Straight, chilled or over ice, this is one of my favorite liqueurs.

Frangelico was originally made by crazy monks who had a lot of nuts and wanted to drink them rather than eat them. So they mashed them with stones from some river in Italy, threw in random twigs and leaves and stuff, and then left the mess in some vats and forgot about it. A while later, a bored monk, named Fra. Angelico, came across these vats, and since he had just had a sort of falling out with his sanity, he sampled some of the fine liquid resulting from the fermented stuff. He liked it so well that he put it in a bottle and tied a wee rope around it so that it would look like a very small monk. Then he called this bottled goodness Fred, and the rest of that story is best left untold.

Eventually, other peoples started figuring out why Fra. was so happy all of the time, and they started making more of this Fred stuff. But the name wasn't a big hit with the monk market researchers, so they named it after the crazy monk instead. Hey, it was the 17th century, babycakes, what do you expect?

Fred, or Frangelico as the rest of the world now calls it, is a delicious hazelnut liqueur, 48 proof, and is the best of the nutty liqueurs in this boozinator's opinion. It may be a bit pricey, as many of the best liqueurs are, but as an occassional treat, it wins against your standard day-to-day boozination, hands down!

Here is the Boozinator's favorite Fred recipe, Fred and Berries! (Or Nuts and Berries if you go to one of those nancy-pants bars where they have yet to hear the real story of Fred):

1 part Fred
1 part Chambord (Goddess of Berry Liqueurs!)
Over ice
Float cream, half and half, or whole milk in a pinch to fill glass.


DRINK!