Etiquetteer has been enjoying Iles Brody's somewhat florid The Colony: Portrait of a Restaurant - and Its Famous Recipes, and particularly his account of the creation of its signature cocktail, the Colony Special. To mitigate the rotgut taste of Prohibition gin, barman Marco Hattem added a dash of absinthe to every martini, and then shook rather than stirred it. Conventional wisdom had it that a shaken martini could not come out clear, but for Hattem they did.
So Etiquetteer experimented with the Perfectly Proper ingredients and a shaker, using this recipe:
- Four parts gin.
- One part dry vermouth.
- One dash absinthe.
- Pour into ice-filled cocktail shaker and "shake merrily" as Iles Brody instructs.
- Strain into martini glass, add a twist of lemon, and serve.
Watch how Etiquetteer (almost, maybe) did it here:
The result, while perhaps a shade cloudy, eventually cleared. And the absinthe adds a fresh, vaguely bitter note that's far from displeasing.
Enjoy! And as Doris Day memorably said in Romance on the High Seas, "À votre santé!"
