I’ve been in a fog since returning from Tales of the Cocktail last Wednesday. The past days have been wonderful blurs of house guests, unpacking and a Teardrop Lounge anniversary party. (( congratulations, Daniel & Ted )) It is taking all my effort to get my ass in gear to get out this Mixology Monday post.
I had a good number of drinks in New Orleans. From vieux carré to sazerac, from crap hurricane to french 75. Heck, I even mixed up Beachbum drinks with Rick. I ended up in the Tulane emergency room with Gout on account of the all the imbibing. ((The fat and shellfish may have helped)) However, I never did get around to ordering a Suissesse. Oh, I may have begged the odd taste from my drinking companions, but it just didn’t get together on a bartop for me.
Luckily, I picked up a hard copy of Stanley Clisby Arthur’s New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’em while in the crescent city. It’s a little volume I’ve loved for a while now in soft copy. Low and behold, therein lay a Suissesse recipe.
While some may poo-poo creme de menthe and/or standard maraschino cherries, I refrain from shirking. The very idea of pairing these ingredients with absinthe filled me with petulant glee. I even chose green over white. I quite enjoyed the outcome. Much like New Orleans: a mixture of the sacred and profane.
Suissesse
1 tsp Sugar
1 oz French vermouth (( I used Lillet Blanc ))
2 oz absinthe
1 egg white
½ oz creme de menthe
2 oz charged water
Mix sugar, charged water, vermouth, absinthe, & egg white with hand egg beater (a la Jamie Boudreau). Fill shaker with cracked ice and shake until you want to cry. Strain into champagne ((saucer please)) glass in which there is a cherry with the creme de menthe poured over it.
Be on the lookout for wrap-up posts and further diatribes once I’ve had a few more Suissesses to clear the fog out.
Huh, interesting!
I’ve been meaning to try an Absinthe Suissesse for a while now, but most recipes I’ve found include absinthe, sugar, cream, orgeat, and egg. Vermouth and Creme de Menthe? I’m going to have to relook through Clisby Arthur and check this odd duck out.
Bizzare, isn’t it? The flavors do work nicely. If I were making this for delicate sensibilites rathern than my own high/lowbrow one, I would sub a quality white creme de menthe and omit the cherry.
I also need to work on my egg cocktail skills. I hate to out myself as a neophyte, but this was my first attempt with any egg-product cocktail.
I really like your version..very interesting and it appeals to my liking of things unexpected. But i haven`t tasted it yet.. i will!
Hail Craig!
Your description of how long to shake the cocktail is quite accurate. If your hands haven’t frozen to the shaker, you haven’t given the mix enough care.
Tweaking slightly from Chuck’s recipe, here is the absinthe suissesse recipe I’ve been drinking way too much of this week:
2oz absinthe
5 drops orange flower water
1/2oz orgeat syrup
1 egg white
1 1/2oz heavy cream
shake with crushed ice and strain
I think I’ll personally refer to Chuck’s and your lovely (more delicate and delicious looking) versions as absinthe suissesse and this Clisby rough sloppy one as a mere ‘suissessee.’ I know Chuck said to avoid it, but you know me: I take that as a challenge.
What’s needed is a good creme de menthe. We attempted one last Christmas with decent success, but I think I can do better.
Also, I have to get a bag for crushing ice. Mine regular tiki manual crusher produced far too wet ice, I fear.
From an earlier post:
“It was such a mix of wonderful and horrible: Gaudy, tawdry neon are contrast against shuttered 300-year old windows. The moist heat of the evening was interrupted by cool breezes escaping from the open doorways of the aforementioned establishments. Garbage binge drinkers surrounded the group of cocktail snobs in the birthplace of the cocktail. It is beautiful and shocking and hideous and profane and I love every single damn thing about it.”
Spot on, Craig. This pretty much crystallizes my experience perfectly. Do we really have to wait a whole year to do it again??