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

1 part Green Creme de Menthe 

3 parts Gin 

Shake. Decorate with a green cherry. Some recipes call for the addition of a few dashes of lemon and orange juice, the white of one egg to each 2 drinks, and a dash of nutmeg in each glass.

I briefly remember a run in with green cherries when I was young, I must’ve been 3 or 4 years old and went to our neighbours just before Christmas with the parents they had delicious red and green cherries, right up until I mistook an olive for a green cherry and my world fell apart, briefly. And by briefly I mean about 15 years before I voluntarily had a second.

I thought I’d just go straight for the second version, gin + green crème de menthe, with the one I have at home doesn’t sound like a complete disaster, the other has nutmeg though so it’s a no brainer. I used 60ml Gin, 20ml crème de menthe, 10 of each juice and about half an egg white, which as the gin was straight from the freezer didn’t froth up wonderfully. The drink is ok, the flavours do work together and nothings to overpowering, it is a little on the dry side though and should’ve used a teaspoon or two of sugar syrup, which isn’t obvious from looking at the recipe, rather than balancing the lemon though it will help round out the drink and pull the flavours forward a little.

I really enjoyed this drink, it was quite nice as a post dinner drink, if not quite a digestif.