Dixie – Recipe from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

A pleasing cocktail in which both curacao and creme de menthe are used is the 

2 parts Curacao 

1 part Creme de Menthe 

1 part Lemon Juice 

6 parts Whisky 

1 dash Angostura to each drink 

Shake or stir with cracked ice.

Some years after the French were removed politically from the southern states remnants of a Parisian café culture remained. The state bank in New Orleans in the ‘Vieux Carre’ printed banknotes with French on one side, English on the other. The ten dollar ones had ‘dix’ on the back, at first the notes themselves were called dixies, then people who had them, then the area where you would find them Dixieland and finally it turned into a slang term for any of the Southern, or later Confederate states.

I suspect the name of this drink comes from the souths penchant for mint juleps.

I’ve always been very wary of crème de menthe, and I don’t think I’ve worked in a bar with it for well over 20 years, mentally preferring the idea of fresh mint over something that was merely mint flavoured. On starting my resolution I noticed several drinks in Embury with crème de menthe, and halfway through curiosity has finally got the better of me.

This seemed a good starting point and I wasn’t disappointed, as this is a great drink. In the same way that mint, or absinthe in a drink lightens it and helps cut through the sweetness the menthe in this works beautifully, giving it just a tiny lift and leave you wanting another sip.

I may be a crème de menthe convert after just the one drink.