A gin sour gone lurid: gin and fresh orange juice shake up bright and juicy, while grenadine adds a pomegranate blush and a rounded sweetness. A measure of absinthe runs beneath the citrus, so anise and herbs surface on the finish and keep the fruit from drifting into punch.
Garnish: Orange Peel
Shaken · Coupe · Up
add
Combine the gin, fresh orange juice, absinthe, and grenadine in a shaker.
shake
Add ice and shake well until chilled.
strain
Fine-strain into a chilled coupe; serve straight up, no ice.
garnish
Optionally express an orange twist over the surface and drop it in.
The drink belongs to 1920s Paris, though who made it first is disputed. Harry MacElhone of Harry's New York Bar published the recipe and is widely credited with it, yet Frank Meier of the Ritz has a rival claim, and a Washington Post item from April 1922 credited the new cocktail to Meier. Its name winked at Serge Voronoff, whose monkey-gland rejuvenation operations were then in the headlines and have since been discredited. Later recipes sometimes trade the absinthe for pastis or Bénédictine, but the absinthe version is the one the IBA lists.