CalvaClub S03E03

With his cre­ation “Coquille Coquette,” fea­tur­ing a har­mo­ni­ous blend Bur­gundy truffle, celery, and coconut, Colin from Mon­sieur Moutarde in Dijon cap­tiv­ated the judges. This enchant­ing winter-themed drink, paired flaw­lessly with scal­lops, received unan­im­ous approval.

Yes, this year at Calva Club, it was a cel­eb­ra­tion of both Calvados AND scal­lops.

And it was truly a fiery event !

A winter premiere

For the first time in its brief his­tory, Calva Club brought togeth­er 12 bar­tenders from all corners of France (and Bel­gi­um!) in the heart of winter in Honfleur.

From the outset, we delivered our prom­ise with a culin­ary class centered around scal­lops : deglaz­ing, flam­béing, mar­in­at­ing — all with Calvados adding gast­ro­nom­ic accents.

(To keep our read­ers engaged, we’ll spare them the photos of the fin­ished recipes)

To recov­er from these ini­tials culin­ary delights, we rel­ished a dinner spot­light­ing scal­lops (nat­ur­ally) accom­pan­ied by chilled sips of Dom­fron­tais Calvados — 100% pears!

The apple jacket stayed in the ward­robe as we con­cluded this inaug­ur­al day around the Black Jack table with delight­ful cocktails.

Because that’s Normandy too.

Day 2 : The Grand Finale

8:30 am: board­ing the Stade Mal­herbe de Caen’s minivan (eh eh), head­ing to the Dis­til­lery des Ambres.

There, Kristen guided us through a com­plete immer­sion across the estate — orch­ards, trans­form­a­tion, dis­til­la­tion tech­niques; everything covered.

The entire pro­cess of making Calvados Pays d’Auge was lit­er­ally elev­ated by the magic of the place.

After the theory, it was time for prac­tice and a blend­ing work­shop with some of the finest spir­its from the estate, and every­one left with their per­son­al­ized bottle ❤️.

Back to Honfleur

In the expans­ive res­taur­ant hall, with the hearth in the back­ground, the com­pet­i­tion commenced.

One by one, the 12 can­did­ates show­cased their ingenu­ity and elo­quence to present their cre­ations to the audience.

Isigny butter syrup, Clem­entine koso, Ver­bena cor­di­al — these magic­al ingredi­ents not only enhanced the Calvados but also accom­pan­ied the seared scallops.

After much delib­er­a­tion, “Coquille Coquette” ulti­mately won every­one’s favor.

After expend­ing so much energy, the week­end ended on a high note.

Live music by Own.

Drinks by Guil­laume (and a bit of Andres too).

On the dance floor, we forgot. But there were some very, very nice “moves.” (And there are pictures.)

See you in June at Bar Con­vent Brook­lyn with Colin, and per­haps in Normandy next year — who knows?