This time of year, without fail, every garden center, supermarket, garden bed, and front stoop is suddenly covered with chrysanthemums. These flowers, often shortened to “mums,” love the cooler weather and bloom vibrantly in a variety of colors when summer flowers are beginning to fade. They’re also edible, and so can be safely used as cocktail garnishes or even in syrups and infusions.
Despite this fact, the Chrysanthemum cocktail does not actually contain chrysanthemums (though I couldn’t resist garnishing it with one). I haven’t seen much speculation as to how this classic cocktail got its name, but I imagine the pale yellow color and floral flavor may have something to do with it.
Made with the recipe below, the Chrysanthemum is a beautifully balanced drink, just sweet enough and packed with floral and herbal flavor. It’s also a low-proof cocktail that does not contain any spirits. The recipe is simply dry vermouth, absinthe, Benedictine, and (optionally) orange bitters. This makes it an excellent option for when you’re craving a slow sipper but don’t want to overdo it. Just beware of some older versions of the recipe, which (as explained below) skew much too sweet for the modern palate.
History: The first recipe for the Chrysanthemum appears in Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 book Recipes for Mixed Drinks. It calls for three dashes of absinthe and equal parts dry vermouth and Benedictine, which sounds far too sweet to me (and pretty much everyone who has made a Chrysanthemum since). Fourteen years later, The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock adjusted the ratio to 2:1, and added a note that the drink was “well-known and very popular in the American Bar of the S.S. “Europa”.” This was a luxury ocean liner that had made its maiden voyage across the Atlantic that year.
Like many obscure craft cocktails, the Chrysanthemum fell out of fashion in the mid-20th century, until it was inevitably revived by the modern craft cocktail renaissance. Or perhaps I shouldn’t say it was inevitable. There are a plenty of recipes in classic books like Ensslin’s and Craddock’s that have never made it onto a modern bar menu, and flipping through those books you can see why – they just don’t sound very appealing. They lack balance. In my opinion, the Chrysanthemum falls into this category. Even a 2:1 ratio of vermouth to Benedictine seems like far too much Benedictine. But something about it was intriguing enough that influential bartenders just couldn’t let it languish in obscurity, and the recipe has been tweaked and adjusted a number of times. Jamie Boudreau of Canon in Seattle likes a 4:1 ratio of vermouth to Benedictine in his “Chrysanthemum #2,” and he also adds a bit of lemon juice. Death & Co provides a recipe in their book Cocktail Codex, which uses a 5:1 ratio. This is my favorite, with the addition of a dash of orange bitters. It may be a different cocktail from the one Hugo Ensslin would have made, but the spirit of the original lives on.
Chrysanthemum
2 1/2 oz. dry vermouth (preferably Dolin)
1/2 oz. Benedictine
1 tsp. absinthe
1 dash orange bitters (optional)
Stir with ice until chilled and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with an orange twist and/or a chrysanthemum blossom.
Recipe adapted from Cocktail Codex. Historical information from Session Cocktails, The Straight Up, and Liquor.com.