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

Maiden's Blush No.2
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Photographed in a LSA Olivia Champagne Saucer

Ingredients:
1 ²⁄₃ oz	Hayman's Old Tom Gin
¹⁄₆ oz	La Fée Absinthe Blanche
¹⁄₂ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₄ oz	Raspberry (framboise) sugar syrup
¹⁄₂ oz	Chilled water

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

A mere spoon of blanche absinthe washes over ten times as much Old Tom gin in this complex sour which is delicately balanced by a splash of raspberry syrup.

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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.

Nutrition:

One serving of Maiden's Blush No.2 contains 150 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
18.55% alc./vol. (18.55° proof)
17.2 grams of pure alcohol

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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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G. M. Genovese

25th October 2020 at 21:11

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

23rd October 2020 at 19:46

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

24th October 2020 at 09:20

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.

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