Rattlesnake

Shake hard without ice for about ten seconds, then again with ice. Cold sets the protein before it can foam, so the order matters more than the effort you put in. Dropping the spring from a Hawthorne strainer into the tin does half the work for you.

Aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas, at roughly 20 ml. It foams nearly as well and tastes of nothing once absinthe is in the glass. The head sets looser than egg, so drink it promptly. Powdered egg white works too and carries no raw-egg worry.

Two or three drops, no more. At 60-odd percent it will bulldoze 60 ml of whiskey if you free-pour. Rinsing the chilled glass and discarding the excess is the safer route, since it gives you all the aroma with none of the anise flattening the sugar.

Wet ice and too long in the tin. Melting ice waters it past the point where foam can hold itself together. Use hard cubes straight from the freezer, keep the second shake under twelve seconds, and strain fine. Gray almost always means dilution, not bad whiskey.

A classic Rattlesnake calls for 60 ml (2 oz) Rye whiskey, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Fresh lemon juice, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Simple syrup, 1 dash absinthe Absinthe, 1 egg white Egg white. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

A standard Rattlesnake is roughly 33% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it spirit-forward — closer to a Martini than to a beer, so sip it slowly.

Serve a Rattlesnake in a chilled coupe glass, well chilled — this drink is served without ice, so a cold glass keeps it cold.