Recipe

• 50ml cognac

• 7.5ml absinthe

• 7.5ml sugar syrup

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake it all with ice, and strain into an old-fashioned glass with lots of ice already in it. Add a twist of lemon zest.

Rich, aromatic, and surprisingly smooth. The flavours all come together nicely, although even that little amount of absinthe was quite overpowering – less next time.

The IBA recipe says to put 10ml of absinthe in the glass, swill it round with ice, then throw it away before pouring the drink. This is obviously absurd, so I just put a smaller amount directly in. Perhaps 5ml would've been even better. I also went for ice in the final drink itself, as I felt the cold would be good, and a little water can do wonders for both brandy and absinthe.

I'm thinking of measuring how much a "dash" of bitters comes to, and reporting in millilitres in the future. I mean, who knows what a dash is supposed to be?