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This is an excellent cocktail. Mellow and fragrant. Lets the floral notes of the pineau shine, supported by the gin. I used a modern citrusy London dry style gin, but with this paired back style of cocktail I can really see the choice of gin making a huge difference. Pineau charentes needs more recognition!
I made this today with Lairds bottled in bond and homemade grenadine, and DAMN, it was something right up my alley. By just looking at the specs I thought it would be out of balance, but I just found it very flavourful and complex. Of course you won’t like it if you use a bad grenadine or don’t like absinthe, but if you use quality ingredients it’s really solid.
Not really surprisingly I’ve found that this cocktail is all about having a good orgeat. The first time I made this I used Monin and wasn’t too impressed since it was a tad too sweet and one dimensional. Now I’ve made homemade orgeat, and the cocktail is now much more complex. I used No 3 London dry gin which worked perfectly.