Absinthe Cocktails Competition in UK

For the last year or so, my bartender presentations on absinthe have included much more about the role of absinthe in cocktails. Absinthe was first distilled commercially in 1798 (in Couvet, Switzerland) and  1798 is also the year that the word "cocktail" first appeared in print meaning a drink. Absinthe and cocktails seem to have been "paired at birth."

Around the world, bartenders now seem to realize that a lot of the old stories and ways of drinking absinthe were myths and fabrications to prey on the ignorant. But some bartenders still don't seem to know what to do with absinthe (apart from rinses in Sazeracs and dashes in Corpse Revivers, that is).

So I was delighted when James Fowler contacted me about an opportunity to talk about absinthe in cocktails with the Bournemouth Bartenders League (BBL). James will be well-known to regular readers here as the owner of The Larder House (home of the first UK absinthe dinner) and more recently the UK winner of Diageo's World Class Bartender competition. I don't know whether there is "something in the water" around Bournemouth or whether it is the inspiration of people like James, but it is clear that there is a lot of bartending expertise there. James put me in touch with Salvatore Damiano of the BBL and a few weeks later, I drove to The Larder House and I gave a short presentation about absinthe in cocktails (with the behind-the-bar help of Franco) ...

I have no idea what I was doing with the iPad in that top right shot, but by the time of the bottom right shot, I had finished my talk and was enjoying watching the cream of local bartenders at work. Why? Well, I have spent far too much time in the last year or so analysing history, the ways in which absinthe was used in cocktails back in the days of Harry Craddock at The Savoy (1930), and how modern bartenders are now using absinthe. For example ...

The first column of numbers shows the % of absinthe cocktails which used specific other ingredients in The Savoy in 1930. Not surprisingly absinthe was used in a lot of cocktails with gin and/or vermouth. The second column of numbers is based on the best absinthe cocktails book, A Taste for Absinthe, published in 2010, with cocktails provided by many of the world's best bartenders. Gin and vermouth have slipped down the list, and lemon/lime along with sugar or simple syrup have become the most popular ingredients to be paired with absinthe in cocktails.

Interestingly both La Clandestine and Pernod are working extensively with cocktails made almost entirely with absinthe, limes and sugar. The Clandestino was first made in 2007 and The Green Beast was first made about three years later.

So why was I at the Larder House? Here there was a team of contestants who were not thinking of the 1930 or even of 2010. They were thinking of creating the next great absinthe cocktail. Their brief was to use a full measure of absinthe, either La Clandestine or Butterfly, in creating their own new cocktail, and here is what they created and what I had the pleasure of judging ..

1. David Hall, Urban Reef

The Boston Cocktail

25ml Butterfly Absinthe

25ml Green Apple syrup

75ml Water

4 dashes of Orange bitters

Shaken and pour in a tumbler

I loved the way that David took elements from Butterfly's past: especially the fact that the owner of Dempsey, Boston, was one of the major US players fighting the threat of prohibition.

2. Connor Sanderson, The Captain's Club Hotel

Alice's Fairy Elixir

25ml La Clandestine

15ml Koku Kanu

15ml Mozart white liqueur

1 egg white

A spoon of New Forest Strawberry Jam

Nutmeg

Shaken and pour over crushed ice in a jam jar

Beautifully made with some great ingredients; excellently presented.

3. Harry King, The Library at The Larder House

Parasite

20ml Butterfly absinthe

10ml Creme de Violette

10ml Kamm and Sons aperitif

5ml maraschino

20ml lime juice

Stirred over ice and topped with elderflower tonic water and finished with a lavender foam

The foam was an interesting challenge for a judge; of course one has to taste through it too, in order to understand how the taste of the cocktail will develop. The one small issue I had with this cocktail was the name which didn't quite communicate how wonderful this cocktail was.

4. Thomas Quy, The Captain's Club Hotel

Fancy a Cuppa

40ml Butterfly Absinthe

20ml lemon & ginger tea syrup with mint

15ml lemon juice

20ml Violet Liqueur

2 dashes of grapefruit bitters

Shaken and poured into a tea cup

A very full measure of Butterfly here: 40 ml. Great taste and presentation. This is getting difficult ...  

