A Cocktail for Any Hour
The Start and Finish.
I’m a firm believer in the idea that the best drink pairing is what the drinker wants. But I’m still a sucker for the rules of aperitifs and digestifs. As much as I love a late-night Negroni, I also love the ritual of a light, crisp, bitter drink before a meal or (well, and) a strong, bittersweet sipper afterward.
How about both at once? That’s what this drink, the Start and Finish, purports to be (if you couldn’t guess from the name). The cocktail comes from Rhiannon Enlil, who made it at Cure, the bar that Beta’s Kirk Estopinal and Maks Pazuniak opened in New Orleans. That makes Enlil a big disciple of the Beta Cocktails philosophy, and it’s apparent in the drink.
Two fortified wines, dry vermouth and Lillet Blanc, represent the Start side of the drink. Dry vermouth, as you know, is an aperitif mainstay in drinks like the Cardinale and Martini, as well as spritzes. Lillet, meanwhile, is a sweet French wine that can be drunk on its own or in a spritz. It’s very floral and orangey, and a bit too sweet for me on its own, but I definitely see a place for it in cocktails. (You could definitely also use a blanc vermouth like Dolin Blanc in its place.)
The Finish, meanwhile, is Averna, one of the more popular Italian amari. Averna has a lot of the same orange and cola notes as the Lucano that I recently used, but it’s a bit lighter overall. I prefer Lucano for sipping, but find that Averna mixes extremely well — in Black Manhattans, of course, but also subbed into a Pop Quiz or even a Paper Plane.
The curveball here is the absinthe. You probably think of it more as a digestif, given its role in after-dinner drinks like the Sazerac (and the fact that it regularly clocks in at or above 120 proof). But anise, the dominant note in absinthe, is associated with before-dinner drinking in places like France, where pastis (or anise liqueur) diluted with water is a common aperitif. Using absinthe to bridge the gap between aperitif and digestif here seems genius to me. And using a full half-ounce of it is definitely bold. (I should note, it’s also legal and safe — and has been since 2007! My absinthe of choice, St. George, is even made in the U.S.)
The Start and Finish1
1 1/2 ounces Averna
1/2 ounce Lillet Blanc
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1/2 ounce absinthe verte
1 dash Regan's orange bitters
Orange twist (garnish)
Stir and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
By Rhiannon Enlil
Yeah, there’s no running from that fat pour of absinthe — everything else revolves around it. The cocktail definitely needs all the sugar from the Lillet and Averna, and the orange notes echoing throughout provide some levity to a drink that could be overly heavy. And the anise-y, herbal absinthe plays particularly well with the bouquet of herbs and spices in the Averna, even making me wonder how Averna would sub into a drink like a Sazerac or A La Louisiane. Still, an herbal, bittersweet drink like this feels much more like a digestif to me, but it’s an intriguing idea.
Up next, an even odder blend than Averna and absinthe.
From Beta Cocktails by Maksym Pazuniak and Kirk Estopinal, 2011.