Hi, Friends of Cocktails! If you love absinthe and other anise-flavored spirits, but it’s Dry January, and you’re taking a break from alcohol, today I have the solution. We’ll make Alcohol-Free Absinthe, which we’ll enjoy two ways–mimicking a traditional absinthe serve, and a cocktail where you won’t even miss the alcohol.
We’ve already covered quite a few non-alcoholic ingredients and cocktail recipes on Cocktail Time, and you can find the playlist covering them here, but today we’ll add a new technique to make our process faster. Maybe making today’s ingredient would have been a better idea at the turn of the 20th century when absinthe was banned almost worldwide.
So to enjoy absinthe without worrying about any green fairies or a hangover, you-ll need a blender will get everything mixed, and we’ll serve it in this small version of an absinthe fountain. We’ll also use a vacuum setup for filtration, which will consist of a vacuum flask, a glass Büchner funnel, a hand-held vacuum pump, and for this recipe, a muslin filter cloth.
While today’s gadgets won’t break the bank, you don’t really need a vacuum setup to make today’s recipe. A strainer with a muslin cloth works too, it’ll just take longer. As for the ingredients, it’s just a handful of them this time–water, sugar, lemon peel, fennel seeds, star anise, glycerol instead of alcohol for the body, and optionally some green food coloring–grab these last 2 here if you are in the US or the UK, or here for Friends of Cocktails in Europe. With that set, it’s Cocktail Time!
Zero Absinthe Syrup
● 12g Fennel Seeds
● 8g Star Anise
● 3g Organic Lemon Peel
● 220g Sugar
● 110g Water
● 180g Glycerol
● Food-grade Green Coloring
Start by adding the spices to a pan and toasting them over medium heat. Toasting them will bring out their oils, release even more flavor, and it will also cook off any residual humidity so they grind up better. Just keep in mind to keep them moving, so they don’t burn. You’ll smell the fragrance and that’s when it’s time to blend them up to get it to a coarsely ground powder.
Next, we’ll make a rich syrup with the water and sugar, by placing both in a pot. Heat it up slightly and stir it until the sugar melts and dissolves. Then pour this rich syrup over the blended spices, and add the lemon peel. As always we’re using food-grade and washed lemon peels. Lastly pour in the glycerol, but if you don’t have it you can instead add it the same weight of rich syrup.
By now the mixture should’ve cooled slightly, so we’re ready to blend it on high for 1 minute–and remember never to blend hot liquids. Meanwhile, let’s get the vacuum setup ready. We’ll use muslin cloth, because these paper filters, that would work great for something like filtering super juice, would clog up with this thick syrup, even with the vacuum pump.
So cut two circles of cloth to measure, to fit in the glass funnel. Make sure the muslin cloth was washed first, without using detergents and fabric softeners, then layer them on the filter’s top part. This extra step will prevent clogging and make cleanup easier for the glass filter. Now pour the mixture into the upper section of the vacuum filtration system, straining out any larger particles using a fine mesh strainer.
It’s now time to attach the vacuum pump and start filtering by squeezing the handle. This will do a quick work of filtering our syrup, but again, you can let the mixture slowly filter through a muslin cloth, but it will take a lot longer due to the syrup’s thickness. Once filtered, make sure you clean the glass components, and let’s add some color to our syrup.
Coloring is optional, but it really looks the part when you’re talking about anything absinthe, so I’ll add a few drops of green food coloring to a part of the syrup, then introduce this color back to the whole batch part by part. Remember that the color will lighten when diluted with water, so I’m aiming for a mint-green shade, similar to our DIY Mint Liqueur.
Now bottle and add a label to our Absinthe Syrup. It’s always best to store syrups in the fridge, but with this one we would lose the characteristic louche effect that happens when mixed with water. Since we made a rich syrup it should be good at room temperature for at least a week, if not longer, but as always, if you see any particles floating in there, discard it.
As for the taste, it’s very concentrated, with strong fennel and anise flavors, balanced by the freshness of lemon. It’s not for drinking on its own but it will shine when mixed with ice cold water. That’s just another thing this syrup has in common with its spirited big brother. So let’s first serve it in a similar way, using a beautiful absinthe fountain.
Zero Absinthe
● 15mL · 0.5oz Zero Absinthe Syrup
● 100mL · 3.5oz Ice Cold Water
Start by filling the absinthe fountain with ice and water. Then grab a glass and pour in the Syrup. Now slowly pour in the water, and we’ll skip the sugar cube this time because our absinthe syrup is sweet enough. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still use the absinthe spoon to gently stir the syrup and water like you would do regularly.
You’ll notice the slight louche effect—this cloudy transformation happens as the essential oils in the syrup react to the cold water, mimicking the iconic visual of traditional absinthe. We made a great alcohol-free alternative that doesn’t compromise on flavor or presentation of the original, as it turned into a gentle, pale green color.
The flavor is also spot-on thanks to the spices, there’s even some depth from the glycerol, and of course sweetness from the syrup. But let’s also make something a bit more fresh–an alcohol-free Absinthe Sour!
Zero Absinthe Sour
● 15mL · 0.5oz Zero Absinthe Syrup
● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lemon Super Juice
● 105mL · 3.5oz Cold Water
● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution
● Lemon Peel Garnish
This will be a shaken cocktail, so add the ingredients into the shaker along with plenty of ice. Now give it a quick shake to chill everything down, and double strain into a chilled coupe glass. For garnish we could go with a single mint leaf, but I didn’t have any fresh mint on hand, so I’ll garnish it with a small lemon peel circle. Cheers!
The lemon adds freshness and brightness to the base. If you enjoy sour cocktails and subtle fennel flavors you’ll love this combination. It’s the best and easiest zero cocktail we’ve made so far. You might even forget there’s no alcohol in it! But with that we’ve made it to the Bottom of the Glass. Today’s book spotlight is of course Zero: A New Approach to Non-Alcoholic Drinks.
I’ve used it for the basis of most zero ingredients we’ve made on the channel, including absinthe, which they made with essential oils. Make sure to give the book a read if you want to see how it compares to my recipe, and next week we’ll cover how to make simple non-alcoholic cocktail recipes with ingredients that add body and kick. Until then, cheers!