Happy short week Friday! This week was a little shorter for me since I took Tuesday off to extend my weekend and it was a very smart decision. 3 day work weeks are fantastic.

Aside from that, I now have a new cocktail book in my arsenal! It is Paris Cocktails by Doni Belau

This makes two entries in the City Cocktails series I have, the other being the New York one. I very much look forward to using more from this book, because at first glance, there is a lot of interesting stuff in here. One that immediately caught my eye is the Léa Dasco. The main reason being is that I have on hand the Amorik Classic whisky from Brittany that it calls for. In fact, my review was one of my first posts here. I’ve been rationing the bottle since I haven’t found a reliable source for a replacement bottle stateside. So I’ve been stingy on drinking it. But for this book, I definitely will break it out.

Léa Dasco:

.5oz Beefeater gin

1oz. Lillet Blanc

1 tablespoon Amorik Classic whisky from Brittany

A little bit less than a tablespoon of Pernod Absinthe

Orange zest for garnish

Stir all liquid ingredients above together for 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange zest.

The nose is absinthe dominant right off the bat. If I linger longer and keep looking, I can get slight hints of orange aromas from the garnish, and they go together very well. I would not have necessarily expected that.

At first sip, the drink starts off relatively sweet, then the absinthe kicks in and completely dominates the flavor profile. The Lillet does it’s best here, but really stands no chance against the absinthe. The measure of “slightly less than a tablespoon” is quite ambiguous, and I wonder if slightly less is open to interpretation. If so, it needs to be way less than the slightly less that I measured out.

If I didn’t make this myself, I would not have believed that there was gin & whisky in this, as they are both  completely lost here. The tablespoon measure of the Amorik leads me to believe that was supposed to be a background player, and not a main character. If that is the case, good job? But to me, it seems superfluous in that it really doesnt add much, unless it tones down the absinthe. If then, the proportion needs to be adjusted up.

The finish no surprise is absinthe dominant. It lingers on the palate after the sip, and every time you take a drink, the aftertaste compounds the anise flavor that lingers.

This one is hard to rate. I’m lucky in the sense I’ve only made and reviewed one undrinkable cocktail. So that is my standard measure on whether a drink is “bad”. This was drinkable for sure, but definitely not a favorite. I think the absinthe measure was way too much. To the point I wonder if it’s a typo in the book to use a tablespoon and not a teaspoon. Regardless, if you don’t like absinthe or anise type flavors, stay away from this one. If you do, I imagine this one will be a one and done for sure.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)