Name: Fourth Degree
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Gin; 30 ml Ambrato vermouth; 30 ml Rosso/sweet vermouth; 4 dash Absinthe

Fourth Degree
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
1 oz	Ambrato/ambre/amber vermouth
1 oz	Strucchi Rosso Vermouth
4 dash	La Fée Parisienne absinthe

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

How to make:

STIR all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish:

EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Ambrato/ambre/amber vermouth, Rosso/rouge/sweet vermouth (di Torino) - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

One of those cocktails where a 'bland' dry vermouth just won't do. Don't go big on the rosso but go for it on the dry vermouth. Dash your absinthe judiciously and you'll have a delicious variation on a Perfect Martini.

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History:

The Fourth Degree Cocktail first appears as a blanche absinthe-based cocktail (without gin) in Jacques Straub's 1914 book Drinksalong with the attentive name, "Feather Cocktail".

Fourth Degree Cocktail.
Feather Cocktail.
1/3 jigger French vermouth.
1/3 jigger Italian vermouth.
1/3 jigger white absinthe.
Shake well.
Jacques Straub, 1914

It then appears in Harry McElhone's 1922 Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails with two versions: a gin-based cocktail with dashes of vermouth but no rosso (sweet) vermouth; and the Fourth Degree we recognise today. He repeats the cocktail a year later in his 1923 Harry of Ciro's ABC of Mixing Cocktails but with the first version omitted.

Fourth Degree Cocktail.
1/3 Gin, 1/3 French Vermouth, 1/3 Italian Vermouth, 4 dashes of Absinthe.
Harry McElhone, 1923

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Nutrition:

One serving of Fourth Degree contains 158 calories

Alcohol content:

1.3 standard drinks
20.2% alc./vol. (20.2° proof)
18.4 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Simon Sedgley

22nd July at 13:55

Subtly elegant. We had no idea how to measure four dashes of Absinthe so just went with a 1.25ml measure...hit the sweet spot for us, although we think the Ambrato is the key to this drink's charm.

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