5. Joel Whitmore, The Larder House

Covert Beets in the Back Streets of Couvet

Per serving –

40ml Apple & Ginger Juice

20ml Beetroot Juice

0.1g malic acid
Pour all ingredients into iced filled absinthe fountain.

Stir. 
Add 25ml La Clandestine Absinthe into Absinthe glass.

Turn taps and add desired amount of apple and beet mix to absinthe. 
Garnish with Swiss mountain flowers.

I had met Joel previously and, honestly, I didn't want him to win if he seemed to have any inside advantage! But I couldn't fault the concept or the final presentation and taste. Absinthe and beetroot do work together well, both visually and in a cocktail. It wasn't the punchiest of names for a cocktail but apart from that, it was faultless.

So I chose two winners: Joel (for the best cocktail with La Clandestine) and Thomas (for the best cocktail with Butterfly).

And I was delighted that Salvatore chose another winner, David, for the Bournemouth Bartenders League prize.

It was a great day for me, in which I learnt a lot about the process of creating cocktails: from naming, through to preparation and execution. Thank you to the Bournemouth Bartenders League, thank you to Matt Pollard for the photographs (hopefully my collages did not spoil them too much!),and above all thanks to Salvatore for organising it all. It is clear that great absinthe cocktails can be made with much more than a few drops or dashes as used by Craddock in 1930. If this happens elsewhere, absinthe distillers will be very busy keeping up with demand in the near future!

Prohibition, repeal, and absinthe

The drink above is currently my favourite cocktail and is one of two I will be drinking on Repeal Day soon. More details of this drink below but first a few words about prohibition and repeal. These are topics that have been very interesting for me since I was responsible for selling alcohol in some Middle East countries

where it was officially banned, and I was also able to observe the effects of prohibition in some States in India. I was living in Delhi at the time and was responsible for selling alcohol (but not absinthe) throughout India. The neighbouring State to Delhi was "dry," meaning alcohol was banned there. We sold a lot to the shops near the border (mm .. where did it all go?!) and had no sales or marketing costs in the dry State, making it very profitable for us. The ban on alcohol in the dry State merely served to whet the appetite of potential customers there.

The long prohibition of absinthe in the USA had a similar effect with many American consumers finding ways to order absinthe online before the ban was finally lifted. Prohibition didn't/doesn't work and merely served/serves to make the banned drinks more intriguing for some.

Indeed the prohibition of absinthe in Switzerland merely drove the whole category underground and is responsible for the birth of some once notorious but now famous absinthe brands such as La Clandestine.

The full story of the birth of La Clandestine in the dark days of the Swiss absinthe ban can be read here.

When it comes to prohibition and repeal, absinthe has the longest history of being banned and is the subject of the most recent repeals. Absinthe was effectively banned in the USA from 1912, 8 years before prohibition. Repeal, whose 80th anniversary is celebrated on December 5, 1933, did not extend to absinthe for another 73 years. Until March 5, 2007, or another 26,753 days to be precise!

So while the US celebrates the 80th anniversary of repeal, absinthe lovers must either mourn all those lost "green hours," or must make up for lost time. I prefer the latter!

So I want to celebrate two events: repeal in general and then the repeal of the absinthe ban. I'll do so with a classic cocktail from the 1920's and 1930's and then with a modern cocktail.

Firstly, what better way to make up for lost time than by trying one (or more) of the absinthe cocktails created to celebrate prohibition and enjoyed in bars like London's Savoy around 1930 while Americans, in theory, were not allowed to drink out in their own country.

The Savoy Cocktail Book mischievously lists a selection of "COCKTAILS SUITABLE FOR A PROHIBITION COUNTRY" which are "for those countries where they make the most of prohibition." This list includes 

Special (Rough) Cocktail
1 Dash Absinthe
1/2 Applejack
1/2 Brandy
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

This is not well reviewed in the Savoy Stomp ("The name is pretty accurate"), so I gave it a miss.

