I love trying new cocktails and nothing bothers me so much than having almost all of the ingredients I need to make one. Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation I found myself in this week when my friend Dan sent me a recipe for this Yellow parrot, an extremely alcoholic (and not very inexpensive) libation with three ingredients.
I have a pretty full bar cart but none of the bottles required for this drink were on it. However, I had alcohol that was similar, if not exactly the same, to what was required. Instead of absinthe I had Pastis from the Pernod brand;; instead of yellow chartreuse, I had green; Instead of apricot liqueur, I had peach.
The yellow parrot is a pretty straightforward cocktail where you just stir the same portions of everything over cracked ice for a minute, then strain it over more ice, and garnish with lemon zest (which I was out of, of course). My way was clear: to make an almost yellow parrot with the not quite right ingredients that I had in front of me. I decided to call it a “cloudy parrot” because if you dilute it, Pernod becomes cloudy.
After mixing pastis with green chartreuse and peach liqueur for a full minute, I was rewarded with an aromatic, juicy drink, the taste of which is reminiscent of European sweets – sweet and vegetable and liquorice. I always thought “this is a little too cute” but I couldn’t stop drinking it either, which means that now I’m a little tipsy and it’s not even noon.
To make your own Murky Parrot you will need:
- 1 ounce pastis
- 1 ounce green chartreuse
- 1 ounce peach liquor
Pour everything into a mixing glass filled with broken ice and stir for a minute. Strain into an ice-filled lowball and squeeze the oil from a strip of orange or lemon peel over the top of the drink before rubbing it around the rim of the glass. (Don’t skip the side dish here. That bite of citrus oil is needed to counteract the sweeter properties of the drink.)
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