Corpse Reviver No 2
Four equal parts and a whisper of absinthe. One of the most perfectly balanced sours ever written down — and Craddock warned you about the fourth one.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Rinse a chilled coupe with absinthe and discard the excess.
Add the gin, triple sec, Lillet Blanc and lemon juice to a shaker.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 12-15 seconds.
Double strain into the absinthe-rinsed coupe and garnish with a lemon twist.
A thoughtful finish
- Equal parts, measured properly. The drink's reputation rests entirely on the balance, and eyeballing it shows immediately.
- Rinse, do not pour. A dash of absinthe swirled around the glass and tipped out is the correct dose; a bar spoon in the shaker overwhelms everything.
- Use a genuinely dry orange liqueur. A sweet triple sec tips the drink over, and there is no bitterness here to catch it.
Common mistakes
- Pouring absinthe into the shaker instead of rinsing the glass.
- Substituting dry vermouth for Lillet. Lillet is sweeter and rounder; dry vermouth makes the drink thin and sharp.
- Treating Craddock's warning as a joke. At four equal parts of mostly-fortified ingredients it drinks far more easily than its strength suggests.
A few good questions.
What was Kina Lillet and what should I use instead?
A quinquina — an aromatised wine bittered with cinchona bark — made until the 1980s, when Lillet reformulated into the sweeter Lillet Blanc now on shelves. Lillet Blanc is the standard substitute. Cocchi Americano is closer to the original's bitterness if you want to chase it.
Is there a Corpse Reviver No. 1?
Yes, and it is a completely different drink — cognac, calvados and sweet vermouth, stirred. The two share a name and nothing else.
Which absinthe should I use?
Any real absinthe. You are using a few millilitres per drink, so one bottle lasts years. A pastis will work in a pinch but is sweeter and more aniseed-forward.
Why is it called a Corpse Reviver?
It belongs to a nineteenth-century category of morning drinks intended to revive the hungover. The genre is older than this particular recipe by about seventy years.
Variations
- Corpse Reviver No. 1 — Cognac, calvados and sweet vermouth, stirred.
- Corpse Reviver No. 2 with mezcal — Mezcal in place of gin.
- White Lady — Gin, triple sec and lemon, without the Lillet or absinthe.
- Last Word — Equal parts gin, maraschino, green Chartreuse and lime.
Where it comes from
1930 · London, England · Harry Craddock · The Savoy Hotel
Harry Craddock published it in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930, with the note that ‘four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.’ The name belongs to a whole family of morning-after drinks that predate it by decades — there are Corpse Revivers in print from the 1860s onwards, and Craddock’s No. 1 is a brandy-and-calvados drink with nothing in common with No. 2. The original specified Kina Lillet, a quinquina that is no longer produced; Lillet Blanc is the standard modern substitute, though it is noticeably less bitter, so some bartenders add a dash of quinine or use Cocchi Americano instead.
Sources
- Harry Craddock, The Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930 (book)
- IBA Official Cocktails list, current (standards body)
- Ted Haigh, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, 2004 (book)
Strength. About 1.26 US standard drinks at an estimated 20.2% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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