Virginia Davis, manager, Pirate’s Alley Café/Absinthe House, New Orleans
The ”Bloody Fairy?” Gimmick or classic? Let’s explore this..
By “Bloody Fairy,” of course, I mean an absinthe equivalent of the “Bloody Mary.” Sounds simple, or so I thought.
But it turns out that there are different directions this could go: it could be a standard spicy Bloody Mary with a few dashes of absinthe as seen here:
Or it could be a completely different (and not spicy) drink using absinthe, cranberry juice and tonic water as seen here:
Or it could be a drink in which absinthe completely replaces vodka as mentioned here:
I believe the last option included here fits far better with the "Bloody" proposition and is clearly more "Fairy" related.
I used this starting point on my 2018 visit to New Orleans and later at home. I now believe I am close to the perfect Bloody Fairy, loved by bars, using tweaks from famous cocktail experts, and indulging my own preferences too. It’s been a tough journey but someone had to do it!
Firstly I see little need to tamper with the "Bloody" element, For bars serving very spicy or alternatively more mellow Bloody Marys, you know what works for your customers, so don’t tamper with that element. That’s what your customers want, whether it be a brunch cocktail, aperitif or even digestif (a good Bloody Mary can indeed be all of these). So I will not detail or define here the spicy tomato element of this cocktail: what works for your customers in your bar or for you at home in a Bloody Mary will work for you in a Bloody Fairy.
Moving onto the absinthe element, it is clear that absinthe can be a polarising taste. While vodka can be somewhat blander. I believe less bitter absinthes work much better in this cocktail, complementing the tomato juice and the spicy elements, rather than fighting with them. For me, and the New Orleans bartenders we tried this with, Butterfly Classic Absinthe worked really well, with respectable strength (65%), little bitterness, and a flavour profile that complements tomato and spices. Butterfly has a traditional recipe base of herbs and spices which complement the spices used in Bloody Mary; it also has hints of citrus and mint that sit well alongside tomato juice.
Butterfly's US heritage makes it a perfect ingredient in this Bloody Mary twist, given that the Bloody Mary may have been born at the New York Bar in Paris in 1921 or in New York itself in the 1930's, and it is certainly a cocktail which is most popular in the USA.
So this was the start of the drink: a traditional tomato/spice mix and Butterfly Absinthe. A prototype Bloody Fairy that I drank in bars in New Orleans in September 2018. Firstly in The Old Absinthe House with Jackie and her team:
(yes, I know the Bloody Fairy glass is empty: a clear indication that this was the most popular of the three cocktails we shared)
at other bars around New Orleans:
and at Tony Seville's Pirate's Alley Café and Absinthe House (see photo with Virginia Davis at the top). We all loved it.
However I recognise that the slight element of bitterness in any good absinthe may not work for everyone, and after consideration I realised that an extra ingredient I had enjoyed in Bloody Marys a few years ago would really be the icing on the cake,
Sherry.
I researched further and I found that some of the world’s most celebrated cocktail experts have used sherry to complete their Bloody Marys. If this idea is good enough for Erik Lorincz (formerly of The Savoy)
Manzanilla or Fino didn’t seem quite right, so I was interested to consider a cream sherry. I was not alone, judging by this article from a British newspaper:
So there we have it. The perfect Bloody Fairy recipe:-
1. Tomato juice and all the usual spices and garnishes: exactly how you would combine them in your Bloody Mary.
2. Spirit:
Either replace all the vodka with Butterfly Absinthe, an American-style absinthe. Noting that this comes in at 65% alcohol, then you could perhaps reduce the amount of absinthe to around two-thirds of the amount (of vodka) you would use in a Bloody Mary.
Or replace half of the vodka with Butterfly Absinthe, so a smaller amount of Butterfly and half of the vodka.
3. The icing on the cake: float Cream Sherry on top.
We hope you love this Bloody Fairy as much as we do! It is much much more than a gimmick and deserves to become a new classic cocktail. And, as it's Oscar season, I'd like to thank Bernie for all her help in New Orleans and for sharing a few Bloody Fairies! Cheers!
"Ranked #1 in the Nation in Liver Transplants?" Yes, that's the sign at New Orleans Airport. We can't claim we weren't warned!
"New Orleans has always been the centre of absinthe culture in the United States." (Source: The Absinthe Encyclopedia). That sounds more like it.
