Sour · c.1922
Last Word
Four equal parts, one of them Chartreuse. It should not work, and it does.
Specification
| London dry gin | 22.5 ml |
| Green Chartreuse | 22.5 ml |
| Maraschino liqueur | 22.5 ml |
| Fresh lime juice | 22.5 ml |
Method
- 01Measure all four exactly — equal parts is the whole design.
- 02Shake hard with ice for 12 seconds.
- 03Double strain into a chilled coupe.
- 04No garnish; the colour is the garnish.
Where it comes from
Served at the Detroit Athletic Club around 1922 and forgotten for eighty years, until Seattle bartender Murray Stenson found it in an old book in 2004 and put it on his menu. It spread across the world from one bar in a few years.
If you change one thing: Chartreuse is 55% and made by monks to a recipe nobody outside the order knows. It will bully anything you under-measure, which is precisely why the equal-parts spec is not negotiable.