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Fourth Degree

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

Difford’s Guide

Discerning Drinkers (11)

Measurements in:

Serves:

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

How to make

Glassware

Serve in a Coupe glass

Prepare

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

Method

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

Garnish

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

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Fourth Degree contains 158 calories

Alcohol content:

1.3 standard drinks
20.2% alc./vol. (40.4° proof)
18.5 grams of pure alcohol

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

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

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

More cocktails by Harry MacElhone

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.

Hayman's London Dry Gin 750ml - makes 25 cocktails
$33.99 $1.36 per cocktail Hayman's London Dry Gin image

La Fee Parisienne absinthe 200ml - makes 160 cocktails
$17.99 $0.11 per cocktail La Fee Parisienne absinthe image

$1.47 per cocktail*

Makes a minimum of 25 cocktails.
Shipping and applicable tax calculated at checkout.

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* May not include all ingredients. Price per cocktail is an estimate based on cost of one cocktail with ingredients shown above and does not include shipping.

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Comments & Discussion

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Simon Sedgley Premium Member 1y

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.