Prohibition started in 1920 so it seems fair to assume that these next two cocktails were expressly named to mark prohibition:

Nineteen-Twenty Cocktail
1 Teaspoonful Groseille Syrup
1/6 Pernod Kirsch
1/6 Crystal Gin
2/3 French Vermouth
1 Dash Absinthe
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

and

Nineteen-Twenty Pick-Me-Up Cocktail
2/3 Absinthe
1/3 Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Orange Bitters
1 Dash Gomme Syrup
Shake well, strain into medium size wine-glass, and fill balance with soda water.

Given the number of gin, vermouth and absinthe cocktails in the Savoy and the fact that the first of the these two contains just a dash of absinthe, I have focused here on the second. It is also similar to the Absinthe Special Cocktail with the main difference being the soda. I thought it would be interesting to see what the soda brings to the drink.

I made the Nineteen-Twenty Pick-Me-Up using Gloag's Gin (no longer available) from the makers of The Famous Grouse and an absinthe that was directly hit by the US ban on absinthe: Butterfly Absinthe (more of this later). 

This 1920 Pick-Me-Up was strong and refreshing (maybe an unusual combination) and the citrus notes in Butterfly worked well with the gin. This style of cocktail maybe doesn't have the immediate appeal of some modern cocktails but when I close my eyes and sip it, it does indeed feel like the kind of cocktail one could easily have enjoyed at the Savoy in 1930.

The original makers of Butterfly, P. Dempsey of Merrimac Street, Boston, were of course directly affected by prohibition. Patrick Dempsey's son, George, was the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Wholesale Liquor Dealers Association of America (try putting that on a business card) and he presented this paper in 1908.

Sadly the efforts of George Dempsey and others were unsuccessful: his absinthe, Butterfly, the only American absinthe for which a bottle and recipe survive, disappeared after 1912 and his distillery closed in 1920 to become, eventually, a car park (a very profitable business in Boston!).

Butterfly Absinthe returned to the USA in autumn 2013 and is now made in Switzerland by a former moonshiner. UK mixologists have had a head start on Butterfly, with some great cocktails already created at the Worship Street Whistling Shop and at One Leicester Street. But the most interesting cocktail I have enjoyed with Butterfly takes me back to India (where this post started). London's Indian restaurant, Gymkhana, which opened in September 2013 to some stunning reviews, offers a Flutterby Lassi (created for them by Fluid Movement's Jon Lister who also created the absinthe cocktails enjoyed here in 2012). A lassi is an Indian drink (usually non-alcoholic) with a yoghurt base that is consumed at the end of a meal to ease digestion. 

The Flutterby Lassi is offered as a digestif and is made as follows:-

FLUTTERBY LASSI
3 dill sprigs
2cm piece cucumber, peeled
35 ml Butterfly absinthe
10ml lime juice
20ml gomme
50ml yoghurt

Muddle the dill and cucumber and pour all the other ingredients into shaker.

Shake and double strain.

Serve in a port wine glass and garnish with a scrolled skin of cucumber and a sprig of dill.

The Flutterby made it onto national British TV, into the Evening Standard's list of London's best cocktails and into several other national newspapers. City AM called the Flutterby a "cultural gem."

The combination of Butterfly (which I consider a digestif-style absinthe) with yoghurt works amazingly well, and the dill and cucumber topped it off perfectly. A great well-balanced taste, refreshing with a smooth creamy mouth-feel (but not at all like a cream liqueur). Despite having a large measure of absinthe in, this is the first absinthe cocktail that my wife has really liked, and even requested again and again (see below). 

Great to see a wonderful absinthe cocktail coming from an Indian restaurant of all places. India has some of the strictest alcohol laws in the world, including prohibition in many areas. Butterfly was created by an American company that fought prohibition and lost, and is now made by a Swiss company that was started as a direct result of and response to prohibition. So in every respect, the Flutterby Lassi is a very appropriate way to celebrate the 80th anniversary of repeal in the USA. Cheers! Santé! अच्छी सेहत!

