Today was my last day at Stripe. This isn’t usually a place for professional musings or anything, but I think as it relates to the purposes of this newsletter and my drink making, Stripe actually has been very formative to that because in Townsend, we had a bar. A bar meant that I had a lot more bottles at my disposal to play with because Tony, a true gentleman, always kept it suspiciously well stocked. So while I didn’t really hone my tiki drink making there (crushed ice was hard to come by) it was an excellent place to get reps in mixing Last Words and Aviations and Sidecars and what have you.
Now I have a whole home bar which, while not as broad in some ways, probably has as many bottles as we had at our disposal there and dangerously a much better idea of what to do with them. So as I pondered what is the appropriate drink for the last day of a job, some things came to mind.
First, absinthe has to be involved. And not just like a rinse. Let’s own this people, put some absinthe in.
While we are on the stronger end of the spectrum, been a while since I did anything with 151 and why not just do strength on strength? Sounds fun.
So…where do we go from here? I’ve been meaning to open that bottle of Bruto for a while now and frankly, this could use something lower ABV, so that’s a good call. Lime? Sure, lime seems like a great idea. A bit of simple…orange bitters? Let’s see what happens here, shall we?
As for the construction, this is definitely a build in glass kind of beverage, so let’s do that properly, shall we? Here’s what I ended up with:
.75 oz lime
.5 oz 2:1 simple syrup
.75 oz absinthe (St. George)
.75 oz 151 (Lemon Hart)
.5 oz Bruto Americano
a couple dashes of orange bitters
Topo Chico to top
Build everything but the Topo in a Collins glass (12 oz, sufficiently tall if you don’t have that). Fill the glass approximately halfway with crushed ice and give it a good stir for 15-20 seconds. Top with some more fresh crushed ice until the glass is mostly full, pour some Topo over the top, and give it another quick stir. Garnish with some nice fresh mint, serve with a straw. It only seems fitting to call this one Say Your Goodbyes.
But how does it taste? Like absinthe lol. You be the judge though, it’s definitely not like drinking straight absinthe, it’s got that herbaceous flavor with a bit of bite, but the hint of sour is a nice touch. Honestly the 151 just sinks into this (which is…kinda scary now that I think about it). A fitting parting gift perhaps, though, to forget just a little.
This is Trader Jane’s, a periodic newsletter about drinks (mostly tiki) and other fun writing. Follow me on Substack for something every week or two (if we are being honest), and follow me on Twitter and Instagram for more timely updates on my beverages (and for lots of other things of course!)
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