“It sounds bizarre, but it surely’s actually good.” That’s the chorus you’ll hear repeated by those that champion a root beer and absinthe highball at bars, at house, even in ready-to-drink cans.
It’s not clear who first mixed these two unlikely bedfellows in the identical glass: one of many highest-proof spirits there’s, plus a rootsy, tremendous candy smooth drink. Each have lengthy histories. Absinthe dates again to 1789, whereas the earliest recorded recipe for root beer appeared in 1869; it’s not laborious to think about the 2 ended up in the identical glass in some unspecified time in the future alongside their shared century-plus existence. However throughout the context of the trendy cocktail and spirits renaissance, the path seems to start on the West Coast.
In 2007, shortly after the U.S. overturned its long-standing ban on absinthe, St. George Spirits, in Alameda, California, rolled out its personal tackle American absinthe, referred to as Absinthe Verte. The next 12 months, Ellie Winters, then communications director for the distillery, took a fast break from a poker sport with trade buddies: Confronted with a number of bottles of St. George absinthe and an array of mixers, together with root beer, she poured somewhat of every in the identical cup, inadvertently creating the Root of All Evil, a drink now memorialized on the distillery’s web site.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment factor,” remembers Winters, who, on the time, was courting St. George grasp distiller Lance Winters. (They’re now married.) “It was an Earl of Sandwich scenario: I wished a drink, I wished to maintain my head comparatively clear for the poker sport, I assumed the flavors would work. There wasn’t much more thought put into that.”
With a 1:2 ratio of absinthe to root beer, the result’s admittedly “swampy and foreboding-looking,” she says, because the absinthe louches the drink to a pearlescent grey. However the drink picked up momentum anyway. “Not solely have been we serving the Root of All Evil amongst trade buddies at poker video games beginning in 2008 and to numerous distillery friends thereafter,” says Ellie, “however we additionally poured it at occasions far and broad for a few years,” together with the Manhattan Cocktail Traditional in 2012 and Portland Cocktail Week in 2013.
The drink additionally popped up on cocktail menus at a number of Bay Space bars, together with Blackbird and Rock Bar. “Whereas the thought of absinthe and root beer collectively could appear actually weird at first blush, it makes tons of sense while you dive deep,” Lance explains. The important thing, he says, is “a extremely good root beer.” His picks embody bottles from Sprecher Brewing Co. and Olde Rhode Island: “They each have a brilliant punch of wintergreen that enhances the absinthe.”
Elsewhere, Alberta, Canada–primarily based bartender Warren Johnston created his personal model of the drink, the Above Common Absinthe + Root Beer (his consulting firm is known as Above Common Drinks), stretching the ratio to about 1:4, absinthe to root beer, brightened with a twist of lemon peel. He likens root beer to a nonalcoholic amaro, which is of course harmonious with absinthe’s herbaceous, licorice-like character, he says.
He arrived at his model when making an attempt to make a drink for his mother-in-law, circa 2014 or 2015, he says. “She at all times beloved absinthe frappés,” he remembers, and had a keenness for Paralyzers, that are just like White Russians however made with the addition of cola. “I wished one thing extra refined, and which didn’t use milk.” Inspiration hit when he noticed a social media submit by New York bartender Sother Teague extolling the virtues of Suze and Mountain Dew. “That launched me down the rabbit gap of [pairing] different intellectual/lowbrow substances which might be superior, like Ramazzotti and Dr Pepper,” says Johnston. Finally, he landed on absinthe and root beer.
He sees the drink’s murky look as a plus: The “white, ghostly contribution from the absinthe” evokes a milky drink, which defies expectations. He typically pours the combo at occasions as a technique to coax reluctant absinthe drinkers to attempt the spirit. It’s “unexpectedly scrumptious,” he says, and those that take pleasure in it are much less intimidated going ahead.
At this time, the combo may even be discovered on faucet at Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Joyful Accidents, the place it options housemade absinthe. And, as with most highballs nowadays, a ready-to-drink canned possibility isn’t far-off. In December 2022, the Coronary heart Distillery in Windsor, Colorado, which had been serving the highball at its taproom since opening in 2019, launched its Inexperienced Fairy Rootbeer. “The anise works properly with the sarsaparilla present in root beer,” says head distiller Zach Weakland. The proportion for each the taproom and canned variations is 1:5, absinthe to root beer. At that ratio, it doesn’t louche or look murky, says Weakland.
And right here comes that acquainted chorus. “It sounds bizarre however good,” Weakland insists. “Don’t be hesitant to attempt it; you’ll be pleasantly shocked.”
