Last word cocktail

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The Last Word is anchored by the continued drive and obsession of Ted Kilgore, spirits and mixology professional. In the 12+ years that Ted has been in the business of drinks, Ted has become one of the most recognized mixologists in the Midwest.

In his thirst for knowledge, Ted has studied under such industry leaders as Paul Pacult, David Wondrich, Dale DeGroff, Steve Olson, Doug Frost, and Gary Regan. In May of 2007, he attended the B.A.R. (Beverage Alcohol Resource) in Manhattan and earned the prestigious B.A.R. Ready Certification. Attending Tales of the Cocktail, Grand Marnier Mixology Summits, and research and development travel have helped keep Ted apprised of the national and international cocktail and spirits scene.

Ted can be found mixing drinks at Planter's House in the beautiful Lafayette Square neighborhood of St. Louis, MO.

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Through personal attention and assistance, Last Word Cocktails will provide you with the knowledge and tools needed to excel in the cocktail and spirits industry.

1831 Sidney St, St Louis, MO. 63104 (map)

Ted Kilgore's Vision: The Last Word Cocktails desires to help build a cocktail and spirits culture surpassing the Golden Age of cocktails. It is my goal to bring life back to the craft of the bartender and encourage educated, sophisticated drinking. It is my belief that through individual and personal hands on training, the modern revival of true cocktails will flourish.

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The Last Word is a sweet and sharp drink with a pale green hue and a bite bigger than it’s bark. This little palate cleanser is rich and pungent. It is best suited to those who like a sharp kick to a drink and The Last Word should be the first thing you order the next time you fancy a sweet, citrus hit.

How to make The Last Word:

15ml green Chartreuse liqueur

15ml Maraschino liqueur

15ml fresh lime juice

8ml cold mineral water

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with a cup of ice. Shake vigorously Strain into a Martini glass. Most add a lime wedge garnish, but we much prefer having either fresh cherries (cocktail cherries if you have them) or no garnish.

An abridged, inebriated history:

The Last Word is a Prohibition-era cocktail that got its beginnings in the Detroit Athletic Club’s bar in the early 1920s. The drink was served at the bar throughout this period and was spread further afield by vaudeville performer Frank Fogarty – also known as the ‘Dublin Minstrel.’

The cocktail survived for a few decades in America’s bars and pubs and was even featured in Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up in 1951, but the following it had attained was not enough to see it through to the latter half of the century and it soon faded into obscurity.

It was only recently, in fact, in 2005, that the citrusy cocktail was pushed back into the limelight (ahem… pun intended). Murray Stenson, working at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle, was reading Saucier’s book in a bid to find that special something when he happened upon The Last Word. He added it to the menu and it became an immediate success, spreading to New York City, where the Pegu Club brought it to wider acclaim. Such an episode makes us wonder how many more instant classic cocktails are tucked away in dusty old books, waiting to be pushed back into centre stage…

Green Charteuse is an ingredient worthy of note too – it’s a French liqueur made by Carthusian Monks and allegedly, is flavoured with 130 different herbs, giving it a strong medicinal edge. Its careful craft would have been in great contrast to the bathtub gin of the Prohibition era.

The Essential Bartender’s Guide version of The Last Word, as used by Murray Stenson at the Zig Zag Café, features equal measures of all elements. We’ve listed it here should you wish to give that a try.

Original Last Word Cocktail recipe:

½ ounce lime juice

½ ounce green Chartreuse

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass

(As taken from The Essential Bartender’s Guide by Robert Hess).

The Last Word

Equal parts gin, chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and fresh lime juice, this is an old-fashioned cocktail that feels awfully modern. Its equally-portioned ingredients make for easy scaling: mix up a triple or quadruple batch to serve several drinkers at once.

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipes

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The Last Word Recipe

[Photo: Vicky Wasik]

You could call the Last Word the true zombie of the cocktail world. Unlike the Zombie--that venerable tiki concoction which was constantly altered over the years, but which never actually disappeared--the Last Word was created and was then promptly forgotten for decades, before being brought back to life--rising from the grave, as it were--stronger and more powerful than ever.

The Last Word dates to Prohibition, as far as anyone can tell, and except for a brief mention in Bottoms Up!--a 1951 cocktail manual by Ted Saucier--the drink languished in obscurity until about four years ago, when Seattle bartender Murray Stenson dusted off the recipe and began serving the drink to customers at Zig Zag Café. Fast-forward to the present day, and the Last Word is a fully revived classic, gracing the bar menus in cities around the globe. More popular now than it ever was in its youth, the Last Word is a surprisingly tasty balance of four ingredients working in perfect unison. Mix one up this weekend, and make up for lost time.

Yield: makes 1 cocktail
Active time: 2 minutes
Total time: 2 minutes
Rated:

Ingredients

3/4 ounce gin
3/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
3/4 ounce maraschino liqueur
3/4 ounce green Chartreuse

Directions

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice, and shake briskly for 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Special Equipment

Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.

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The Last Word cocktail

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SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.

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The Last Word Cocktail

While I wish that I could try everything and go to all the places that are suggested to me. I used to keep lists of restaurants and bakeries in Paris that I intended to go to. Then, invariably, a few weeks later, that list would get updated with new places and I’d realize that I’d never make it to the older places. (Or maybe I would, just not at the moment. But most of us know where our best intentions go…) The other issue is time, which seems to constantly be in shorter and shorter supply.

