Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Joy to the World

Happy week before (American) Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is essentially the two minute warning of the year. Everything from here on out is garbage time of the year, where we’re all waiting for the time off at the end of the year.

This week I’m putting into use a new ingredient I picked up: absinthe! I’m a little surprised I’ve never mixed with this before, but here we are. Not wanting to do a Sazerac (yet), I opted for a Joy Division. This one comes from Phil Ward’s Death & Co. via the New York Cocktails book. Death & Co. has been on my list of places to go to in the city for a while but every time I’m down there I never seem to think about going. If this drink is as good as any of the other Death & Co. inspired cocktails I’ve had, it will re-enforce my need/desire to get down to East 46th…

Joy Division

2 oz. Beefeater gin

1 oz. Dolin dry vermouth

.5 oz. Cointreau

3 dashes Vieux Pontarlier absinthe

Stir all ingredients over ice, then strain into a coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist

The nose has very strong hints of licorice from the absinthe and lemon on the nose. I get slight juniper notes from the gin as well, but I can only really get those on second and third sniffs of the cocktail.

This is not as strong as I anticipated it would be. for a base spirit, the gin is very muted up front. The absinthe and the vermouth work in concert to keep it from overpowering the initial flavors of the sip. The gin does start to make its way through about midway through though.

The gin and the anise from the absinthe combine to finish out the sip, with underlying notes from the citrus ingredients keeping the balance to round out the flavor.

I really liked this. I really liked the orange liqueur and lemon flavors, especially since I think I added too much absinthe. The recipe calls for 3 dashes. However, I don’t have any means to dash absinthe. But what I do have is an empty bitters/water bottle I got at a scotch tasting a couple years ago. So I filled that up and added about an eye drop and a quarter of absinthe, which proved to be a bit much I think. Granted I have nothing to base this on. I need to make this again and reduce the amount of absinthe I think. For science of course.

(Banner image found here)