New Orleans: the home of Tales of the Cocktail, probably the world's biggest event for bartenders, drinks brand ambassadors and owners, and anyone else who is interested in cocktails. The word "probably" may not be needed there.
Yet after more than 20 years in the drinks business and after nearly nine years promoting absinthe, 2013 sees my first visit to Tales and my first visit to New Orleans. And for my first visit, I'm privileged to have been chosen to run a seminar in front of 170 people who probably know a whole lot more about cocktails than me. Luckily I will have help for that!
MONDAY
I arrive in New Orleans a full three days before our seminar, because I want to absorb the atmosphere, see some of the bars (especially those selling absinthe), and attend a couple of other seminars to see how the more experienced Tales presenters handle the event.
I start slowly.
The Old Absinthe House is about 100 yards from my hotel (the Monteleone) and I don't want to exert myself in the legendary New Orleans July heat and humidity. I'm pleased to say it was hotter in both New York and in London, and NOLA had nothing like the humidity I experienced living in South East Asia.
Absinthe fans have been rather dismissive about the Old Absinthe House which apparently has a record of burning absinthe. I came back here several times during my stay, and I didn't have or see a single burnt absinthe all week. The range available is not enormous, but there are two or three higher quality absinthes ...
As well as the classic drip, the Old Absinthe House offers absinthe cocktails, including the Absinthe Frappé that was created here.
but I decided to have my first NOLA Absinthe Frappé at one of the most famous mixology bars in New Orleans: Cure.
A great bar with wonderful cocktails and a good selection range of quality absinthes: La Clandestine, Vieux Pontarlier, Nouvelle Orleans and Ridge Blanche.
TUESDAY
A working day, finalising my presentation. Later I had my first Sazerac in NOLA at Sainte Marie. Made with Herbsaint as seems to be the norm in New Orleans.
Later that evening we went to the Copper Monkey Grill in the French Quarter. Quite a big range of absinthes including La Clandestine, Nouvelle Orleans, Lucid and Kübler. They also carry Grande Absente, Mata Hari, and La Fée. Classic drip used.
WEDNESDAY
The first day of Tales, so I attended a couple of seminars, mainly to learn from other presenters how they managed the combination of entertainment and content. The Art and Philosophy of Hospitality had a star-studded cast, led by Jacob Briars. The cast were both entertaining and very interesting, and I saw a lot of notes taken by the audience. Midnight in Paris: Cocktails of the lost generation closely ressembled the theme of my seminar, and I enjoyed seeing how Philip Greene made the seminar highly relevant to a bartender audience AND interesting to a student of Hemingway and Paris.
In between these two seminars, I had a very liquid lunch with some customers at Stanley. Since the 1900's Butterfly Absinthe is on the page facing New Orleans in the Absinthe Encyclopedia, this was a fitting place to break open one of the first US-legal bottles of the re-launched Butterfly (now made in Switzerland),
as well as the very interesting barrel-aged version of La Clandestine (not yet legally available in the USA).
Wednesday evening: no bars visited. I was inspired by the seminars I had seen to amend our own presentation, so had too much work to venture out. Or maybe I went out for a quick drink at the Old Absinthe House? Much of this week has become a blur when looked at two weeks later, so maybe I did ..
THURSDAY
More than 8 months after submitting our seminar proposal to Tales of the Cocktail, the day to deliver it had finally arrived. Hundreds of emails, Facebook messages, texts, conversations, and meetings; hundreds of hours of research; all would all come down to 90 minutes that afternoon. And I was doing just one seminar. Imagine all the work done by Ann Tuennerman and her team at Tales to put on more than 50 seminars and hundreds of other events..
But first one more seminar to watch: Modifiers: Eternal Life for Cocktails, led by the irrepressible Philip Duff, followed by the Indie Spirits that Rock mini-exhibition. How strange to run into Simon Difford here, and to have the opportunity to discuss my absinthe with him briefly: we'd both had to fly in from London to meet up in NOLA! And, of course, that's what makes Tales so special: the meetings planned and unplanned with colleagues, customers, and competitors: I met customers - and prospects - from all over the USA and the UK at Tales (and from a few other countries I won't reveal here since my competitors may be reading).
The Blackthorn is one of several Savoy absinthe cocktails I had not tasted before: the ingredients worked well together.
