Fourth Degree

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (7 ratings)

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
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 8/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 7/10

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

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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