I’m starting to write this post on the night of what sure appears to be an enormous victory for a political party that is very much not my own. So, you know I can use a drink. The only problem: I don’t actually drink while I’m writing these.

Still, talking about drinking can be more fun than actually drinking, and the Dream Cocktail is kind of easy to write about because it seems as if almost no one else has. I dug up this obscurity in my trusty Savoy Cocktail Book and, for once, I have no stories to tell about the drink’s origins or much anyone else. On line I’ve found exactly one post about the original version (kind of) and one odd but intriguing variant.

Still, I have to say that I think the the Dream cocktail is, at the very least, worth sleeping on. It’s not at all bad and, if you get it just right, it can be mildly awesome. Let’s begin.

The Dream Cocktail

2 ounces brandy or cognac
1 ounce orange curacao or Cointreau
1/4 teaspoon absinthe

Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Toast the Sandman, bringer of dreams and cool early 1990s horror/fantasy comics written by Neil Gaiman.

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I tried the Dream Cocktail not only with curacao and Cointreau, but with Grand Marnier, which didn’t really blend like I’d hoped. I had the best luck, however, when I switched out the inexpensive St. Remy brandy I was using for some really high end Ile de Ré Fine Island Cognac I had left over from past adventures in tandem with my not-at-all expensive DeKuyper curacao. The blend of simple orangey sweetness and sophisticated cognac-y grit was just the thing to take the Dream Cocktail over the top into the land of Morpheus.