Absinthe Traditional Serving at Lounge on 20
Hi, I’m Russel Eastman from Lounge on 20 in the heart of midtown Sacrament and today, we’re going to be talking about the traditional serving of absinthe. Absinthe is actually one of the oldest cocktails out there, and when I say cocktail, being that you mix water with it, pre-dates Europe’s prohibition and the US’s prohibition also, which it served as an aperitif traditionally and was largely made popular by French although it originated in Switzerland.
Today, we’re going to do a traditional serving of absinthe. To do that, that involves a loush, which has chilled water in it, ice cubes water and you’re going to drip that over a sugar cube, an absinthe spoon and of course, absinthe. The reason you use a sugar cube is traditionally absinthe is biter, has a bitter finish on it. And so the sugar helps sweeten that up and make it more palatable for most people. You do about four parts water to one part liqueur, because absinthe is a strong bold liqueur, ranges anywhere from a hundred proof, and the stakes could go anywhere up to 155 proof. So we’re talking about a very like staunchly, bold flavor, sticks-to-you palate liqueur. So what’s happening now is the absinthe actually turns cloudy, most people think this because of the sugar cube, it is actually the water that sparks this. The green anise has oils in it that bond with they liquor, but when water is added, it actually separates from the liqueur and becomes cloudy because it’s tiny particles of oil from an original greenia in it. So, it’s what’s going to happen to all anise if it’s true anise.
Ok, so now, we’re going to make you one of our fantastic cocktails that we have here ate Lounge on 20. Starts with an egg white, which we’ve already put in the tin, an ounce and a half of absinthe, we need three quarters ounce of orange, which is reduction champagne vinegar, brown and white sugar, and orange juice, to reduce them all down into almost a syrup-like texture. Half an ounce of lemon juice and a quarter ounce of honey, let’s all mix these in and we dry shake it. When it’s called dry shake, without ice first, what is does is it emulsifies the egg with all the other ingredients, otherwise, the egg will not combine with it, it’s going to stay separate. Next you add ice. And you give this a bigger shake. When you have egg in anything, you want to shake it vigorously ‘coz what you’re doing is you’re getting texture out of it. And by shaking vigorously, that’s how you get that big frothy texture. Egg does nothing other than texture in a drink. After this, you strain it off into a glass over fresh ice. We wrap it with the straw with an orange zest which adds a bitter component, then also gives you orangey flavor next to your nose when your drinking it, absinthe.
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