Name: Thin Pink Line
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 50 ml Cognac (brandy); 20 ml Lemon juice; 10 ml Sugar syrup 'rich' (2:1); 5 ml Orgeat syrup; 20 ml Egg white (pasteurised); 10 ml Creole bitters

Ingredients

1 ²⁄₃ fl oz

Cognac (brandy)

²⁄₃ fl oz

Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

¹⁄₃ fl oz

Sugar syrup 'rich' (2 sugar to 1 water) 65.0°Brix

¹⁄₆ fl oz

Monin Almond (Orgeat) Syrup

²⁄₃ fl oz

Egg white (pasteurised) or 3 dash Fee Brothers Fee Foam cocktail foamer

¹⁄₃ fl oz

Peychaud's or other Creole-style bitters

How to make

Glass

Photographed in a Retro Coupe

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.

Method

SHAKE first 5 ingredients with ice and strain back into shaker.

DRY SHAKE (without ice) to emulsify.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Slowly pour Creole bitters onto a spot in the centre of the cocktail. After about a minute or so, a 'Thin Pink Line' of bitters develops below the foam.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Thin Pink Line contains 178 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
15.35% alc./vol. (30.69° proof)
18.9 grams of pure alcohol

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Orgeat (almond) sugar syrup (2:1) — Nuts
Egg white (pasteurised) — Eggs

Comments & Discussion

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T M 1y

Dry shook everything as I did not care much about the visual appearance. Incredibly smooth drink, super balanced, maybe I will do .5 rich and .5 orgeat next time for an additional almond taste

Patricio González-Careaga López-Tapia Premium Member 1y

So it's 1 dash Peychaud's before shaking, plus one for garnish? 2 Dash total? Thanks :)

Paloma Difford Verified User Premium Member 1y

Hi Patricio, the recipe has been amended to say 'shake first 5 ingredients' not 6. Thanks for spotting this and letting us know!

Felicia Premium Member 1y

I always reverse shake. Dry shake doesn’t make a solid enough meringue for me. Tried dry shake and failed lol. I did get a line on one side of the glass, but also a big pink hole in the middle. It wasn’t sour or bitter enough for me either, but was indeed, very tasty. I like the transformation concept - imma keep at it.

michael Monaco 2y

A very nice drink...and pretty. I like it. More importantly, my wife and her friends like it for taste and beauty.

Morten Carlsbaek Premium Member 2y

The "Thin Pink Line" and the "Improved Japanese Cocktail" are cousins from different cities. One born in London with egg white, the other in New York with Peychaud's Bitter - both nine years old. I better try them side by side on day soon.

Simon Difford Verified User Premium Member 2y

Great observation. I've added links between the two cocktails.

Fredie Martineau 2y

Very clever - However I dont like having to wait 10 minutes for the thin line to appear. Personally I like to drink the cocktail cold. The amount of bitter was unpleasant for me.

Hendrik Schaulin 2y

Since I did not have orgeat on hand I replaced it with yellow chartreuse M.O.F.
Also very lovely.

Alexandros Kordatzakis 2y

How did you even think of doing this? What's the similarity of Orgeat with Yellow Chartreuse?

Hendrik Schaulin 2y

Hello Alexandros, you are absolutely right, Orgeat and Yellow Chartreuse have nearly nothing in common. I was simply intrigued by the pink line idea and wanted to try that without shopping for Orgeat (or making it myself). The way I understand this cocktail though, at least in the recipe, the Orgeat serves as a mellow sweetener that adds body to the drink.
In all its herbal complexity Yellow Chartreuse especially the Meilleurs ouvriers de France edition is a relatively mellow herbal liqueur with good body. In that sense even a Mastika, that I also love sparingly as a cocktail sweetener might have worked.
I‘ll have to give it a try with real Orgeat sometime soon.

Alexandros Kordatzakis Continue thread (1 reply)

Sally Morgan Premium Member 2y

Well I wasn’t expecting that!

Not your typical brandy cocktail - well worth trying.

Calvin Grant Premium Member 2y

Awesome cocktail every thing about it was just right. Loved the subtle almond orgeat interplay with the Peychaud's! Having tried all (?) the recipes calling for lots of Angostura, and thoroughly enjoying, was pleasantly suprised to find this one calls for two spoons of the bitters. Really works. I used a French XO brandy.