Ok, there’s nothing particularly environmentally responsible about this cocktail, but it’s uncommonly delicious, and it’s a beautiful celery green color. A few weeks ago my friend and mixmaster Steven sent me the recipe, and I’ve had a hard time keeping us stocked with its ingredients ever since.
The recipe is simple, but the flavor is complex. There are four ingredients combined in equal amounts: fresh lime juice, Chartreuse, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur and gin. The sweet Chartreuse and Maraschino are perfectly balanced by the tart lime and dry gin, and something magical happens when the sour cherry and almond flavors of the Maraschino mingle with the spicy herbal notes of the Chartreuse. Don’t confuse real Maraschino liqueur with the foul fluorescent red syrup of bad Sundae cherries –the real thing captures the flavor of Dalmatian Marasca sour cherries in an artisanal liqueur from Italy. (For more on Maraschino, see my post here.) Luxardo Maraschino and Chartreuse can be a little hard to find, but both are available in the online stores of the amazing cocktail supply house Cask in San Francisco (www.caskstore.com) and the big box Beverages and More (www.bevmo.com).
Even if you don’t use Maraschino and Chartreuse for anything else (but I think you should — see my post on homemade Maraschino cherries), I’d advise adding them to your bar just to make this drink. I don’t think the handsome bottles will gather much dust on your shelf.
Steven attributes the origin of this cocktail to the Detroit Athletic Club in the 1930s. As for the name, he writes, “Watch out, though. After a couple of these, you never know who might have the Last Word with you.”
Recipe
(for two drinks)
Ingredients
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (about three large limes)
1/3 cup Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
1/3 cup Chartreuse (which comes in two flavors/colors, green and yellow –use the green)
1/3 cup gin
Pour the ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, shake vigorously and strain into stemmed glasses. Garnish with a real Maraschino cherry or a strip of lime zest. If you like your drink a little drier, just add a little more gin to the mix.
