ABSINTHE SUISSESSE
1 ½ oz. absinthe or a substitute (St. George)
1 egg white
Several drops of anisette (Rituals DIY, brandy version) and white crème de menthe (Rituals DIY)
A few drops of orange flower water (Fee Brothers)
Combine with ice; shake well. Strain straight up.
The ABSINTHE SUISSESSE is our final absinthe drink in the OLD BUSINESS file—we are optimistic for this one because it employs our tasty DIY CRÈME DE MENTHE. I’m not sure what happens exactly, but the egg white gets partially cooked in the shaker (by the 120 proof absinthe, no doubt) and coats the sides of the mixing glass with eggy sludge. It won’t even make its way through the strainer without blocking up. Perhaps there was too much discussion about Brian’s kitchen smelling like a licorice factory and those few seconds in the tin caused the egg white to start solidifying.
Both of us agree that we’ve made this drink incorrectly, but neither of us wants to start over. The ABSINTHE SUISSESSE is overpowering and unnecessarily thick with the nastiest of mouth feels. Neither of us can finish it—a Rituals first.
Brian: “This is fucking weird.”
Eric: “I just want to be done with absinthe.”
Brian: “Where’s Amanda?”
SCORES: Brian gives it a 1. Eric: “A 0 plus. I want to leave room for something worse.” Amanda gets an Incomplete.
[Editor’s Note: Eric had a very tasty Absinthe Suissesse at Kingfish in New Orleans, where they built up cracked ice into the glass like a snow cone, then drizzled the ingredients in. There also seems to be orgeat and heavy cream in many recipes, which seems like the way to go. Looks like we will have to revisit this (sigh).]
'Absinthe Suissesse' has 1 comment
December 30, 2017 @ 6:31 pm Pastafarian2
You’re doin’ it wrong, dude.
Skip the egg white, use heavy cream. Skip the anisette and creme de menthe.
Just high-quality absinthe, flower blossom water, orgeat (where’s your orgeat?), and heavy cream. Shake, strain into chilled massive rocks glass.
If you don’t like that, stick to hard cider and natty lite.