Pernod Cocktails: The Louche, Pernod vs Pastis vs Absinthe, and Pernod and Black

Pernod is a French anise spirit, bottled at about 40 percent alcohol and lightly sweetened, that pours clear and greenish-yellow from the bottle and turns an opaque, milky pale yellow the moment water reaches it. That change in the glass, called the louche, is the most interesting thing about the drink and also the key to using it well, since nearly every Pernod cocktail is either built around the cloud or trying to keep a small amount of it from showing.

Why Pernod clouds: the louche, with numbers

The flavor that reads as licorice in Pernod comes mostly from anethole, an aromatic compound found in star anise, green anise and fennel. Anethole dissolves easily in ethanol but hardly at all in water. It stays invisible in the bottle only because the liquid there is 40 percent alcohol, a solvent strong enough to hold all of it in solution.

Water changes that balance quickly. The classic French serve is one part Pernod to five parts cold water, so a 25 ml pour diluted with 125 ml ends up at roughly 6.7 percent alcohol (40 divided by 6), while the anethole is still sitting in the glass with nowhere to dissolve. The haze usually starts well before the glass reaches equal parts, and by the five-to-one serve it is completely opaque. The anethole leaves solution as a swarm of tiny oily droplets, most around a micron across, which is close to the wavelength of visible light. Instead of passing straight through the glass, the light scatters in all directions, so the drink looks like diluted milk.

The droplets, unlike most oil in water, do not merge and float to the top. Physicists call it the ouzo effect, because the same thing happens in ouzo, arak and sambuca, and the emulsion can stay stable for hours without any emulsifier at all.

There is one practical consequence. Pure trans-anethole melts at about 21°C, so dropping ice into neat Pernod can chill the anethole out as small white crystals, which leave a waxy film on the glass. French cafés pour the water first and add ice second, if at all.

Our French Style Pernod is that cafe serve written down, Pernod and water and nothing else, and it is the right first glass for anyone curious about the bottle.

Pernod vs pastis vs absinthe

These three get confused because they share a flavor and, in part, a history. The Pernod company made absinthe in the nineteenth century, and after France banned absinthe in 1915 the anise spirits that took its place, Pernod among them, were essentially absinthe without the wormwood, lower in proof and sweetened. Pastis became its own category in the 1930s, with Ricard as the best-known brand. The two companies merged in 1975 to form Pernod Ricard, which is partly why the names now get used almost interchangeably.

Pastis leans darker and rounder because of the licorice root, while Pernod tastes greener and slightly sharper. Absinthe, at its higher strength, needs considerably more water before it louches. Recipes that call for one can usually take another, with the caveat that absinthe will make the drink stronger and drier. Our page on absinthe cocktails covers the high-proof end, and for the sweeter Italian cousin there is a separate post on sambuca cocktails.

Pernod and black

In British pubs, “Pernod and black” means a measure of Pernod with a dash of blackcurrant cordial, usually topped up with lemonade (the clear, fizzy British kind) or water. The blackcurrant turns the louche a deep purple, and its tartness cuts the anise sweetness enough that people who dislike licorice will sometimes drink it happily.

The database carries the variations under other names. The King of Denmark is the water version, Pernod and blackcurrant cordial lengthened with still water (roughly 25 ml of Pernod, 10 ml of cordial and 100 ml of water comes closest to the pub original). The Licorice Twist swaps the water for lemonade, which is how most bars pour it now. The Red Witch tops the same pair with cider instead, a combination from the same tradition as snakebite and black. The Snake Bite Bites Back makes that link explicit by adding Pernod and crème de cassis to lager and cider.

Classic cocktails that use Pernod

In stirred drinks Pernod is usually measured in dashes or used to coat the glass, because a quarter ounce of anise can take over a whole drink. The Sazerac is the most famous example: the glass is rinsed with Pernod and the excess poured out, then filled with rye stirred with simple syrup and Peychaud’s bitters, so the anise registers mainly as aroma.

The Hemingway, better known as Death in the Afternoon, goes the other way, with Pernod topped by Champagne until the wine louches the spirit into a pale, fizzing cloud. The Corpse Reviver #2 in our database is a sparkling build of Pernod, Champagne and lemon juice, which should not be confused with the better-known gin-and-Lillet drink of the same name. For something sweeter, the Perroquet is the French café serve of Pernod, mint syrup and water, which turns the cloud a pale green. The Flying Dutchman is just gin with a measure of Pernod, about as sharp and dry as an anise drink gets.

Anyone holding a bottle of Pernod alongside the usual gin and whiskey can see the full list of what the shelf supports on CocktailBuilder, which matches more than a hundred Pernod recipes against whatever else is on hand.

Shorter questions

Why didn’t my Pernod turn cloudy? Most often there was too little water. The louche depends on lowering the alcohol enough for the anethole to drop out, and a dash of water in a full measure of Pernod does not get there.

Is Pernod the same as absinthe? No. Pernod contains no wormwood, is sweetened, and is bottled well below the strength of most absinthes, although the flavors overlap.

Last modified on October 11, 2026