mai tai suissesse

1 oz Absinthe (Kübler)
1 oz Rhum Agricole Blanc (Rhum Clement Premiere Canne)
1 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Orange Liqueur (Cointreau)
1 oz Heavy Cream
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice and once with ice, strain into a Tiki mug, and fill with crushed ice. The contest restricted things to 7 ingredients so I could not garnish with freshly grated nutmeg, but feel free to add it if desired.

A few weeks ago, I submitted a recipe to the USBG Cocktail Classique sponsored by Lucid Absinthe. It ended up making the cut to compete in the New York semi-final round, but it was not a convenient time for me to travel, so I bowed out. My drink idea began with considering how Tiki drinks are very absinthe friendly, and I selected the Mai Tai as a starting place. Instead of swapping pure absinthe in place of one of the rums in a Mai Tai, I opted to swap in the delightful New Orleans treat, the Absinthe Suissesse, in place of that rum. My rational was that both drinks contained orgeat as a common ingredient, and how the creamy, rich, nutty, citrus, and grassy combination in the mashup would complement the herbal spice notes in absinthe.
Once prepared, the Mai Tai Suissesse gave forth an anise aroma from the absinthe that was mitigated by a sweet creaminess on the nose. Next, creamy lime and orange notes on the sip slid into grassy, nutty, and surprisingly lightly absinthe-driven swallow. Overall, the mix was closer to a classic Absinthe Suissesse with some citrus and grassy rum flavors as accent than to an adaptation of a Mai Tai itself.