broken shoe shiner

1 oz Pernod
1 oz Aperol
1 oz Benedictine
1 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with 9 drops of rose water. Makes enough to fill two cocktail glasses.

On Monday night, we continued with the modern recipes theme by finding the Broken Shoe Shiner in the Rogue Cocktails book. The drink is credited to Stephen Cole of Chicago's Violet Hour and the history provided was, "Named for a woman who was murdered along with her children by her husband, Jean Lanfray. The murders ignited a scandal surrounding absinthe, which Mr. Lanfray consumed prior and during the murders, and eventually led to the ban of the spirit in France." The scandal was rather skewed in that absinthe played only a minor role in the fracas as Lanfray apparently drank "seven glasses of wine, six glasses of cognac, one coffee laced with brandy, two crème de menthes, and two glasses of absinthe" while out and another coffee with brandy after returning home (Wiki article). After that last drink, he got into an argument with his wife and then asked her to shine his shoes. Her refusal angered Lanfray and he grabbed his rifle and launched into a homicidal rage.
Note that the absinthe was only a small fraction of his alcohol intake for the day, and his drink list's variety is symbolically mirrored in the Broken Shoe Shiner's eclectic recipe. With such a motley collection of ingredients, it seemed like an oddball destined for the sink; however, Rogue Cocktails and the bartenders who wrote it at the Cure in New Orleans have earned my trust from previous experiences. And the Broken Shoe Shiner was no different. The drink started off with rose water aroma combined with Pernod's anise-fennel notes. A sweet Aperol flavor appeared on the first part of the sip, Benedictine and other herbal elements in the middle, and anise and pineapple at the end. Interestingly, the middle part of the sip with the Benedictine came across as almost a chocolate sort of taste. Moreover, the pineapple and Pernod made for a great pairing and added some tropical elements akin to those in Tiki drinks. Overall, the Broken Shoe Shiner was rather delightful with a good balance of sweet, sour, bitter, fruit, and spice all without a standard base spirit. And the only thing that ended up in the sink that night were two empty cocktail glasses coated with a light lace of egg white foam.