Featured Cocktail: The Absinthe Frappe
This episode’s featured cocktail is the absinthe frappe. This classic drink – popular in New Orleans and the Southern U.S., is basically a quick and dirty variation on classic absinthe service. So instead of the fancy absinthe fountain with your slotted absinthe spoon and your sugar cube and your ice water drip, you make the absinthe frappe the way a bartender makes a shaken drink.
To create this cocktail, you’ll need:
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1-2 oz absinthe
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½ oz simple syrup
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1-2 oz soda water
Combine the absinthe and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Give em a quick, vigorous shake, then strain into your cocktail glass over crushed or pebble ice, top it with your soda water, and enjoy through a fancy straw.
There are a few acceptable variations on this drink where other ingredients are thrown in. Some versions call for muddling lemon and/or mint into the bottom of the glass before you mix the drink. And others even call for additional anisette ingredients, like Herbsaint or Pernod.
In the end, the Absinthe Frappe is a simple, refreshing drink that operates kind of like an old fashioned. The simple syrup is your sweetener, and your absinthe plays the role of both the spirit and the bitters due to the influence of wormwood as a flavoring and bittering agent.
