Quick. Name an alcohol that's old, green and mysterious.
Admit it, you said absinthe. If you went with Chartreuse, I'm impressed.
Absinthe is like the girl who dresses and acts outlandish, but it's Chartreuse, quieter and enigmatic, who's the real seductress.
About as old-school as booze gets, Chartreuse was first mentioned in a 1605 manuscript titled "An Elixir of Life." Today this herbaceous and intense liqueur is still made of a secret blend of 130 herbs, plants and flowers — from a recipe known only by a pair of Carthusian monks in France who've taken a vow of silence. All very Da Vinci Code.
Chartreuse comes in two versions — green (110-proof and potent) and yellow, which packs about half as much alcoholic punch and is a tad sweeter.
Besides being a key ingredient in some truly great cocktails, Chartreuse is among the few spirits that can actually improve with age in the bottle. Just check out some of the aged Chartreuse at the dessert room at Bern's Steak House.
The gold standard of Chartreuse cocktails is The Last Word, maybe the best cocktail to come out of that drinker's wasteland known as Prohibition. Complex and refreshing, The Last Word is as welcome on a hot summer night outdoors as it is in a swank city bar. And speaking of old-school ingredients, this one includes Luxardo maraschino liqueur, whose recipe dates to a not-too-shabby 1821.
I've found a nifty riff on this drink in The Other Word, which uses mezcal, tequila's smokier cousin, and yellow Chartreuse. Or try the Chartreuse Swizzle, by Marcovaldo Dionysos. This excellent summertime drink uses falernum, a sweet syrup often found in tropical drinks.
THE LAST WORD
Ingredients:
3/4 ounce green Chartreuse
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 Luxardo maraschino liqueur
3/4 ounce gin
Directions:
In cocktail shaker combine ingredients with generous amount of ice cubes. Shake vigorously and strain into chilled cocktail glass.
THE OTHER WORD
(created by Eric Alperin, of 0x000ALos Angeles' The Varnish)
Ingredients:
2 ounces mezcal
1/4 ounce yellow Chartreuse
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce agave nectar
1 barspoon (teaspoon is fine) of Luxardo maraschino liqueur
Directions:
In shaker combine all ingredients with generous amount of ice cubes. Shake vigorously and strain into ice-filled rocks glass. Best if you can use one big ice cube.
CHARTREUSE SWIZZLE
Ingredients:
1 1/4 ounces green Chartreuse
1 ounce pineapple juice
3/4 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce falernum (go with John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum)
Directions:
In a Collins glass filled with crushed ice, combine all ingredients. Swizzle with a bar spoon until the outside of the glass frosts. You may need to add a little more ice, since some will melt as you do this. Serve with straw.
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2011.