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CALL 03333 44 77 65
OR REQUEST A QUOTE

17A KINGSLAND ROAD, LONDON E2 8AA

"This wittily titled cocktail, created by Harry Craddock, is a dry, herbaceous mixture that features equal parts gin, lemon juice, triple sec and dry vermouth.."

How to make ...

Corpse Reviver No.2

The Corpse Reviver No.2 holds high esteem in the world of mixology. This wittily titled cocktail, created by Harry Craddock, is a dry, herbaceous mixture that features equal parts gin, lemon juice, triple sec and dry vermouth, elevated and lengthened with a delicate dash of absinthe.

Method

Chill a martini glass/coupette in the freezer or fill it with ice.

Take your Boston glass or small tin and, using your jigger to measure, add the gin, triple sec and vermouth to the shaker.

Using your Mexican elbow and your jigger to measure, squeeze 25ml of lemon juice and add it to the shaker.

Use your bar spoon (5ml) to measure out a small amount of absinthe and add to the shaker, or add a couple of dashes if you are using a dash-bottle.

Fill your shaker with cubed ice and seal using your Boston tin or lid, before shaking vigorously for 10-15 seconds or until your tin is very cold.

Remove your glass from the freezer or empty of ice if necessary.

Using your Hawthorne strainer and your fine strainer, double strain your cocktail into your chilled martini glass or coupette.

Garnish with a lemon twist.

Serve and enjoy!

Equipment

Shaker
Jigger/Measure
Hawthorne Strainer
Fine Strainer
Mexican Elbow
Bar Spoon OR Dash Bottle (Absinthe)
Cubed Ice

History

The Corpse Reviver No.2 belongs to family of cocktails once known as ‘anti-fogmatics’. This curious name referred to the drinks’ abilities to clear the foggy feelings harboured after a heavy night. This hangover cure once claimed to be able to stir a corpse.

The first recorded recipe for a ‘Corpse Reviver’ cocktail was featured in E. Ricket and C. Thomas’s 1871 publication, The Gentleman’s Guide. Ricket and Thomas’s recipe called for equal parts brandy and maraschino liqueur finished with two dashes of Broker’s bitters.

The Number 2 was first featured alongside other Corpse Revivers, in Harry Craddock’s 1930, Savoy Cocktail Book. In it Craddock famously notes that, “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.”

Craddock’s recipe calls for Kina Lillet. Sadly, this French vermouth flavoured with quinine is no longer available, Lillet do make a similar product now called Lillet Blanc which makes a great Corpse Reviver but for the closest taste to the original, most mixologists prefer Cocchi Americano, an italian vermouth with a close similarity to the classic French product.

The Corpse Reviver No.2—so named for its ability to revive someone suffering from a deathly hangover—is something of a legend among mixology enthusiasts.

Allergens
Contains sulphites
Ingredients

25ml Gin

25ml Triple Sec

25ml Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano

25ml Lemon Juice

1-2 Dashes of Absinthe

Lemon Twist to Garnish

Times:

Prep: 2 Minutes

Make: 30 Seconds

Total: 2 Minutes and 30 Seconds

Calories:

222 Calories

Servings:

Serves 1

Method

Chill a martini glass/coupette in the freezer or fill it with ice.

Take your Boston glass or small tin and, using your jigger to measure, add the gin, triple sec and vermouth to the shaker.

Using your Mexican elbow and your jigger to measure, squeeze 25ml of lemon juice and add it to the shaker.

Use your bar spoon (5ml) to measure out a small amount of absinthe and add to the shaker, or add a couple of dashes if you are using a dash-bottle.

Fill your shaker with cubed ice and seal using your Boston tin or lid, before shaking vigorously for 10-15 seconds or until your tin is very cold.

Remove your glass from the freezer or empty of ice if necessary.

Using your Hawthorne strainer and your fine strainer, double strain your cocktail into your chilled martini glass or coupette.

Garnish with a lemon twist.

Serve and enjoy!

Equipment

Shaker
Jigger/Measure
Hawthorne Strainer
Fine Strainer
Mexican Elbow
Bar Spoon OR Dash Bottle (Absinthe)
Cubed Ice

History

The Corpse Reviver No.2 belongs to family of cocktails once known as ‘anti-fogmatics’. This curious name referred to the drinks’ abilities to clear the foggy feelings harboured after a heavy night. This hangover cure once claimed to be able to stir a corpse.

