueur, Cointreau was a confectionery business. In 1849, Adolphe Cointreau, a confectioner in Angers, in western France, decided to expand the family company into liqueurs. He started with a regional favorite, Guignolet, a cherry liqueur, according to the history published by the brand itself. His brother, Édouard-Jean, joined him, and the two set up the distillery on rue Molière, on the banks of the Maine river.
The orange liqueur was created by the next generation: Édouard Cointreau, Édouard-Jean's son. He distilled a spirit flavored with sweet and bitter orange peels, aiming for a balanced, concentrated liqueur. The date is a matter of dispute. The brand's official website says Édouard arrived at the recipe in 1885; other sources point to 1875. The Spirits Business, in a brand history published in 2015, says the recipe took several years to perfect and has not changed since.
Édouard also looked after the product's image. According to the brand, he registered the Cointreau trademarks and its square bottle, which became the liqueur's signature, with the Commercial Court of Angers. The liqueur is colorless and bottled at 40% ABV.
In the early 1920s, Édouard-Jean's grandsons, Louis and André Cointreau, took over the business and turned the liqueur into a global brand. Production left central Angers and is now in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, on the outskirts of the city, at the address the company calls Carré Cointreau. The brand now belongs to the Rémy Cointreau group.
Bebidário's catalog also includes Cointreau Noir.
Sources: Cointreau (accessed November 3, 2026), The Spirits Business (June 2015).
