White Elephants Cocktail

When I was putting together this cocktail for NYC restaurant Trestle on Tenth, I wanted to use a white rum. After trying a few different ingredients to go with it, I settled on lime juice and the grapefruit twist — a combo of bright citrus notes. It’s actually the grapefruit twist that is used when mixing the drink, not the juice itself. It adds a different level of acidity compared to the juice. The half-salted rim really complements the Kübler absinthe.

The name came from Ernest Hemingway, who was a major fan of absinthe. His short story “Hills like White Elephants” mentions absinthe. The cocktail comes out a nice cloudy white color, so it became “White Elephants.”