The Last Word

The Last Word is a Prohibition era cocktail originally created at the Detroit Athletic Club.  Equal parts Gin, Green Chartreuse, Maraschino Liqueur and lime juice create a well balanced cocktail with bold citrus and herbal flavors.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 oz Gin
• 3/4 oz Green Chartreuse
• 3/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
• 3/4 oz lime juice

Directions:

1. Chill a cocktail glass with ice and water
2. Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice
3. Shake until well chilled
4. Double strain into chilled glass

Cheers!

This beautiful Martini combines the herbal qualities of Gin and Chartreuse.  We used Gin Mare, which has a balanced juniper note and is distilled from olives, among other botanicals, all of which play perfectly with Doc Elliott’s Olive Bitters.

The nose presents juniper with touches of woodiness, herbs and citrus. The taste is soft juniper with citrus, herbs and a hint of anise.  The finish is savory from the Olive Bitters with a bit of spice.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz Gin Mare
• 1/2 oz Quality Dry Vermouth (or 1/4 oz Dry and 1/4 oz Bianco Vermouth)
• 1 bar spoon Chartreuse
• 1 Dash Doc Elliott’s Olive Bitters
• Olives for garnish

Directions:

1. Chill a cocktail glass with ice and water
2. Combine all ingredients, except the garnish, in a mixing glass with ice
3. Stir to combine and chill
4. Double strain into chilled cocktail glass

I offer up this drink in honor of National Vodka Day, which is also National Taco Day, and in 2014, falls on Saturday, October 4.  This just happens to coincide with our daughter’s wedding day.  Her Groom has suggested the name and I think it covers all of the bases.

I didn’t want to just make up another version of a cilantro-lime martini.  The Chartreuse accentuates the herbal cilantro while the pepper adds a nice background bite.

• 1 1/2 oz. vodka
• 1 oz fresh lime
• 1/2 oz Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 1 slice jalapeno seeded
• 1/8 cup fresh cilantro
• 1 jalapeno stuffed olive for garnish – optional.

1. Combine all ingredients, except the garnish, in a shaker with ice cubes (not crushed ice).  Shake until well chilled.
2. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
3. Garnish with the olive (optional)

Cheers!

This drink plays on the faint cucumber note in Hendrick’s and doubles down with the herbal Chartreuse.  Allowing the ice cubes to muddle the cucumber in the shaker, produces just the right flavor intensity.  Unless, of course, you want your cocktail to taste like a salad!

• 1 ½ oz. Hendricks’ Gin
• ¾ oz. Sweet Vermouth
• ¼ oz. Chartreuse
• 3 -4 thin slices of English Cucumber
• Lemon Zest for Garnish

1. Combine all ingredients except the lemon zest in a shaker with ice cubes (not crushed). Shake for 30-45 sec.
2. Double strain into chilled coup or martini glass and express the lemon zest. Float the zest.

• 2 oz. PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur
• 1 oz. vodka
• ¼ oz. Grand Marnier
• St Germain Elderflower Foam

1. Chill cocktail glass with ice and water
2. Stir all ingredients, except foam, with ice
3. Add St. Germaine Elderflower Foam to chilled glass
4. Strain drink through foam into glass
5. Repair foam and flame drink with Misto of Chartreuse

I found the recipe on a scrap of paper along with a bunch of other little “notes to self” hiding in my desk a few years ago. There was no reference on it, so I have no idea where it came from. Anyway, it’s a tequila based cocktail with the tartness and color of pomegranate. The elderflower foam floating on top makes for a pretty as well as delicious drink. (A valentine favorite!)

• 1 ½ oz. Milagro Plata Tequila
• 1 oz. pomegranate juice
• dash rhubarb bitters
• dash 2:1 simple syrup
• St. Germaine Elderflower Foam
• Misto of Chartreuse

1. Chill cocktail glass with ice and water
2. Stir all ingredients, except foam, with ice
3. Add St. Germaine Elderflower Foam to chilled glass
4. Strain drink through foam into glass
5. Flame drink with Misto of Chartreuse

Cheers!

Hendrick’s Gin has more of an herbal flavor and less on the juniper.  There is a hint of cucumber.  It’s one of those subtle nuances that I would never have picked up on if not told it was there.  But this “hint of cucumber” has brought forth a plethora of “Cucumber and Hendrick’s” drinks.  They all taste a lot like cucumber to me, which is fine in a salad, but one that I find less than appealing in a cocktail.  I came up with this drink that combines the herbal flavors of Hendrick’s, St. Germaine and Chartreuse with cardamom and cucumber.  The cucumber is muddled just enough by the ice cubes.

• 1 ½ oz. Hendrick’s Gin
• ¾ oz. Chartreuse
• ¾ oz. St Germaine Elderflower Liqueur
• ½ oz. Cardamom Syrup
• 2 slices of cucumber
• 1 oz. Lemon Sour
• Dash of rhubarb bitters

1. Chill an old fashioned glass with ice and water
2. Add all ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice cubes
3. Shake well with ice 10 – 15 sec.
4. Strain into chilled glass over fresh ice
5. Garnish with cucumber slice