I’ve been getting into tiki cocktails lately and came across this one on a German-language spirit review blog (https://schlimmerdurst.net/2019/04/09/saarwhisky-absinthe/). It’s a weird concoction with absinthe as the base liquor and I love it! I’ll have to upgrade my 0.2l bottle of absinthe to a full-size one.

original recipe:
1 oz absinthe,
⅓ oz Campari
1⅔ oz pineapple juice
¾ oz lime juice
⅔ oz orgeat
shaken
served up
garnished with mint

my recipe:
15ml La Fee absinthe,
5ml Aperol,
5ml Cynar,
25ml pineapple juice,
11ml lime juice,
10ml orgeat,
shaken,
dirty dump on cracked ice

I did it this way because my Campari was all the way to the back of my cupboard, but I dug it out later for a Jungle Bird and after trying the original version I prefer my version with Aperol and Cynar; Jungle Bird is pretty much the only drink (that I tried) where I actually like Campari. Part of it might be that my bottle of Campari is pretty old, though - it’s still very bitter, but the secondary aromas were too muted to stand up against the other ingredients. I also made it half size, because that’s how I roll.

I also tried it with Ricard pastis (increased the amount to account for the lower ABV), this brought in some licorice notes that I’d rather do without. Looks like I’m not getting around buying that full-size bottle of absinthe!

And one of these days, I’ll stop being too lazy to make a proper garnish.

Update: I tried batching this. Even just 2 hours later, the anise and Cynar bitterness have considerably mellowed (I blame the pineapple enzymes). Don’t batch it unless you want to be bored.