Hard to spell but easy to drink, the Chrysanthemum falls into the category of lesser-known classics—still held in good regard, but not often invited to the party. However, with a formula that ticks the current trendy cocktail boxes, the Chrysanthemum might just be ready to bloom once more.
Debuting more than a century ago, the recipe first appeared in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks in 1916, followed by an adaptation by Harry Craddock in 1930 for The Savoy Cocktail Book. Eschewing a base spirit altogether, the Chrysanthemum puts vermouth in the spotlight, augmented with herbal liqueur Bénédictine and boosted by a few dashes of absinthe. “When absinthe was legalized [in the U.S.] at the end of 2006, a lot of bartenders went looking for golden age recipes to see what we could do with the newly legalized spirit,” says bartender and author Jim Meehan, pointing to the drink’s initial resurgence within the craft cocktail renaissance.
The primary variation is seen in the ratio of the cocktail, evolving over thedecades in step with drinkers’ tastes. While Ensslin’s early recipe called for equal parts dry vermouth and Bénédictine, Craddock’s version dialed back the sweetness with a 2:1 ratio, which remains more or less the standard today. “The key to resurrecting recipes like this is bringing the big flavors into balance and bringing the sweetness down from the original formula,” says Meehan. “Adding more dry vermouth also throttles the strength of the drink, which makes it more appealing for the aperitif audience. The recipe is a delicious puzzle, with much complexity to consider.
