If you’re in the blue about Green Chartreuse, here are five tasty ways to use it.
The straight-up taste might not be for everyone, but the history and story behind the green liquid are sure to pull in even the most stubborn tastebuds. Made deep in the French Alps in the Grande Chartreuse Monastery, Chartreuse’s story is old, like going-back-to-the-1000s old. But we’ll skip to the 1600s when Green Chartreuse was (supposedly) made of 130 plants and herbs, and was called the “Elixir of Long Life” by Carthusian monks. Like many liquor-origin stories, it was used medicinally before people discovered it was actually kind of tasty and perfect for cocktails. The most absurd tidbit about Green Chartreuse is that only two monks in the whole monastery/world know the recipe to this day. That’s right! It’s both the liquor and monk worlds' best-kept secret. So, not only is it super old, it’s also super mysterious, which makes it that much cooler.
You’d think that being small-batch and fairly secretive, Green Chartreuse wouldn’t be so popular, but the monastery sells around 1.5 million bottles annually of all three variants (Yellow, Cask and Green). Without knowing the ingredients, Green Chartreuse tastes herbaceous, bright, sweet and green – a complex, layered liquor, making it perfect to mix and easily pairable. If you’d like to try Green Chartreuse, and we highly recommend you do, you can sip it over ice, but we reckon it’s best used in a cocktail – these following five recipes, to be precise.
1. The Last Word
This is one sexy drink. Super slinky, herbaceous and sour, The Last Word cocktail is a beautifully tangy mix of our fave Green Chartreuse, Luxardo, lime juice and gin. It’s said to have originated straight out of Prohibition in Michigan, Detroit. It was made popular in New York by vaudeville performer Frank Fogarty (nicknamed the Dublin Minstrel). In fact, subbing Irish whiskey for the gin turns The Last Word into a Dublin Minstrel. While The Last Word may seem simple to make, it takes some practice to mix up a good one. You need to pay particular attention to the measurements and make sure you’re getting the right dilution in the drink, which means over-diluting if you have to. The ingredients in The Last Word are dense, alcoholic and astringent, so you’ll need water. If you’re mixing it up at home, add 20mL of water to your shaker to get your ice nice and wet.
Find the recipe for The Last Word here.
2. The Tipperary
A pre-Prohibition fave, the Tipperary, as you might have guessed, is named after the Emerald Isle (Ireland) and therefore requires it to have Irish whiskey in it (we don’t make the rules). A stunning mix of Green Chartreuse, Irish whiskey and sweet vermouth, it's smooth and rich, making it the perfect nightcap. It’s essentially a twist on a Bijou cocktail, another delicious Green Chartreuse cocktail, subbing out the gin for Irish whiskey. First appearing in Hugo R Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks in 1916, the recipe has been adapted and re-adapted through the ages, but its core remains the same. The Tipperary requires some attention to detail, so eyes on the prize, friends.
Find the recipe for The Tipperary and our tips and tricks here.
3. Bijou
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the gin counterpart (and OG) to the Tipperary, the Bijou. The Bijou cocktail is a beautiful mix of Green Chartreuse, gin, sweet vermouth and a good few dashes of orange bitters. The recipe usually calls for equal parts, but this can be a little Green Chartreuse heavy, so we recommend 25mL for the gin and sweet vermouth, and 15mL of Green Chartreuse. This is another cocktail that requires a good amount of dilution due to the heaviness of the ingredients, so make sure you stir it down for long enough.
4. Mujer Verde
This is a Chartreusy twist on a Gimlet. Think of it as a Gimlet, but with the addition of 15mL Green Chartreuse and 15mL Yellow Chartreuse. It’s a boozy, sour concoction first shaken at Absinthe Bar San Francisco in 2006. The name means ‘green lady’ and it highlights the Chartreuse spectacularly, which we love. Shake all your ingredients thoroughly as you would a Gimlet and strain into a coupe glass.
5. Chartreuse Swizzle
You could just add a splash of Green Chartreuse to your Campari and Soda for a delightfully bitter palate cleanser or you could serve up this fruity sensation for a bit of fun. Introducing the Chartreuse Swizzle, a delightful mix of 45mL fresh pineapple juice, 22mL of fresh lime juice, 15mL falernum liqueur and 45mL Green Chartreuse. Built and ‘swizzled’ (with a swizzle stick) in a Collins glass with crushed ice, this cocktail is a perfect summer sipper. A fairly recent cocktail, made famous in 2002 by Marco Dionysos in San Francisco, this drink showcases the Green Chartreuse in a very palatable, pineapple-y way.
