Herbaceous, smoky, mint, anise
A stunning umber drink, fine for sipping by a fire after a hearty dinner. Transportive with chocolate chip cookies, fudge, or crème brûlée.
Named after Scottish poet Robert Burns, this cocktail is associated with the speakeasy era, but shows up much earlier. There are two main versions of this drink that have come down through the years, the more common one featuring Benedictine while the other sports absinthe and orange bitters. We actually prefer the recipe by the estimable drinks writer David Embury from The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948), in which he replaces Benedictine with Drambuie—the Scotch-based liqueur that is a natural fit here. For a delicious variation called the Preakness Cocktail, substitute bourbon for the Scotch and use Angostura bitters. Serve straight up or on the rocks.
2 ounces (60 ml) Scotch (Famous Grouse or Dewar’s)
¾ ounce (22 ml) sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
Absinthe or Drambuie, to rinse the glass
Lemon twist, to garnish
Wash a chilled coupe glass with absinthe or Drambuie. Stir Scotch and vermouth with ice and strain into the prepared glass. To garnish, rest a lemon twist on the side of the glass.
ABSINTHE
Absinthe first appeared in Switzerland in the eighteenth century as an anise-flavored spirit containing botanicals, including Artemisia absinthium—commonly known as “wormwood.” Absinthe can be clear in color, but is often naturally verdant from its herbal ingredients—thus its popular nickname the “green fairy.” The spirit gained a raucous reputation through the nineteenth century, with many avant-garde artists, musicians, and writers lauding its supposed hallucinatory properties. It appears in a number of classic, early cocktails.
In 1905, absinthe was banned after a Swiss farmer killed his family, supposedly while under the spirit’s spell. During the ensuing backlash, many European countries banned the spirit, with the United States following suit in 1912. As a result, alternatives that did not contain wormwood, such as Herbsaint, were created as a replacement—or bartenders simply switched to Benedictine, another herbal liqueur. Absinthe became legal again in the United States in 2007. Neither wormwood, nor the active ingredient often blamed for absinthe’s mythical effects, thujone, cause hallucinations.
We regularly use St. George Absinthe Verte from Alameda, California, or Kübler Absinthe Superieure from Switzerland in our cocktails.