Cocktails with Pastis
Pastis is an anise-flavoured French spirit and apéritif defined by its flavouring with liquorice root alongside anise.
ABV40–50%
Taste profile
Dominant anise and liquorice, rounded by fennel, ranging from bone-dry to lightly sweetened depending on bottling.
How it's used
Diluted with water — commonly around five parts to one — to trigger the louche, it works as a base measure or as a small rinse or barspoon accent lending anise aroma; sugar can correct sweetness if a drier expression is used.
Substitutes for Pastis
Another anise spirit of comparable strength that carries the anise-and-liquorice aroma and louches on dilution; in a large or defining pour the swap is limited to other anise spirits, while as a rinse or accent almost any anise spirit serves, with minor sweetness adjustment.
Often confused with
Absinthe is a distilled spirit built on grande wormwood, green anise and fennel, traditionally dry and high-proof; pastis is a macerated, flavoured spirit defined by liquorice root, usually flavoured with star anise, may be sweetened, and is bottled at 40-50% ABV. Both louche on dilution, and pastis rose partly as a legal successor to absinthe after its ban.
