“It’s a really well-known drink, however that doesn’t imply lots of people order it,” says Margot Lecarpentier of the Perroquet, a French drink consisting of pastis, mint syrup and water. The serve is ubiquitous—particularly within the south of France, the place the custom of ingesting pastis flavored with syrups is deeply ingrained—although hardly ever given a lot thought in cocktail circles. 

For the Paris-based bartender and proprietor of Fight within the metropolis’s Belleville neighborhood, the missed simplicity of the recipe is a part of its attraction. “I actually, actually love discovering these form of previous, forgotten drinks and simply placing them again on folks’s radar as like, that is form of cool, perhaps we must be ingesting this extra,” she says.

The Perroquet—which interprets to “parrot,” a nod to its brilliant inexperienced hue—belongs to a canon of pastis-plus-syrup mixtures that may be discovered all through France, together with one other standard rendition made with grenadine that’s merely known as Tomate, or “tomato.” “I just like the names which are tremendous easy and tremendous cute and really descriptive,” says Lecarpentier. “It’s form of old style.” 

Earlier this yr, she posted a video on her Instagram feed spotlighting her tackle the drink and tips on how to make it at house. “Mint syrup plus pastis isn’t good—it’s too candy,” says Lecarpentier. As an alternative, she makes a simple mint shrub with rice vinegar to convey some acidity to the three-ingredient components. 

“For many French folks, the Perroquet will not be a ‘cocktail,’ it’s simply syrup and pastis,” says Lecarpentier of the drink’s long-standing function in apero tradition, which existed lengthy earlier than trendy cocktail tradition took form in France. However that simplicity is exactly its appeal. “I like that it’s nothing fancy,” she says.