A Muddled Thought

I recently received some information from Lucid Absinthe which included a summer inspired recipe utilizing the lovely green nectar . When I noticed this it initially caught me by surprise, as I hadn’t thought before of using Absinthe in something meant to be refreshing. Most of my experiences with Absinthe have been with it being a secondary ingredient in cocktails or drinking it in the traditional way.

The traditional way of drinking Absinthe is known as louching. In this process, cold water and a sugar cube are dissolved into the absinthe, turning it a cloudy white color. This process is achieved by placing a sugar cube on an Absinthe spoon. After placing the sugar cube on the Absinthe spoon, you then drip 4-5oz of cool water onto the sugar cube, which dissolves it into the absinthe and creates a milky like substance. Adding water to the absinthe also brings out additional fragrances as well as flavor tones as the water opens up the absinthe. Lucid recommends 1.25oz-1.50z of Absinthe to enjoy in the traditional fashion.

An Absinthe Spoon. In the traditional way, a sugar cube is placed on this spoon over the glass.

Lucid Absinthe Before the Water and Sugar

Lucid Absinthe After the Water and Sugar

The summer cocktail mentioned previously is the Mint Muse. Lucid’s answer to the Mojito.

The Mint Muse

1 ½ oz. Lucid
2 oz. Pineapple Juice
Muddled Mint Leaves
Lime Wedge
Topped with Sprite or 7-UP

Muddle mint leaves with lime wedge and add Lucid. Add ice and pineapple juice and shake briefly. Top with Sprite or 7-UP and add mint sprig.

And for those who prefer a cocktail.that’s a bit of a classic, here are a few adapted and updated by Jim Meehan of PDT’s.

The Sazerac

Adapted from Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘Em. Stanley Arthur Clisby 1937.
• 2 oz rye
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1/2 oz simple syrup or 1 sugar cube
• 1/4 oz of LUCID®
Fill a rocks glass with ice and set aside
Add a sugar cube and the bitters to a mixing glass and crush the cube with a muddler
Add the Rye and ice and stir to chill and dissolve the sugar (20 seconds)
Dump the ice out of the rocks glass and rinse with LUCID®, discard excess
Pour the contents of the mixing glass into the LUCID® rinsed rocks glass
Twist a lemon peel over the surface of the drink and rub around the rim
Discard lemon twist

A Classic Sazerac Cocktail

Corpse Reviver #2

• 3/4 oz gin
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 3/4 oz Cointreau
• 3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
• LUCID® rinse
Add all of the ingredients except the LUCID® into a mixing glass filled with ice
Shake and strain into a chilled coupe rinsed with LUCID®
No garnish

Another Classic-The Corpse Reviver #2

Ernest Hemingway’s Infamous-Death in the Afternoon-

EARNEST HEMINGWAY’S DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON COCKTAIL
Adapted from Esquire Drink Book of 1956 edited by Frederic Birmingham
Pour 1 oz of LUCID® into a champange coupe or flute
“Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness.”

And for those of you that feel like enjoying Lucid Absinthe as a Shot:

The Absinthe Minder:

The Line up shot glasses, fill halfway with LUCID®, shake water and sugar or simple syrup with ice and strain into each glass.

I leave you with a picture of Lucid, in it’s natural environment.

Lucid-In it's natural environment.

In an odd occurrence I recently came across an article on cocktails in an Airline Magazine while visiting family. The article described the author being introduced to the magic of cocktails after visiting PDT’s and ordering a Maker’s Mark, neat.

The author’s introduction came via PDT’s head mixologist, Jim Meehan. Jim, who after seeing the writer order bourbon, recommended he try PDTs take on an Old Fashioned, The Benton which is made utilizing bourbon infused bacon.

Jim and Don Lee are two of the cocktail guru’s behind the menu that has constantly drawn people to PDT’s night after night since it opened several years ago.
The writer of this article also made mention of a new drink that Jim’s been experimenting with dubbed the El Burro. As a lover of most of the ingredients that were mentioned (Absinthe, Tequila, and Ginger Beer) I had to see if I could obtain this recipe from Jim. He was kind enough to provide it to me.

El Burro
1.5 oz Siembra Azul Reposado Tequila
.75 oz Lime Juice
.75 oz Pineapple Juice
.25 oz Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe
.5 oz Simple Syrup
1 oz Ginger beer

Add all of the ingredients to a mixing glass, then add ice
Shake and strain into a Collins glass filled with ice
Garnish with a lime wheel and candied ginger
(Jim Meehan, Winter 2008)

While I’ve been to PDT’s numerous times in the past several years, I’ve never had the opportunity to try the infamous Cinema Highball that Don Lee devised. Somehow they’ve always been out of the infused Flor De Can Rum that Don uses in the recipe. So while I had Jim providing some of his secrets, he was also kind enough to ask Don about the recipe Cinema Highball.

Cinema Highball
2 oz Butter Popcorn Rum (Flor de Cana is recommended)
4 oz Coke
Build in a tall glass with ice.

Popcorn infusion
120g unsalted unbuttered popcorn
3 table spoons of melted clarified unsalted butter
infuse popcorn in white rum for 20 mins and strain
add melted butter to rum and infuse for 12 hours
place mixture in freezer and strain off solidified butter

The original article that inspired this post. Originally by Coleman Neary.