The first recorded recipe for a ‘Corpse Reviver’ cocktail was featured in E. Ricket and C. Thomas’s 1871 publication, The Gentleman’s Guide. Ricket and Thomas’s recipe called for equal parts brandy and maraschino liqueur finished with two dashes of Broker’s bitters.

The Number 2 was first featured alongside other Corpse Revivers, in Harry Craddock’s 1930, Savoy Cocktail Book. In it Craddock famously notes that, “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again.”

Craddock’s recipe calls for Kina Lillet. Sadly, this French vermouth flavoured with quinine is no longer available, Lillet do make a similar product now called Lillet Blanc which makes a great Corpse Reviver but for the closest taste to the original, most mixologists prefer Cocchi Americano, an italian vermouth with a close similarity to the classic French product.

The Corpse Reviver No.2—so named for its ability to revive someone suffering from a deathly hangover—is something of a legend among mixology enthusiasts.

Allergens
Contains sulphites
Recommended

The Corpse Reviver No.2—so named for its ability to revive someone suffering from a deathly hangover—is something of a legend among mixology enthusiasts.

This classic cocktail is a firm favourite among bartenders and cocktail lovers and is a wonderful inclusion for a gin-centric mobile bar hire menu.

The Corpse Reviver No.2 was featured in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book, alongside several other ‘Corpse Reviver’ cocktails, and whilst most of these have now fallen out of favour with modern drinkers, the No.2 remains as popular as ever. This perfectly balanced, sour style drink mixes equal parts gin, triple sec, lemon juice and floral dry vermouth, finished with a drop of absinthe.

Drinkers are sometimes a little fearful of cocktails containing absinthe, and whilst the Corpse Reviver certainly packs a punch, it is balanced and subtly flavoured. This cocktail makes a great addition to a menu centred around gin drinks or classically styled cocktails. With its relative strength, you may want to consider featuring the Corpse Reviver alongside some longer, more mellow cocktails. Something like a Tom Collins or a French 75 would fit well with the classically styled Corpse Reviver—both gin based, these drinks are served long, topped with either soda or sparkling wine.

If you’re interested in featuring the Corpse Reviver No.2 as part of your bar hire and want to know more about what drinks might go well alongside it, make sure to speak to your event organiser about your options, or check out some other gin based, classic and sour style cocktails from our list.

Video Transcription

Hi, I’m Ali from Devil’s Botany Distillery. I’m here at TT Liquor, here they make their Corpse Reviver Number Two with our Devil’s Botany Absinthe Regalis. Here’s Kay to show you how to make it.

All right guys, it’s Kay. I’m here at TT Liquor once again, and today I’m going to be showing you how to make a really delicious classic cocktail. We are going to be making a corpse Reviver Number Two.

First thing I’m going to do is get some ice in there, chill it down while I make the rest of the drink.

So we’re gonna start with our gin, and we’re using this lovely Devil’s Botany London dry gin. And we’re going to go with one shot or 25ml of our gin. Here we go.

Next thing going in here needs to be some dry vermouth, just like our gin, we want one shot or 25ml of our Cocchi.

Next thing going in here is going to be some triple sec or some orange liqueur. Like I said, this is an equal parts cocktail, so just like our gin and our Cocchi, we want 25ml of our triple sec.

And the final ingredient going into our shaker is going to be some fresh lemon juice. And just like all our other ingredients, we want 25ml or one shot of our lemon juice.

So now I’m going to go ahead and fill this up with ice and give it a shake. Gonna put my tin on at a bit of an angle, big old smack to seal it. And we’ll give that a shake for around about 10 to 15 seconds. Here we go.

Beautiful. Alright, so I’m going to take my glass that’s been chilling here and just discard that crushed ice that’s in there.

And our final ingredient is going to be some absinthe. So I’ve got this really lovely Devil’s Botany absinthe made right here in London. And we only need a couple of drops of this absinthe. I’m just going to do a tiny bit in the bottom of my glass here and I’m just going to swirl around just so that it coats the inside of my glass.

And now I’m going to strain my drink into the glass and I’m gonna garnish this with a lemon twist, and I’ll pop that on the side of the glass.

And that is going to be our Corpse Reviver Number Two, ready to drink.