Petanque cocktail

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (66 ratings)

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
2 oz Lustau Jarana Fino Sherry
1 oz Disaronno amaretto
2 dash Peychaud's or other Creole-style bitters
2 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 Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 4/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 6/10

Review:

The game this drink is named after is French while the main ingredients are Spanish and Italian, but they do play Pétanque in the Basque region of Spain. However, both the creator of this drink and the Creole-style bitters used originate from the USA – perhaps it took a non-European to bring these ingredients - fino sherry and amaretto - harmoniously together.

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History:

Adapted from a drink created in 2014 by Andrew Bohrer at Mistral Kitchen, Seattle, USA, and named after the French game where hollow metal balls are thrown as close as possible to a small wooden jack ball.

Inspired by playing Petanque in France whilst sipping on pastis, I tried Andrew's original spec but with an additional float of absinthe. To be honest, I tried pastis first but the liquorice notes detracted from the cocktail. A couple of dashes of absinthe merge with the body of the cocktail to add harmonious additional complexity. Hope you agree.

Alcohol content:

  • 1 standard drinks
  • 15.57% alc./vol. (15.57° proof)
  • 14.2 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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Morten Carlsbaek’s Avatar Morten Carlsbaek
29th October 2023 at 02:09
Straightforward to make, surprisingly pleasant - the taste of yellow leaves swirling to the ground.
31st December 2021 at 23:04
I had no Fino, so I substituted Amontillado sherry. I find the Pétanque delicious and complex, but light. And yes, it’s great on the rocks, or rather, one large rock. It will be nice to have a classy but lower ABV cocktail to offer my guests.
Pawel Szyld’s Avatar Pawel Szyld
2nd May 2020 at 19:31
Nice coctail, i'll have to tired with just 2 drops of absinthe.
Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
2nd May 2020 at 21:51
Agreed. I reduced to 3 dash absinthe stirrred in. Really tasty drink. Perhaps try on-the-rocks.