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Notes -
A man after my own heart! I like a nice bourbon, and will have a glass of wine with dinner or if I visit friends, but if I'm buying liquor I used to feel like I was cheating myself if I didn't get as high a proof as possible, and since then I've just stuck with it. I can't go guzzling shine or grappa or poitin any longer so I try to balance the proof and the flavour.
Generally that used to mean bacardi 151, but that got discontinued, and everclear tastes like methylated spirits, so these days I drink absinthe. All the shit about tripping on it is nonsense (even the kind with wormwood, which is how it's supposed to be made, but usually isn't these days) but it is overproof, and tastes great on the rocks (with a dash of sugar is traditional, but I have never found it makes much difference) or mixed with orange or raspberry cordial/soda, and makes some outstanding cocktails.
My favourites being the Maiden's Blush - take 1 part of that raspberry cordial and 1 part of your absinthe and add 1.5 parts gin and 1 part lemon juice.
And Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon - I will let him explain: "Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.” In my experience it works out to about 1 part absinthe to 4 or 5 parts champagne. Fair warning though, they are hard to drink slowly, they go down too easy.
And the last on the list is my variation on the bachelorette party classic the Fruit Tingle where I substitute the vodka for absinthe (or just add absinthe if I have both and feel like getting sloppy) - 1 part vodka/absinthe, 1 part blue curacao, 3 parts lemonade (or 2 and your extra spirit) and 0.5 parts raspberry cordial.
I feel you, even if I'd settle for like a dash of lemon juice or a lime cordial to pure ethanol and call it a day haha. Well, if someone else is going to the trouble of all that mixology, might as well have it too!
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