Featured Ingredient: Chartreuse

It seems like I can't drink anywhere without hearing Chartreuse mentioned these days. So I decided to do a little investigating and whip up some Chartreuse-based cocktails. Like Bénédictine and Frangelico, Chartreuse is an herbal liqueur developed hundreds of years ago by monks, in this case the Carthusians.

I chose the following two cocktails based on availability of ingredients. Both were a success; the flavors of the Chartreuse's 130+ herbs  made for a clean but complex flavor that was fun to savor.

The Bijou

• 4 gin
• 3 chartreuse
• 2.5 lillet
• .5 vermouth
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Bijou, which means "jewel" in French, also has the advantage of being fun to say. It is typically made from gin, sweet vermouth, and chartreuse. I used Lillet because I always have it around, and I like the taste. CocktailDB puts the ratio at 3:1:1, but I fine-tuned it a bit to suit my taste.

From iPhone

The Last Word

• 1 gin
• 1 maraschino liqueur
• 1 chartreuse
• 1 lime juice

This is a prohibition-era cocktail; I found the recipe on Cocktail Chronicles. Equal parts all ingredients makes this an easy recipe to remember!

From iPhone

Two Savoy Cocktails

The Calvados Cocktail


The Calvados Cocktail first appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930 by Harry Craddock, the bartender at London's famous Savoy hotel. That recipe called for using equal parts orange bitters and Cointreau. I've used Robert Hess's modification to use a more reasonable amount of bitters, although apparently with freshly squeezed orange juice, more bitters are required.

• 1.5 Calvados
• 1.5 orange juice
• .75 Cointreau
• 2 dashes angostura bitters

From iPhone

The Pegu Club


Also featured in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, the Pegu Club is a great hot-weather drink.

• 2 Gin
• .75 Cointreau (Orange Curacao is recommended, but I didn't have it)
• .75 Lime juice
• 1 dash angostura bitters
• 1 dash orange bitters

From iPhone