Today’s recipe comes from the bookA Taste for Absintheby R. Winston Guthrie with James F. Thompson, which was released in 2010. The book has 65 recipes for cocktails made with one of my favorite spirits.

Absinthe is a strongly-flavored liquor that tends to dominate the cocktails it is in, so it is fairly rare to see a cocktail with only absinthe as its base like this one. And that’s what intrigued me.

To balance the bold anise flavor of absinthe, bartender/consultant Scott Baird added both orange juice and bitter orange marmalade. The drink is then softened with egg white, which results in a surprisingly soothing drink tasting like an absinthe-laden Orange Julius. Delicious.

Absinthe comes in both green and clear(ish) varieties, depending on whether additional herbs (or dyes) were macerated in the spirit after distillation. For purely aesthetic reasons I’d recommend using a clear absinthe in this drink (Kubler is a favorite brand), as I can’t imagine green and orange would produce something pleasant to look at.

L’arc de Triomphe
By Scott Baird

1 fl. oz. Absinthe
1 fl. oz. Fresh Orange Juice
1 fl. oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 fl. oz. Bitter Orange Marmalade
¾ fl. oz. Egg White
Peychaud’s Bitters
1 fl. oz. Seltzer Water
Wide Strip of Orange Peel, for Garnish

Add the absinthe, orange juice, lemon juice, marmalade, egg white, and a dash of
Peychaud’s to a pint glass with the spring from a Hawthorn strainer (remove the spring from
the strainer and drop it in the glass). Dry shake for 30 seconds, until it is nice and frothy.
Open it up, add ice, and shake well to make cold.

Pour the seltzer into a footed beer glass or short stemmed wineglass. Strain the drink into the
glass. Add 2 dashes of Peychaud’s and garnish with orange zest. Serve.