Absinthe Cocktails for Halloween

Updated October 21, 2014 (exactly one year after the original article)

In the last week, those two great paragons of journalism (Fox News and the UK's Daily Mail) have listed the two cocktails featured in this blog article as being among the most dangerous cocktails in the world. 

The Corpse Reviver # 2 "is dangerous because of absinthe qualities that sometime provoke violence in drinkers or makes them black out."

Death in the Afternoon: "A classic concoction of champagne and absinthe, this mind-blowing luxe cocktail was invented by Ernest Hemingway ... The drink rarely appears in bar menus but can usually be ordered from Sky Bar Kuala Lumpur's bartenders for the princely sum of RM67 (£13)." 

Both these articles demonstrate the journalists' complete ignorance of the drinks. 4 - 8 drops of absinthe in a Corpse Reviver # 2 is not going to provoke violence in drinkers. although the journalist's assertion (that it would) probably did provoke some drinkers to have ideas of violence towards ignorant journalists. 

As for the Death in the Afternoon, is it "mind-blowing" and does it "rarely appear in bar menus?" The second part clearly shows the journalist's ignorance, although full credit is due if he or she managed to get a trip to Malaysia funded by his/her newspaper to find it.

It  is sad to see ignorance like this still being used in the name of "news." Those of us who know the history of absinthe know that it was ignorance like this that led to it being banned in most countries at the start of the 20th century. It is also sad to think that some ignorant drinkers will try these cocktails and maybe several at a time, specifically because they think they are dangerous. Thus making Fox News and the Daily Mail directly culpable of encouraging abuse ...

Now back to your normal programming ...

Original Article October 21, 2013

Halloween is a great time to re-visit another pair of absinthe cocktails: the Corpse Reviver No. 2 and Death in the Afternoon.

The Corpse Reviver No. 2 (like the Corpse Reviver No. 1) is featured in the Savoy Cocktail book and was created by Harry Craddock at the Savoy's American Bar some time before 1930. No. 2 is a more serious proposition than no. 1: here are the ingredients as listed in the Savoy.

1/4 Wine Glass Lemon Juice (3/4 oz)
1/4 Wine Glass Kina Lillet. (3/4 oz)
1/4 Wine Glass Cointreau. (3/4 oz)
1/4 Wine Glass Dry Gin. (3/4 oz)
1 Dash Absinthe.

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. The book then notes:-

"Four of these taken in quick succession will unrevive the corpse again."

This version appears in the two Absinthe cocktail books published in 2010: A Taste for Absinthe and Absinthe Cocktails. One of only seven cocktails written up in both books, this is obviously an important absinthe cocktail (incidentally these books define the dash of absinthe as being four or eight drops). It's also a favourite of absinthe bloggers and of bars around the world.

I made it using an old, no longer available gin (Gloag's from the makers of Famous Grouse), Combier Triple Sec, Noilly Prat and 8 drops of La Clandestine. And slightly less lemon juice than recommended. It's a very enjoyable and refreshing pick me up.

So for Halloween brunch or lunch, what better way to start the day or to get it going than with this wonderful cocktail!

I was also pleased to see Boston's Royal Sonesta making a ready bottled version!

For more details of this, see the excellent IndulgeInspireImbibe blog.

Here's a video from our friends at Common Man Cocktails showing how to make both Corpse Reviver Cocktails.

And here are some further study notes about the Corpse Revivers from the Bitters and Twisted blog ....

Now onto the Death in the Afternoon cocktail ..

Another classic absinthe cocktail (and one that merits a slight twist to make it even more suitable for Halloween), the famous Death in the Afternoon was invented by Ernest Hemingway. The cocktail shares its name with Hemingway's book Death in the Afternoon, and the recipe was first published in So Red the Nose, or Breath in the Afternoon, a 1935 cocktail book with contributions from famous authors (coincidentally 1935 was the year when La Clandestine Absinthe was born). Hemingway's original instructions were:

"Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly."

I have always enjoyed Death in the Afternoon, but have also been aware that it might be a little dry for some people's tastes, especially if using a top quality champagne. So I was pleased to have the opportunity to try an interesting variation on this when my US partners visited us in Switzerland and suggested using a Swiss sparkling rosé to make a Death in the Afternoon.

