Chrysanthemum #2

Jamie Boudreau, Canon | Seattle

An early twentieth-century session recipe, the Chrysanthemum cocktail appears, with small variations in proportions, in influential texts like Hugo R. Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916) and Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). Canon owner Jamie Boudreau’s update downgrades the absinthe from dashes to a rinse and incorporates citrus. “The Chrysanthemum is an old recipe, but I always found it unbalanced,” he says. “Adding a touch of lemon, but still stirring, elevates a recipe that tends to be sweet and flat.”

Reprinted with permission from Session Cocktails by Drew Lazor and the Editors of PUNCH, copyright © 2018. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House.

Ingredients

Serving: 1

  • Absinthe
  • Absinthe
  • 2 1/2 ounces dry vermouth, preferably Dolin dry
  • 2 1/2 ounces dry vermouth, preferably Dolin dry
  • 1/2 ounce Bénédictine
  • 1/2 ounce Bénédictine
  • 1/4 ounce lemon juice
  • 1/4 ounce lemon juice

Directions
  1. Rinse a coupe with a small amount of absinthe and dump.
  2. Combine the vermouth, Bénédictine, and lemon juice in a mixing glass, add ice, and stir until chilled.
  3. Strain into the absinthe-rinsed coupe.