Name: Self-starter
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Gin; 15 ml Aromatized wine; 7.5 ml Blanc quinquina/kina; 7.5 ml Apricot liqueur; 2 dash Absinthe

Ingredients

1 fl oz

Hayman's London Dry Gin

¹⁄₂ fl oz

Aromatized wine (e.g. Lillet Blanc)

¹⁄₄ fl oz

Blanc quinquina/kina (e.g. Mattei Cap Corse, Bonal, Kina L'Aéro)

¹⁄₄ fl oz

Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur

2 dash

La Fée Parisienne absinthe

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a NICK & NORA 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 Self-starter contains 118 calories

Alcohol content:

1.1 standard drinks
24.59% alc./vol. (49.19° proof)
14.9 grams of pure alcohol

Gallery

Comments & Discussion

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Calvin Grant Premium Member 1y

Agreed with Chris and John, leans a bit sweet. Clicked on the links in the history above (what a great resource Simon) to get to Craddock's recipe. Appears he shook this one. Will try. Loving the Lillet/ L'Aero combination.

John CARR Premium Member 1y

Agree with Chris that this on the sweet side. Due to kinas being unavailable in Australia, I went with 22.5ml Cocchi Americano. However, it was lacking in bitterness so added a little dash of orange bitters. Vintage, no punches pulled flavour. Would likewise be tempted to up the gin a tad to dry it out and add more definition.

Chris Brislawn 1y

I cannot get Tempus Fugit Kina L'Aero d'Or in my home state, either. I found a bottle by accident while buying wine on vacation at a wine shop in Walla Walla, Washington, a thousand miles from my home. You might try Bonal Gentiane-Quina Aperitif or Luxardo Bitter Bianco, both of which I like better than Cocchi Americano for this sort of recipe. And the recipe only has 2 oz of liquid in it as is, making it easy to add a bit more gin to dry it out. The 6:2:2:1 proportions work well, IMHO.

John CARR Premium Member 1y

Thanks Chris. I hadnt heard of bonal before, and have yet to try Luxardo bitter bianco , so two more fun things to try!

Chris Brislawn Continue thread (1 reply)

John CARR Premium Member 1y

Agreedre the extra gin. .. Cocchi Americano works well for me in a vesper, but always happy try new things!

John CARR Premium Member 1y

Got hold some Bonal and, yes, it really added herbal depth and bitterness to balance the sugars and richness of the Lillet and apricot brandy. Good stuff!

Chris Brislawn 1y

Instead of Difford's 4:2:1:1 proportions I went for slightly drier 6:2:2:1 ratios, which was plenty sweet enough & had more L'Aero d'Or flavor. Strangely, though, I cannot find this in Craddock's Savoy Cocktail book. Might it have come from somewhere else?

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 1y

Hi Chris. It's on page 144 in The Savoy Cocktail Book.

Chris Brislawn 1y

Alphabetically, it should be between the Screwdriver and the Seventh Heaven #1, which would place it on p. 145 in my copy of the book. Is that where it appears in yours, between those two drinks? Courtesy of Santa, I have what looks like a photo-reproduction (hardbound) of the Savoy Cocktail Book, Constable & Co., 1930 (no edition or print numbers). The reproduction is published by Martino Publishing, Mansfield Centre, CT, 2015. Amazon currently has a version of the Martino reproduction dated Dec. 2023 with a different ISBN number than my 2015 copy has. Maybe there are multiple versions of the book, all dating from 1930, and Martino has published reproductions of two or more of them.