Name: Maiden's Blush No.2
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 50 ml Old Tom gin; 5 ml Blanche absinthe; 15 ml Lemon juice; 7.5 ml Raspberry syrup; 15 ml Chilled water

Ingredients

1 2/3 fl oz

Hayman's Old Tom Gin

1/6 fl oz

La Fée Absinthe Blanche

1/2 fl oz

Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

1/4 fl oz

Raspberry (framboise) sugar syrup

1/2 fl oz

Chilled water/mineral water

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.

Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

Method

SHAKE 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 Maiden's Blush No.2 contains 150 calories

Alcohol content:

1.3 standard drinks
18.55% alc./vol. (37.11° proof)
18.4 grams of pure alcohol

History

Adapted from a recipe in Louis Fouquet's 1896 Bariana: Recueil de toutes boissons americains et anglaises (Bariana: Compendium of all American and English drinks), the second known earliest French cocktail book.

The Maiden's Blush also appears in Harry Craddock's 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book with two versions, No.1 with orange curaçao and No.2 with absinthe and the following recipe:
"1/3 Absinthe
2/3 Dry Gin
1 Teaspoon Grenadine
Shake well and strain into cocktail glass."

Fouquet's recipe calls for 2 parts absinthe to 1 part Old Tom gin while Craddock's stipulates 2 parts gin to 1 part absinthe. Even in Craddock's 2:1, the absinthe dominates the gin so our recipe above uses 10 parts gin to 1 part absinthe. Hence you may want to reduce the gin and up the proportion of absinthe according to taste.

Comments & Discussion

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G. M. Genovese Premium Member 5y

I'm not well-acquainted with blanche. Doesn't seem to be widely available locally to me (Wigle, a distillery in Pittsburgh, makes one). I'll have to shop around or more likely order one. But yes, reading up a little on it, I can see that it would make a difference. Thanks for the reply.

G. M. Genovese Premium Member 5y

The proportions seem nearly perfect. The Absinthe (Vieux Carre) is rather forward, but not overpowering at 1/6 oz. 1/12 oz (1/2 tsp) seemed to result in more balance. The color, on the other hand, is another story. My homemade raspberry syrup turned this drink a Cosmo pink. Intriguing enough flavors to have made this 3 times in the last 24 hrs.

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 5y

Vieux Carre Absinthe is verte rather than blanche but the recipe above is for a blanche absinthe, hence you're finding the 1/6oz overpowering. I now keen to try with 1/12oz verte absinthe. Thanks for teh feedback.

Maiden's Blush No.2