Cocktail recipe
Corpse Reviver No. 2
An aromatic gin-and-citrus classic, briskly refreshing with a restrained whisper of anise.
Ingredients
- 30 ml (1 oz) London dry gin
- 30 ml (1 oz) orange liqueur, triple-sec style
- 30 ml (1 oz) aromatized white aperitif wine, Lillet Blanc-style
- 30 ml (1 oz) fresh lemon juice
- 1 dash absinthe
- Garnish: 1 orange peel
Preparation
Shake gin, orange liqueur, aperitif wine, lemon and absinthe with ice until sharply chilled. Fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass; express the orange peel above the drink.
Glassware
Chilled coupe
History
'Corpse reviver' was a pre-existing Victorian term for restorative mixed drinks; an 1871 printed example combined brandy, maraschino and bitters, quite unlike No. 2. Harry Craddock's *The Savoy Cocktail Book* (1930), page 52, supplies the influential No. 2 formula: equal quarter-wineglass measures of lemon, Kina Lillet, Cointreau and dry gin, plus a dash of absinthe, shaken and strained. The book's caution about four drinks in quick succession became part of the cocktail's lore. Craddock compiled the recipe; surviving evidence does not prove he personally invented it. Modern Lillet Blanc is not chemically identical to historical Kina Lillet, and a glass rinse rather than an absinthe dash is a modern technique.
Mixology View
Our measured house build keeps the original equal-parts structure, but uses a modern aromatized-wine analogue. We should never attribute invention to Craddock simply because he printed the recipe.