21st Century
The 21st Century is 60ml of blanco tequila, 22.5ml of fresh lemon juice and 22.5ml of white crème de cacao, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe rinsed with absinthe. No garnish. About 2.9 UK units. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says Jim Meehan created it in 2007 during his time at the Pegu Club in New York, as a tequila answer to the 20th Century, a gin drink printed in W. J. Tarling’s Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937. His recipe in The PDT Cocktail Book, as Difford’s Guide prints it, rinses the glass with Pernod; we use absinthe, which does the same job. The cacao sounds like a dessert and tastes like body. At an equal measure with the lemon it gives the drink a middle, while the tequila brings pepper and green agave and the rinse puts anise on the nose.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Absinthe rinse is the garnish
Ingredients
60ml
A blanco at 40% ABV with pepper and green agave. Oak-aged reposado softens exactly the edges the drink needs.
22.5ml
Squeezed the same day. It balances the cacao at the same measure; cut it and the cacao takes over.
22.5ml
White, not dark, at our working figure of 24% ABV; an LWC listing gives 25% for Giffard’s white. It brings cocoa-butter smoothness and body without the colour or heavy sweetness of the brown version.
1 rinse
A few millilitres swirled round the chilled coupe and tipped out. It leaves anise on the nose without joining the drink. The PDT Cocktail Book rinses with Pernod, which works too.
Instructions
Chill a coupe, and squeeze the lemon juice the same day.
Pour a few millilitres of absinthe into the coupe, turn it to coat the inside and tip out the excess.
Add the tequila, lemon juice and white crème de cacao to a shaker.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the rinsed coupe and serve without a garnish.
Source: the PDT Cocktail Book (From The PDT Cocktail Book: measures in ml, absinthe rinse where the book uses Pernod; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Keep the rinse to a film. Pour a few millilitres of absinthe into the chilled coupe, turn it to coat the inside, and tip the rest away. Left pooled in the glass, the anise takes over and flattens the cacao. Use a blanco with clear pepper and agave. The drink exists to put agave where the gin used to be; a bland tequila leaves it pleasant and pointless. Reach for the clear crème de cacao, never the dark. The dark version is sweeter and browner and tastes plainly of chocolate.
Behind the 21st Century
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Difford’s Guide says Jim Meehan created the 21st Century in 2007 during his time at the Pegu Club in New York. He later printed it in The PDT Cocktail Book, with a Pernod rinse, and Difford’s Guide quotes him saying he made it before absinthe was legalised in the United States, the year it was legalised.
Its model is the 20th Century, a gin drink the Café Royal Cocktail Book of 1937 credits to C. A. Tuck. Difford’s Guide calls the story that he named it for the 20th Century Limited train bartending legend. The 1937 recipe runs Booth’s dry gin, crème de cacao, Lillet and lemon, which Difford’s reads as Kina Lillet; ours uses Lillet Blanc. Meehan moved it along the timeline: tequila for gin, an anise rinse for the Lillet.
The Cacao
White crème de cacao makes people doubt the drink. Chocolate in a sour sounds like a pudding, and the drink tastes nothing like one.
The clear liqueur brings cocoa-butter smoothness and a light roasted note without the sugar or colour of the brown kind. At 22.5ml against 22.5ml of lemon it reads as body more than flavour.
Brown crème de cacao is the usual mistake. It is sweeter and heavier, and the result tastes like a novelty.
The Tequila
A blanco with pepper and green agave gives the drink its voice. Anything oak-aged blurs into the cacao. The agave is why tequila is here at all.
The Absinthe Rinse
A few millilitres swirled round the chilled coupe and tipped out leave a film you smell before the first sip. It frames the drink without joining it, the job Lillet does in the 20th Century, done by aroma rather than by wine.
Against the 20th Century
The two share a skeleton. The 20th Century is floral and dry, juniper against a soft aperitif wine. The 21st Century sits lower, with pepper and agave in the middle and anise on the nose.
The 20th Century as we make it and the 21st Century to Meehan’s measures as Difford’s Guide prints them, side by side
Base
- 20th Century
- 45ml gin
- 21st Century
- 60ml blanco tequila
Lemon
- 20th Century
- 22.5ml
- 21st Century
- 22.5ml
White crème de cacao
- 20th Century
- 15ml
- 21st Century
- 22.5ml
Aromatic
- 20th Century
- 22.5ml Lillet Blanc, shaken in
- 21st Century
- Absinthe rinse
Glass
- 20th Century
- Chilled coupe
- 21st Century
- Chilled coupe, rinsed
| Element | 20th Century | 21st Century |
|---|---|---|
| Base | 45ml gin | 60ml blanco tequila |
| Lemon | 22.5ml | 22.5ml |
| White crème de cacao | 15ml | 22.5ml |
| Aromatic | 22.5ml Lillet Blanc, shaken in | Absinthe rinse |
| Glass | Chilled coupe | Chilled coupe, rinsed |
If you make both, pour the 20th Century first. Taken in that order, the change of spirit is easy to follow.
How to Serve It
Shaken hard, double strained into the rinsed coupe, no garnish. The rinse has already dressed the nose.
Make it at home
The Spirit
TequilaTequila is a Mexican spirit distilled from the blue agave plant, made, the Oxford Companion says, only in Jalisco and municipalities of four other states; our recipes use 40% ABV. A label reading 100% agave means every sugar came from the plant, where plain tequila needs only 51%. Most of our 26 tequila recipes ask for 100% agave blanco.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the 21st Century related to the 20th Century?
Who created the 21st Century cocktail?
Which tequila should I use?
What does the absinthe rinse do?
How strong is a 21st Century?
Does the 21st Century taste of chocolate?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “21st Century (Jim Meehan’s recipe)” (secondary source: created in 2007 at the Pegu Club; Meehan: made with the guidance of Audrey Saunders, before absinthe was legalised in the US; PDT Cocktail Book recipe: 2 oz blanco tequila, ¾ oz white crème de cacao, ¾ oz lemon, Pernod-rinsed coupe).
- W. J. Tarling (1937), Internet Archive, “Café Royal Cocktail Book” (primary source, read 19 Oct in the Vintage Cocktail Books collection: Twentieth Century, invented by C. A. Tuck: 2/5 Booth’s dry gin, 1/5 crème de cacao, 1/5 Lillet, 1/5 lemon juice, shake).
- LWC, “Giffard Crème de Cacao (White) 70cl” (UK wholesaler listing: 25% ABV).
- Difford’s Guide, “Twentieth Century Cocktail” (secondary source: first published in Tarling’s 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book, created by C. A. Tuck; the 20th Century Limited naming is bartending legend; Kina Lillet in the original).
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026