This is a delicious cocktail with one strange name. The Corpse Reviver #2 belongs to a family of cocktails (the “corpse reviver” family) designed to help cure a hangover (e.g. revive your corpse after a runaway). I wouldn’t know about that, but I can tell you this cocktail does a pretty good job getting the party started. In fact, it would be a good pick for a pre-festivities libation on New Year’s Eve.
What sold me on the Corpse Reviver #2 — evidently the best-tasting of the Corpse Reviver cocktails — was the Lillet. I love Lillet Blanc. It’s a wine/liqueur that mixes a blend of French whites with citrus liqueur. You can drink it on its own chilled, or add it to a number of interesting (read: yummy and sour) gin cocktails, such as the 20th Century, the Campden cocktail or the Corpse Reviver #2.
I love this drink’s simplicity, and the fact that you can taste each of the four ingredients in every sip. There’s just a whisper of gin, the sweet-wine taste of the Lillet and a lively competition between the orange liqueur and lemon juice for top citrus flavour. It is very tart but still hits all the right sweet notes. One is more than enough — any more than that will guarantee you’re drinking one on New Year’s Day morning.
Corpse Reviver #2
- 3/4 oz gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
- 3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
- 3/4 oz Cointreau (I used Controy, an orange liqueur from Mexico)
- 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
- 1 dash absinthe (I wasn’t about to buy a bottle of absinthe for a “dash” so I subbed in a couple dashes of orange bitters, yum)
Shake ingredients together with ice. Strain into a chilled rocks glass and garnish with an orange twist, if desired. Serve straight up.