October Drink of the Month - Corpse Reviver #2

Halloween was celebrated last Monday and The Walking Dead is all the rage right now, so you might expect this to be my inspiration for fixing up a "Corpse Reviver" this 1st, which is where we get the term Halloween, from "All Hallow's Eve"). In his honor, we'll find a drink for November which celebrates one of the saints instead of zombies and ghosts (or at least one th month. However, my boss is Roman Catholic priest, and he is not the world's biggest fan of Halloween. He feels that the holiday detracts from the celebration of All Saint's Day (on Novemberat can pull double duty and celebrate both!).

This week, I was asked to bartend for a "Drinking with the Saints" marriage enrichment event (another reason its great to be Catholic). Their speaker focused on the example of three saints, and I was asked to develop a drink to pair with each of these saints (there is an excellent book called Drinking with the Saints which tackles this task for every day of the year - but we chose to come up with our own drinks for the event). One of saints that the speaker chose was Saint Bernadette Sobirous - a young woman who, at the age of 14, saw an apparition of Mary in a grotto near Lourdes, France. Mary's message was to encourage the world to prayer and penance, and the water of the Grotto is world renowned for its healing properties. I thought the most appropriate drink to celebrate the life of Saint Bernadette would be a few fingers of whiskey - after all, whiskey comes to us from the Irish word meaning "water of life." But that hardly fits the bill for a cocktail night, so we settled on the Corpse Reviver #2 instead.

Why a Corpse Reviver? Well, its equal parts a geographic nod to the ingredients, gallows humor, and bad puns. First, geography: the key ingredient to the Corpse Reviver #2 is Lillet Blanc, a French aperitif, similar to Cocchi Americano. It is made in the southern Bordeaux region, about an hour and a half north of Lourdes. Next, gallows humor: Saint Bernadette is one of a particular class of saints know as "incorruptibles" - her body has not decayed after death (this is one of the weird parts of being Catholic). This is sometimes viewed as a miracle which helps one's cause for sainthood. What better drink for an incorrupt body than a Corpse Reviver! Finally, bad puns: The Corpse Reviver is so named because it was originally used as a hangover cure! Since the water in the grotto in Lourdes is held to have healing power, then we should made a drink that also has healing properties - the miracle cure known as the "hair of the dog."

Today, we'll be making Corpse Reviver #2. There are many Corpse Reviver variants, and the "original" Corpse Reviver was made with cognac, apple brandy, and and sweet vermouth. Not a bad formula, but not excellent either. Luckily, this drink was improved upon with the Corpse Reviver #2. This drink mixes the botanicals of gin, two sweet/bitter ingredients in Lillet Blanc and Cointreau, sour lemon, and the bracing bitter of an absinthe rinse. Here is the recipe for the Corpse Reviver #2:

Pour a small amount of absinthe into a martini glass and swirl to coat the glass*. Set aside.

In a mixing glass, combine the following ingredients:

1 oz dry gin

1 oz Lillet Blanc

1 oz Cointreau

1 oz fresh lemon juice

Shave over ice and strain into the absinthe coated glass.

*Instead of the dash and swirl method, I prefer to keep my absinthe in an atomizer and mist it over the glass before serving. It gets a better coverage while not overpowering the drink. This is also how I make my Sazeracs.

I hope you enjoy your Corpse Reviver #2!