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The Pink Elephant is two ounces of gin in a glass that used to have grenadine in it. The grenadine is a rinse, swirled around the inside of a brandy snifter and then poured straight back out, which means almost none of it ends up in the finished drink.
Rinsing is a real technique and not a gimmick. It is how a Sazerac gets its absinthe, and the logic is the same here: a coating on the glass puts the flavor and aroma where your nose meets the drink without adding volume or sweetness. What the grenadine leaves behind is streaks of pink clinging to the sides and a faint pomegranate note over the gin. The snifter is doing work too, since its shape concentrates aroma in a way a cocktail glass cannot.
Glass: Brandy snifter | Strength: Strong | Serves: 1 | Prep Time: 2 minutes
Bartenders tip: Pour the grenadine out briskly, as the recipe says, because a pooled puddle at the bottom defeats the entire point and turns this into a badly mixed sweet gin. Chill the snifter first so the rinse clings rather than running. This is undiluted room temperature gin once it is built, so use one you actually enjoy neat and consider a single large ice cube if that is too austere. Good grenadine matters even at this quantity, since aroma is the whole contribution.
Steps
- Pour the grenadine into a brandy snifter and swirl so it coats most of the inside of the glass.
- Pour the grenadine out briskly.
- Add the gin and serve.
