Moonraker

Cognac · Quinquina · Peach Pit · Absinthe Rinse

Recipe by Miles Macquarrie / @lois_must_die — Kimball House, Atlanta

Ian Fleming's third Bond novel gave Miles Macquarrie a challenge: the original Moonraker cocktail was equal parts brandy, Dubonnet rouge, and peach brandy with absinthe. By his own account, it sounded terrible. What arrived on the Kimball House menu was something else entirely — a stirred, spirit-forward contemplation on stone fruit and bittersweet aperitif wine, with Cognac carrying the weight and absinthe doing nothing but haunting the glass.

Moonraker cocktail in an antique crystal Nick and Nora glass with dark amber Cognac liquid

Freezer-Door Batch (1L)

Pre-batch yields approximately 8 servings. The absinthe rinse is essential — do not add it to the batch itself. Keep the Cognac cold; the peach pit syrup knits to the Bonal's bitterness over 24 hours in a way that changes the drink meaningfully.

14 oz

Dudognon Selection Cognac

Grande Champagne, 40% — clean, fruit-driven, structured

7 oz

Bonal Gentiane-Quina

French quinquina — cinchona bark, alpine gentian, bittersweet

2.5 oz

Peach Pit Syrup

Uncracked pits, 2:1 ratio, 6-week maceration — see recipe below

4 oz

Filtered Water

Pre-dilution

2 tsp

Absinthe

For rinsing glasses — not added to batch

Combine Cognac, Bonal, peach pit syrup, and water in a 1L swing-top bottle.

Seal and refrigerate for at least 24 hours to marry. Can be stored in freezer.

To serve: rinse a chilled coupe or Nick & Nora with a small pour of absinthe, swirl to coat, discard excess.

Pour approximately 3.5 oz of the cold batch directly into the rinsed glass. No ice, no stir — batch is pre-diluted.

Express a lemon peel over the surface, run it around the rim, and discard. Add a brandied cherry.

Peach Pit Syrup

This is a slow infusion — plan 6 weeks ahead. Uncracked pits only. The shells protect against cyanide precursors while still allowing the benzaldehyde (almond-adjacent) aromatics to leach into the syrup. Yield: approximately 500ml.

Collect pits from 8–10 ripe Georgia peaches. Rinse and dry thoroughly.

Do not crack or split the pits — use them whole.

Combine 2 parts sugar with 1 part water in a saucepan. Bring to simmer, stir until dissolved. Cool to room temperature.

Add pits to a clean mason jar. Pour cooled 2:1 syrup over pits until submerged.

Seal jar. Store at room temperature in a dark cabinet for 6 weeks, shaking gently every few days.

After 6 weeks, strain through a fine mesh sieve, then through cheesecloth.

Bottle and refrigerate. Keeps 3–4 months. Syrup should be faintly golden with a marzipan-like aroma.

Single Serve

2 oz

Dudognon Selection Cognac

Grande Champagne, 40%

0.75 oz

Bonal Gentiane-Quina

French quinquina

0.25 oz

Peach Pit Syrup

Uncracked pit maceration, 2:1

0.5 tsp

Absinthe

For rinsing the glass only

Rinse a chilled coupe or Nick & Nora with absinthe — swirl, discard.

Combine Cognac, Bonal, and peach pit syrup in a mixing glass over ice.

Stir 30–40 rotations until well-chilled.

Strain into the rinsed coupe.

Express a lemon peel over the glass, run along the rim, discard. Add a cherry.

Why This Drink Exists

The original Moonraker cocktail predates Fleming — it appears in early 20th-century bartending guides as a simple brandy-and-quinquina combination. Fleming's 1955 novel elevated the name but not the drink. When Macquarrie took on the assignment for Kimball House's rotating menu, his third original cocktail, he started from the novel's referenced spec and quickly rejected it.

The rebuilt drink centers on Dudognon Selection Cognac, a Grande Champagne brandy known for its lean, composed fruitiness — nothing jammy or heavy, just clean stone fruit and oak. Against Bonal's cinchona bitterness and the peach pit's prussic-acid edge (safe in syrup form), this is a drink about restraint. Where the original was equal-parts excess, this Moonraker is calibrated.

The absinthe rinse is the final word: not a flavor, but an atmosphere. The anise ghost stays in the glass long after the liquid is gone.

The Flavor Arc

First sip: Cognac up front — warm fruit, no heat. The Bonal arrives immediately behind it, a clean cinchona bitterness that prevents sweetness from settling in.

Mid-palate: The peach pit syrup opens here — not peachy, but something stranger and more botanical, like the smell of an orchard rather than the fruit itself.

Finish: The absinthe rinse lingers as a dry, anise-laced finish. The Bonal's herbal bitterness returns. Long and contemplative.

What Each Ingredient Brings

Dudognon Selection Cognac

A Grande Champagne single-estate Cognac from a small family house in Cognac, France. 40% ABV. Known for its restraint — floral, stone fruit, and chalk rather than the big caramel profiles of larger houses.

It carries the drink without dominating it. The lean fruitiness is what allows the Bonal and peach pit to register as distinct voices rather than getting swallowed by the base spirit.

Bonal Gentiane-Quina

A French aperitif wine made with cinchona bark (quinine) and gentian root, from the Chartreuse mountains. Lower ABV than a fortified wine, slightly bitter, with alpine herbal notes.

The structural backbone of the drink. Bonal's bitterness is what prevents the Cognac and peach pit syrup from reading as dessert. It anchors the drink in the aperitif tradition.

Peach Pit Syrup

Uncracked Georgia peach pits macerated in 2:1 simple syrup for 6 weeks. The uncracked pits impart a faint almond-bitter note (benzaldehyde) without cyanide risk — the shell keeps the amygdalin locked away.

This is the trick of the drink. The syrup doesn't taste like peach — it tastes like the idea of peach, the floral and slightly bitter edge of the stone itself. It connects Cognac's fruit to Bonal's bitterness.

Absinthe Rinse

Absinthe is distilled with grand wormwood, anise, and fennel. Used here as a rinse — a film on the glass — rather than an ingredient in the mix.

At rinse quantity, absinthe doesn't flavor the drink so much as haunt it. You smell the anise before you sip, and the finish carries a dry botanical echo. It's architecture, not seasoning.

Variations to Explore

Armagnac Build

Substitute Armagnac for Cognac — Tariquet VS or Bas-Armagnac. The rougher, more rustic grape spirit adds an earthy note against Bonal.

Darker, more savory. Loses some of the floral elegance but gains depth.

Amontillado Rinse

Use dry Amontillado sherry instead of absinthe for the rinse. Nutty oxidative note in place of anise.

More food-friendly, less theatrical. A warmer, nuttier Moonraker.

Add Lemon Peel in Batch

Express and drop a lemon peel into the batch bottle. Citrus oils brighten the whole thing after 12 hours.

Higher aromatics on the nose. More approachable for guests unused to stirred-only drinks.

The Moonraker is a drink about restraint. The original is forgotten because it was too much of everything at once. This version knows what it is — and so does the person drinking it.

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