Every home bartender needs to have at least one good “hair of the dog” recipe in their repertoire. Hosting a party? You’ll want something to pick you up if you overindulge and leave cleanup for the morning. Throwing a brunch? You need something that feels and tastes appropriate for day-drinking.
For many people, that cocktail is the ubiquitous Bloody Mary, but for me, it’s the Corpse Reviver #2. A nice balance of light and tart, it’s in no way cloying. It won’t lay heavy in the stomach, it’s a bit more of a conversation-starter than a bloody, and it’s especially useful to have on hand if you or any of your guests aren’t fans of savory drinks.
Corpse Reviver #2? What happened to Corpse Reviver #1?
Corpse Reviver #1: cognac, calvados, sweet vermouth. The Myspace angles are optional.
Good question! The simplest answer, and the one that Imbibe Magazine espouses, is that #2 is the best-tasting of all the cocktails in the Corpse Reviver family; a collection of related cocktails of rather mysterious origin, all purported to do the good work of reviving the deeply hungover and nearly departed to pre-party-hard levels of liveliness.
Whether or not you believe that “like cures like,” you can believe that this is a cocktail worth your time and attention. Here to help is BarChef Laura Bellucci of SoBou in New Orleans — which Zagat named to its 25 Most Important Restaurants of 2013 and GoNola recommended it as one of New Orleans’ Top 10 Boozy Brunch Spost in 2015. That same year, Laura Bellucci received Restaurant Hospitality’s award for Best Gin Cocktail in America.
If you’re looking for an expert in creating the perfect brunch cocktail, look no further.
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Let’s dive right in and ask what makes for a really good version of a Corpse Reviver? What are some tips and tricks that a home bartender should know to really make this cocktail sing?
This cocktail is probably my favorite brunch cocktail of all time. It is light, bright, and dry — exactly what you need to pull yourself out of the glue-footed regret of last night’s over indulgence. The well-known recipe comes from The Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930. Don’t forget the Absinthe rinse — and if you have an atomizer (tiny spray bottle), you can use that to make rinsing the glass easier. Go for Pierre Farrand Dry Curacao over Cointreau. It’s less expensive and less sweet.
What are some common missteps people make when attempting this cocktail? Any common mistakes we should be sure to avoid?
This cocktail appears in print in the late 1800s, and lists lillet blanc as an ingredient. What is sometimes overlooked is that lillet used to have a quinine component, although the folks who produced Lillet removed the quinine-containing cinchona bark from their recipe around 1985 — probably to widen its appeal. So you’ll want to use something a bit drier than the current formulation of Lillet, I prefer cocci americano.
The original recipe also includes Old Tom Gin, which is a touch sweeter and I would suspect is used to balance quite nicely with a quinine apertif. I think you could use a London or American dry if it struck your fancy, because the Cocchi is fairly balanced already. I like Hayman’s Old Tom Gin if you are looking for a touch of sweetness because it already has a bright orange flavor, but I think Blue Coat gin has a sturdy kick of citrus (if you like your drinks drier) and both would be pleasing to the hung-over palate. If you want to stay on the theme, Death’s Door Gin would be great choice for a corpsey cocktail party.
Wonderful! May we have a recipe for this corpsey cocktail party?
Corpse Reviver #2 Ingredients:
- 1 oz Gin
- 1 oz Dry Curacao (Pierre Ferrand)
- 1 oz Cocchi Americano
- 1 oz Fresh lemon juice
- Absinthe
Directions:
- Shake ingredients in a cocktail shaker.
- Rinse a chilled coupe with absinthe, and discard any extra.
- garnish with a Luxardo cherry.
[Editor’s Note: If you have Luxardo cherries, it will be very hard to preserve them. From yourself. Certain food & drink editors have been known to go through a jar in a week — without mixing a single cocktail.]