Maybe it was the rosé itself (a little over-powering), or maybe it was the temperature of the rosé (ambient), but although it looks gorgeous, this didn't quite work. So with Halloween approaching, I tried again, this time with a Jacob's Creek sparkling rosé, which is probably easier to find in most countries. And to add some atmosphere, I dug out my daughters' Halloween straws and dimmed the lights ...

First the jigger of La Clandestine Absinthe, then top up with the sparkling rosé (I did top it up, but the members of the tasting panel sampled it before I could take my next photograph).

Nice colour, but maybe for Halloween, it needed a bit more drama. And so I added a few drops of blood ...

a.k.a. Grenadine.

Perfect to look at ...

... and perfect to taste. Not too dry and not too sweet, with the absinthe and sparkling rosé working very well together.

Of course a good cocktail needs a good name. I thought about calling this a Bloody Death in the Afternoon, but that might make people think it contains tomato juice. And for Halloween, I think a murder sounds better than death. It's definitely not an afternoon drink either, hence the final name .. Murder in the Evening. If you like a Death in the Afternoon, I think you'll love this. At Halloween or at any time.

Since not every absinthe lover has a collection of other spirits at home. I thought it might be interesting to see how those who prefer absinthe the classic way can get into the Halloween spirit.

Available from Pinky Diablo for $45 (including free shipping in the USA), these wonderful skull spoons seem to do the job perfectly ..

Santé ... or since the drinks and spoons are for Halloween, we should be satisfied if we can just achieve ... survival!

Maid in Cuba, created in London, enjoyed in New Orleans

As many of my readers will know, July is the time when bartenders, brand owners and ambassadors, and all those connected to the drinks trade consider going to New Orleans for the Tales of the Cocktail. Absinthe has always been closely associated with New Orleans (the Sazerac and the Absinthe Frappé were invented there), and Tales of the Cocktail has been host to an increasing number of absinthe seminars and other events since 2007.

A few months ago, I submitted my proposal for a seminar at Tales, and I was delighted when it was accepted. The subject - The Savoy Hotel's Green Fairy Secrets Revealed - has fascinated me for several years. I'll be publishing some of the details of my seminar - and some of those secrets - over the next few weeks, but first of all, since it is a glorious summer in Europe and in much of Northern America, I wanted to highlight a great summer drink that was the last of the four cocktails with absinthe enjoyed at my seminar: the Maid in Cuba, created by

 the Savoy's Tom Walker.

Tom and Erik Lorincz, Head Bartender of the Savoy's American Bar joined me for this seminar. While Erik presented three historic cocktails from The Savoy Cocktail Book, Tom presented the Maid in Cuba, a much more recent creation. Here's Tom's recipe as served at the Savoy and as enjoyed at our seminar at Tales:

2 oz Bacardi Superior

1 oz Lime Juice
0.5 oz Sugar Syrup (2:1)
Small handful of mint leaves
3 slices of cucumber

Add all ingredients to a shaker. Shake rapidly with ice and double strain into an absinthe-rinsed coupette. Garnish with a slice of cucumber, add a small splash of soda and serve.

As Tom said, the inclusion of absinthe (at Tales it was served with La Clandestine Absinthe) makes this a more mature and more interesting alternative to the mojito and the daiquiri, the main drinks which helped inspire the Maid in Cuba. I enjoyed the Maid in Cuba at The Savoy a few weeks ago, and I enjoyed it even more at the end of our seminar. Normally I don't like too much mint in my cocktails, but the balance achieved by those batching this cocktails for over 100 seminar attendees was perfect.

Although created initially for the Savoy, the Maid in Cuba seems to be taking on a life of its own, finding its way onto the menus of other bars in London, Scotland, Singapore, Israel very quickly, and, following Tales, Tom guest bar-tended in New York, serving it there too.