The ATTY and the Jeyplak are just two of many absinthe cocktails from the Savoy that also have gin and vermouth. The addition of Creme de Violette in the former enhanced the cocktail from both taste and visual standpoints, and hopefully inspired the audience to think again about many of the cocktails in the Savoy: as fresh and original today as they were 83 years ago.
Some of my readers will know that our seminar was sponsored by Pernod as well as by Plymouth Gin and Drink Up New York. I told our audience that Harry Craddock didn't make as much use of lemon/lime juice with absinthe as he could have. Modern mixologists agree with both Pernod and La Clandestine in making some great cocktails with absinthe, lime juice and sugar or simple syrup.
Talking of which, it was nearly time to let my hair down and celebrate the completion of our seminar and turn to some refreshments. But firstly I had the opportunity - and the pleasure - to meet and share a drink or two with César Giron, Mathieu Sabbagh and Anne-Louise Marquis of Pernod, along with Brian Robinson, Review Editor of the Wormwood Society and Maxwell Britten from Maison Premiere, probably the best absinthe bar in the USA.
Brian and I tasted the "Original Recipe" Pernod Absinthe; the Pernod team tasted La Clandestine.
As others have commented elsewhere, Tales is the type of event where one puts aside all competitor issues, so it was good to put faces to names and to have a good chat and share drinks with the team at Pernod. Santé!
Not too sure about what happened later that evening. It definitely included a visit to the Carousel Bar at The Monteleone and the Old Absinthe House ...
FRIDAY
My last working day in NOLA, and two more very interesting seminars.
Grape's gaint leap towards immortality featured a stellar cast, while Camper English presented Water World: Water in Spirits and Drinks by himself. I had mistakenly thinking that a seminar on water would give me a chance to "dry out," but walked into the seminar room to find a 4.5 oz glass of Bowmore Single Malt in front of each place! Oh well, duty calls ...
Between seminars, I went to Cane and Table (at the old site of Pravda), and owned by the owners of Cure, featuring a pop-up bar operated by the team at Dead Rabbit, NYC. I had had the opportunity to go to Dead Rabbit twice the previous week and loved it: so it was great to meet new/old friends again. The Dead Rabbit would go on to deservedly win several awards at the Spirited Awards dinner the following night. Cane and Table currently stocks Pernod, while Dead Rabbit NYC stocks Pernod, La Clandestine, Duplais Verte, Vieux Pontarlier, Kubler, Lucid and Nouvelle Orleans.
Nice to see that they can get some great theatre into absinthe without resorting to fire. Pirate's Alley stocks a good range including La Clandestine, Kubler and Lucid, and prices are very reasonable.
For my last evening in New Orleans, I joined Brian Robinson, Kris (also from the Wormwood Society) and Chrissie, and later Ted Breaux and Jenny Gardener for a tour of famous bars. We started at the Roosevelt,
Creativity is very much alive here: we enjoyed a bucket of pre-mixed, carbonated Sazeracs. Cheryl tells me that the Sazeracs are "CO2 carbonated Perlini Sazeracs in 1960s - 1970s Coca-Cola bottles dug up in the grounds of NOLA. It took several cleanings and sanitizing to get them ready for the Sazeracs!"
Bourbon-O only carries Lucid "in honor of Ted (Breaux)'s hard work and money getting it into the US." So it was good to enjoy Bourbon-O with Ted himself.
Cheers, Cheryl!
We headed back along the famous Bourbon Street
to the Monteleone's famous Carousel Bar. Photos don't really do this justice: I enjoyed this time lapse video (a 360 degree trip in fact takes 15 minutes):
We enjoyed Macallan and some more barrel-aged absinthe, and I thought briefly about packing for my early departure the next morning. And had another drink ...
................................................
So that was my working week in NOLA. Delta seemed determined to extend my stay in the USA, so I returned from NOLA via Nashville, Atlanta and JFK to Heathrow. My suitcase took another 3 day holiday in Boston. Maybe we just couldn't bear to leave.
NOLA and Tales were amazing. The best experience of my 24 years in the drinks business in a great city with wonderful food and even better company. People I had never met before became life-long friends. And the Tales team from Ann and Paul, the full-time staff and then the Apprentices: all played their part in making the event unforgettable.
And the absinthe in NOLA? Lucid, Nouvelle Orleans and La Clandestine were in most of the bars I visited, although some of the more traditional bars prefer to serve Herbsaint. There is nothing like the element of burning absinthes that I had been led to believe. Maybe the battle to get good absinthes served correctly has nearly been won in NOLA.
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