So you (hopefully) read Monday’s post called Chartreuse with Envy and have gone out and acquired a bottle (or two) of Chartreuse! Congrats! Cheers! Now the age-old question, what do I do with this?
A popular favourite of cocktailers is The Last Word. If you were on Instagram in April this year, you probably saw a ton of posts from various people, myself included, with the hashtag #wehavethelastword. The campaign was organized by one of my Instafriends Mike @mmydrinks to showcase the cocktail and to encourage people to create their own drinks based on The Last Word’s premise of four equal parts. The Last Word itself is considered a perfectly balanced mix of a sweet, sour and pungent. It’s a gin-based prohibition-era cocktail originally developed at the Detroit Athletic Club which fell out of favour after World War II. It was rediscovered in 2004, thanks to the Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, became a cult hit and has recently had a resurgence in popularity.
Since this upcoming weekend is a long weekend in Canada (Happy Victoria Day! or as we affectionately call it “the May 2-4 weekend”), break out the Chartreuse and celebrate a Monday off!
The Last Word
What you need:
- 1 oz gin (I used Citadelle gin)
- 1 oz Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
- 1 oz green Chartreuse
- 1 oz lime juice
- maraschino cherries (I used Amarena Fabbri)
What you do:
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice
- Add the gin, green Chartreuse, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur and lime juice
- Shake vigorously
Strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with cherries
To showcase Chartreuse, I’ve asked some of my cocktail Instagram friends and bloggers for some of their favourite Chartreuse drink recipes. They were kind enough to send me some of their original creations. Check them out below and see what creative cocktails they’ve come up with! WARNING: serious cocktail porn ahead!
Chartreuse, with its slightly herbaceous and bitter flavour goes well with chocolate. Jason Walsh, the creative genius at NYCMixology, came up with the very clever (and cleverly-named) Grenoble Grasshopper, a riff on the old school Grasshopper cocktail but made with Chartreuse. (Chartreuse is located just north of Grenoble.)
The Grenoble Grasshopper
What you need:
- 1.5 oz green Chartreuse
- 1 oz white Creme de Cacao
- 1 oz heavy Cream
What you do:
- Put all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice
- Shake very well
- Fine strain into a glass
- Garnish with a mint sprig
From New York, we go to the other side of the United States: Alaska, where the very talented Carissa Pearce, @thefermentedalaskan, sent this award-winning stunner which was showcased in the “Most Imaginative Bartender” competition and uses yellow Chartreuse. It looks almost too pretty to drink! Shoutout to Rob Stapleton for crawling into an ice cave for the photo!
Sunrise Over Bombay
What you need:
- 1.5 ounces sunflower-infused Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin
- .75 ounce yellow Chartreuse
- .50 ounce Suze
- .25 ounce saffron and cinnamon-infused simple syrup
- Orange zest and cinnamon-infused egg white (one week infusion – to infuse the eggs, place eggs in a ziplock bag with orange zest and cinnamon and refrigerate for a week; since the egg shell is porous, the flavours will incorporate into the egg yolk and egg white)
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
What you do:
- Add all the ingredients in a shaker and dry shake for 30 seconds
- Add ice and shake for one minute
- Double strain into a tea cup
- Enjoy
Across the pond and over to London, for the outstanding Simone De Luca’s @cocktails_in_london cocktail that was featured by the one and only Gaz Regan in his “101 Best New Cocktails” book. If you are in London, England, go to The Walrus Room and say hi to Simone; the cocktails he is making are magical!
La Ultima Palabra
What you need:
- 25 ml (0.80 oz) Mezcal
- 25 ml (0.80 oz) green Chartreuse
- 25 ml (0.80 oz) Maraschino liqueur
- 25 ml (0.80 oz) pineapple juice
- 25 ml (0.80 oz) lime juice
What you do:
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice
- Add all ingredient
- Shake!
- Double strain into a large coupette
- Garnish with a sprig of lemon thyme, delicious stuff!
Our recent trip to Iceland had us excited about the natural beauty of the island on the Arctic (Golden) Circle, as well as our fantastic meal at Grillmarkadurinn! The cocktail creations were equally impressive, as is this one from Marcin Kurleto, the head bartender. Fantastic photo by Alexander Máni Kárason!
The Golden Circle
What you need:
- 1.5 cl (1/2 oz) Brennivin Icelandic Aquavit
- 1 cl (1/3 oz) Björk Birch Liqueur
- 2 cl (2/3 oz) yellow Chartreuse
- 1.5 cl (1/2 oz) Amaretto
- 1 cl (1/3 oz) chili-ginger infused simple syrup
- 1 cl (1/3 oz) fresh lemon juice
- egg white
- gooseberry, caramelized sugar art and edible flowers (to garnish)
What you do:
- Add all the ingredients in a shaker and dry shake for 30 seconds
- Add ice and shake for one minute
- Shake!
- Strain into a large coup glass
- Garnish with a gooseberry, caramelized sugar art and edible flowers
When they are not keeping you organized and keeping Mo, their resident Tiki God, in line, fellow Amaro lovers Nikki and Benjamin Byers @thefarmerswife0411 have come up with this very interesting Chartreuse-rinsed twist on a Sazerac!
8 Amaro Sazerac (Farmer’s Recipe)
What you need:
- .25 oz Meletti Amaro
- .25 oz Aperol
- .25 oz Cynar70
- .25 oz Averna Amaro
- .25 oz Braulio Amaro
- .25 oz Amaro Lazzaroni
- .25 oz S. Maria Al Monte Amaro
- .25 oz St. George’s Spirits Bruto Americano
- 4 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
- 1 Dash Bittermen’s Orange Citrate
- green Chartreuse rinse
What you do:
- Rinse an old fashioned glass with the Chartreuse
- stir all other ingredients with ice
- Strain into rinsed glass
- Garnish option: expressed lemon peel
Many thanks to all the bloggers and Instagrammers who contributed recipes and photos!
Have a great Victoria Day long weekend everyone and SALUTE!
These drinks are right up my alley! Thanks for the post Elin!
Mia, let me know what you think, by I’m with you, I like a little funk in the glass!
I love looking at all these fab recipes!! Thank you for the shout out Elin!! I love it!
Carissa, thank you for such a stunning cocktail! I am going to have to try the infused egg trick!