Alcohols & Liqueurs
Cointreau
Cointreau is a premium French triple sec orange liqueur bottled at 40% ABV, made from sweet and bitter orange peel distillates. In gelato it is a flavoring and a powerful freezing-point depressant, adding sharp orange aroma while its high alcohol dramatically raises PAC and keeps the mix soft.
Balancing parameters
Per 100 g of product, verified against independent food-science sources (listed below).
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Solids | 21.4% |
| Water | 47.8% |
| Sugars | 21.4% |
| Fat | 0% |
| MSNF | 0% |
| Protein | 0% |
| POD (sweetening power) | 21.4 |
| PAC (anti-freezing power) | 249.9 |
Typical use: 2-5% of the recipe (about 20-50 g/kg); rarely above 5-6% because excess alcohol prevents the gelato from freezing and hardening properly.
Balance cointreau in a real recipe
Free balancer · no signup wall · watch PAC, POD and Total Solids update live as you add it.
Open the balancerHow to use it in gelato
Use Cointreau to add fresh orange aroma and depth to creams, chocolate, and citrus gelati. Its 40% alcohol is the dominant effect: per 100 g it contributes about 228 PAC from ethanol plus 21.4 from its sugar, a total near 250, so even small doses sharply lower the freezing point and soften the finished gelato. The alcohol figure comes from the grams of ethanol rather than from the label degree, because the sugar raises the density of a liqueur and dilutes the alcohol by weight. Add it cold to the aged, pasteurized mix to preserve aroma. Because alcohol also slows churning and can prevent proper hardening, keep total added spirits modest and rebalance sugars downward if you add a lot.
Origin & background
Cointreau was created in 1875 in Angers, France, by Edouard Cointreau, whose family distillery was founded in 1849 by brothers Adolphe and Edouard-Jean Cointreau. The clear triple sec, distilled from a blend of sweet and bitter orange peels, has been produced at 40% ABV in Angers ever since and remains one of the world's best-known orange liqueurs.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Cointreau official nutrition FAQ: 'Cointreau L'Unique contains 40% of alcohol per volume', and per 100 mL 'Carbohydrates of which sugars 22 g' (6.6 g per 30 mL serving, alongside 9.5 g of alcohol per 30 mL): https://www.cointreau.com/int/en/faq/what-nutritional-value-cointreau
- Cointreau, 'Does Cointreau have sugar' (the sugar is sucrose; the nutritional page states 22.5 g per 100 mL, the FAQ 22 g, and either figure gives the same PAC): https://www.cointreau.com/us/en/does-cointreau-have-sugar
- OIML Recommendation R22, international alcoholometric tables: 'q = (rho20 / rho20(100%)) x p', with 789.24 kg/m3 the density of pure ethanol, the conversion from label degree to grams of ethanol per 100 g: https://www.oiml.org/en/files/pdf_r/r022-e75.pdf
- Dairy Science and Food Technology, 'Ice cream hardness': 'Alcohol (ethanol) | 46 | 7.4', i.e. PAC 740 per 100 g of ethanol from the sucrose/ethanol molecular weight ratio: https://www.dairyscience.info/cheese-dairy/ice-cream/228-ice-cream-hardness.html
- Jo Pistacchio, 'Sorbetto Spritz': 'L'alcol etilico ha un Potere Anti Congelante (PAC) pari a 743, contro il 100 dello zucchero saccarosio': https://www.jopistacchio.it/sorbetto-spritz/
- Boston Apothecary, 'Deconstructing Cointreau' (independent estimate of the sugar load, about 230 to 260 g/L, brix around 23): https://www.bostonapothecary.com/deconstructing-cointreau/
- Underbelly, 'Sugars in Ice Cream' (sucrose PAC and POD = 100 by definition): https://under-belly.org/sugars-in-ice-cream/
- icecreamcalc.com, 'How is PAC and POD calculated': https://icecreamcalc.com/2023/08/22/how-is-pac-and-pod-calculated/