Recently a journalist asked me to explain, what makes a cocktail a classic.

The best comparison I could come up with was literature. A book becomes a classic when it newer leave the curriculum of everyday readers - when it stands the test of time. Same with a cocktail - if people keeps drinking it, it's a classic.

I do not however have any idea over what period of time this is measured - not with books, not with cocktails.

But we do talk about modern or almost instant classics like Audrey Saunder's Old Cuban and Sam Ross' Penicillin - Tom Walker's Maid in Cuba an absinthe/cucumber cocktail in it's own right have been described as a modern classic too.

Perhaps the Flutterby Lassi from the bar of one of London's smartest Indian Restaurants - Gymkhana - will become a classic.

If not I find it fits nicely the other two dairy based cocktails I have mixed this year: The Snowball and the Buttermilk Margarita. The later being much better than the first.

For the Flutterby I followed this recipe from the Guardian pretty close:

• 2 cm of cucumber
• 3 sprigs of fresh dill
• 3,5 cl of Absinthe - I used Blanche de Fougerolles 74
• 5 cl of yogurt - not the firm Greek style yogurt but a more runny kind
• 2 cl of gomme syrup
• 2 cl of lime juice - which is twice the amount of the recipe, but it tasted too sweet with just 1 cl

Start by cutting the peel of the cucumber - you need it for the garnish so using a peeler cut one long peel around the stump of cucumber.

Muddle the cucumber with 2 sprigs of dill, the lime juice and the gomme - this was where I decided to up the lime juice. Add absinthe and yogurt to shaker and shake well with ice.

Double strain into glass and then roll the last sprig of dill inside the cucumber peel and use that as a garnish.