Interestingly Harry Craddock's famous absinthe-including creation, the Corpse Reviver No. 2, did not get into the pages of the Café Royal Cocktail Book, published in London just seven years after the Savoy. The Maid in Cuba is becoming a cocktail enjoyed around the world much more quickly, helped by today's social media of course, as well as by Bacardi, I assume. The drink really works well in its own right, so I hope many of my readers will enjoy it this summer. A summer that, for me, took me to New Orleans and to Tales for the first time, but which now means I won't need one of these badges again:

Santé, New Orleans! Cheers and thanks to Erik and Tom!

Back to the future

I am delighted to confirm that I will be co-presenting a seminar largely about absinthe at this year's Tales of the Cocktail: the theme will be "The Savoy's Green Fairy Secrets Revealed." I will be talking about Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 which contains no less than 105 cocktails made with absinthe, and I will be joined by two very well-known bartenders. More on this at a later date.

As part of my preparation for this seminar, I recently purchased

The Deans of Drink, a brand new book by well-known cocktail historians, Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller. It is a fascinating book with an amazing amount of information about the Savoy's Harry Craddock (now known to have been born in England) and about Harry Johnson, whose "New and Improved Bartenders' Manual" of 1882 is a classic. Mixologists and bartenders with any sense of history will already know Harry Johnson's book and many will have a re-print. For me, it gives a very interesting perspective on how absinthe was perceived in the USA towards the end of the 19th century, and, in particular, how it was served. Following a long list of the different liquors that are required in a Bar Room (primarily whisk(e)y, brandy, rum and gin), the book lists the principal cordials used for mixing drinks. This list starts as follows:-

Absinthe (green and white)

and this is one of the few times that a classic cocktail book distinguishes between the two. Even today, that doesn't always happen.

While Harry Johnson's book doesn't contain as many absinthe cocktails as The Savoy, it contains two (and a bit) intriguing pages about how to mix absinthe.

Without a time machine, it can be difficult to know how drinks were perceived and served over 130 years ago, but these pages (and the rest of the book) come close to providing that insight on absinthe in the USA at that time. Absinthe was clearly seen as a "normal" drink, with no hint of green fairies! The so-called old French style does not include sugar, while the other styles have several different ways of sweetening the absinthe. "American or frozen absinthe" resembles today's Absinthe Frappé as drunk in the USA, (although it is different from Craddock's Absinthe Frappé). And, surprise, surprise (!), there is no mention of fire.

So why is this post entitled Back to the Future? Because in providing an insight into the past, Harry Johnson and other famous cocktail practitioners and writers of the past are inspiring what happens in some of the top bars today. And I see this as a trend that will continue to grow.

Here are two very recent instances of their influence:

Last week, March 1st was the 8th anniversary of the Swiss re-legalisation of absinthe. And March 5th was the 6th anniversary of Lucid's label approval, an event now marked by some as USA's National Absinthe Day. One excellent bar in Canada (Clive's Classic in Victoria, BC) marked both events with a special absinthe menu, stating on Facebook:

"This begins tonight! We are doing 5 days to celebrate National/International Absinthe Day/s. March 1st is for Europe and March 5th for the US, so we decided to bridge it."

Fascinating to see the French, American and Italian styles itemised here, with details very similar to Harry Johnson's. And across on the other side of the continent, this is the absinthe menu, officially launched in February, at New York's Dead Rabbit Bar:

Great to see Harry Johnson and other famous bartenders/writers (Jerry Thomas, William T. Boothby, O.H. Byron, George Winter, and C.F. Lawlor) credited here.

And fascinating to see that in both Clive's Classic and the Dead Rabbit, these are essentially variations on the absinthe sweetened with sugar and with iced water theme, almost identical to Harry Johnson's drinks.

I am often asked "how else can we serve absinthe?" "How else," apart from the classic absinthe drip (with fountain, balancier or carafe)? "How else," apart from Craddock's 105 cocktails with absinthe? "How else," apart from the hundreds of absinthe cocktails created daily, it seems, by the world's bartenders? For me, going back to the past provides great inspiration for the future, and I would recommend following the examples - and drink suggestions - of Harry Johnson, Jerry Thomas, Harry Craddock, etc.

"How else?" To quote Harry Craddock: "Here's How!"