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D’USSÉ Cognac has given me many very pleasurable minutes.

I’m holding the bottle of D’USSÉ Cognac that I have been sipping from for several months.

These are the stainless steel measuring spoons I used for this experiment.

This is the same experiment I did a couple of days ago titled, I’m not much of a drunk … but … which was about my trying to put a trace of scientific rigor into how large a sip of Grand Marnier cognac is just right for maximizing my pleasure.

By the way, I don’t consider myself an Epicurean. They were a Classic Roman philosophical school based on maximizing pleasure in one’s life. Rather, when it comes to the big meaning of life things, I consider myself to be more of a kindness-seeking and giving Stoic. Those who strictly follow an Epicurean maximizing of pleasure philosophy of life often destroy their bodies with excess and then lose years of pleasure that they might have enjoyed had they been more moderate.

In this post, the term Stoic is used in the old Roman sense of responding well to what the environmental situation can deliver. The term stoic was intentionally corrupted during the Middle Ages to mean a person who simply endures the sufferings that life presents and falls into a life of hopelessness and despair. I’m enthusiastic about the Stoic approach of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, all of whom had many difficult situations but lived them fully and appeared to enjoy their lives.

When I sip some cognac the best response seems to be to savor all the wonderful things that it can bring to my senses.

The following is a close repeat of how I approached the Grand Marnier cognac. Let’s experiment with it now. Join me if you can with whatever cognac you can bring to your lips.

D’USSÉ Cognac

1/8 tsp/0.63ml is too small. I can get the taste, but not the pleasure. – The taste was so brief it didn’t taste very good.

1/4 tsp/1.25ml is also too small. It also gives the taste, but there is too little of it to do the various sloshing games I usually play with it in my mouth to give the pleasure I am used to getting when I sip this Grand Marnier. – This is a strange experience for me because even a 1/4 tsp of D’USSÉ doesn’t give me any pleasure. Perhaps, horror to say, a bit of displeasure. Here a minute after the sipping I can feel my lips tingling a bit.

1 tsp/5ml was just okay, – but it too was just a bit too small for the pleasure I get usually from my sip. I skipped over the 1/2 tsp/2.5 ml because I was tired of being teased by those too small sips. Finally, enough of a sip to give some real pleasure, but it still isn’t the joy I know I’ve felt when sipping this cognac. In addition to my lips having a slight burn, there is a noticeable burn in my stomach.

1/2 Tbsp/7.5ml was just about right for a single sip of Grand Marnier. But the experience of sipping it from a half-sphere shaped stainless steel measuring spoon didn’t give me the same pleasurable feel as tipping the bottle to my lips and slowly sucking in just the right amount. – For D’USSE the 1/2 Tbsp felt like it was just right. I’m going to go for 1 Tbsp at a single sip even though I suspect that it will be too much. Let’s find out.

1 Tbsp/15m. When I look at this little cup it looks too BIG, but onward in furthering the glory of science, where it is sometimes necessary to go beyond what is thought to be a limit just to be sure it is the limit. Here goes. … Wow! That does taste great, and I do enjoy working it around in my mouth, but I have now broken out in a full-body sweat. My mouth has about the same tingle as from the smaller amounts, and my stomach feels warmer but is content with the experience.

In comparison with the Grand Marnier cognac, the D’USSÉ is a single very pleasurable experience, where the Grand Marnier was several different unique pleasurable experiences flowing through my mouth for a whole minute.