Thank goodness for cocktails. Each glass, to me, is a like a little vacation. A nice cocktail takes you to a new place, with whatever mix of liquors, bitters and fruit juices are in that frosty goblet. From the moment the icy liquid hits my lips, as it makes its way down, I feel like I’m going on a little private journey, which can all be adjusted depending on what you’re mixing up.

A reader sent me a particularly compelling message the other day with the word BEG in all-caps. Writing in all-caps is sometimes considered a no-no online, since it can come off as shouting. But through those capital letters, I sensed her passion for this cocktail. And when she closed out her message with “It’ll blow your mind,” well – isn’t that what cocktails are for? So I got to work.

She’d accompanied the message with the proportions (thanks again, Kiki!), saying that she always doubled the recipe because she loved the cocktail so much. That prompted yet another of my scavenger hunts in Paris – this time, to find maraschino liqueur. Most of the stores that sell wine in Paris, and there are a lot of those, offer a closely edited selection of whiskies, vodkas, and other liquors, but don’t delve too far beyond the standard bottles. My bottle of Bombay Sapphire was bought at the duty-free shop on my last trip. I used to wonder: Who the heck buys liquor there? It’s so expensive. Now I know…

I hoofed it over to one highly acclaimed liquor store that specializes in liquors for cocktails, and not only did they not have it, but they’d never heard of it. Ditto for another liquor store that specializes in more elusive bottles. I’m often surprised by that because I’m not a cocktail or liquor specialist, and even I’ve heard of it.

Then I realized that – of course – the Italians know about maraschino liqueur, which I knew about because I used to use it in San Francisco when making Italian desserts, or used it to add a touch to mixed berries and summer fruit, to highlight their flavor. So I hit one of the local Italian shops in my neighborhood, who had one lone bottle on the top shelf, which I grabbed.

The woman at the Italian épicerie asked me how I knew it and I said that as a pastry chef, I used it on fruit sometimes and in Zuppa Inglese. (In place of the traditional Alkermes, a liqueur colored by an insect, which is hard to get. And just for fun, I should try asking for that in a liquor store in Paris!) But I was planning to use it for an American cocktail.

Once I had collected the bottles that I needed, back home I chilled a few cocktail glasses in the freezer and went to work. Because, man, after that…I was ready for a drink!

I juiced a few limes, added the other ingredients in equal proportions: gin, Izarra (similar to green Chartreuse) and maraschino, then shook them up in my cocktail shaker with a fistful of ice.

The beautiful lime-green liquid came spewing out of the shaker and into the glasses, astonishing me with its vivid color and yes, the four unique flavors blended together perfectly. Thankfully, now that I have all the ingredients on hand, I can have The Last Word whenever I want. And who doesn’t want to always be able to have the last word?

Note: Maraschino is usually available at well-stocked liquor stores. You can get it in Paris at some Italian food/specialty shops and at La Maison du Whisky.

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74 comments

Cheers! And Happy New Year, David :)

Thank goodness these ingredients are readily available here!

Can’t wait to give it a try.

The color alone drew me in! Then the list of ingredients and, finally, the name of the drink! Who, indeed, doesn’t want to have The Last Word!!

A rare example of a fantastic 1950s drink (first published in Ted Saucier’s Bottom’s Up). Unfortunately, it was completely forgotten until the early 2000s, when it was re-discovered by Murray Stenson when he put it on his menu at Zig Zag café in Seattle. It’s pretty much exploded in cocktail circles since then.

If I could offer a couple of bits of advice: you really should use Green Chartreuse rather than Izarra in this. Izarra is a little too anise-driven, and the drink needs the full complexity and herbacity of the Chartreuse.

Also, try taking the measurements down to 3/4 ounce (25ml) of each ingredients. Or else, you run the real risk of being on your ass pretty quickly!

Glad to see you found Luxardo Maraschino – it really is the only brand of Maraschino you want to use in it.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Conor. I generally prefer Chartreuse, but I’m out and I’ve had this bottle of Izarra ever since a trip to the Basque country and always looking for ways to use it up. (If you have any ideas – stop by!) But I do love Chartreuse and need to restock that. After reading this, a friend in Paris wrote & mentioned he had 2 nice bottles of maraschino from Croatia, which if I had known, I would have been over his place pronto. Or, invited him over for a cocktail, too.

Warms my heart to see an unexpected mention of Murray Stenson’s name. Wonderful guy – great drinks!

I was going to mention, I had it for the first time several years ago at the Zig Zag, and have favored it ever since. Now that I have the recipe, I can make it at home. Thanks David!

We drink rather a lot of the Luxardo maraschino liqueur over here in Hemingway daiquiris, but I’ve never heard of Izarra. I think my hunt for that here in SF might be like yours for the Luxardo in Paris. I guess I’m off to find chartreuse this week.

Hemingway daiquiris were quite a thing in California a couple years ago though and we are still drinking them with all kinds of fresh citrus, usually with grapefruit. Another use for the Luxardo!

That daquiri sounds good. Now that I have Luxuardo, maybe I’ll give it a try! Chartreuse should be easy to find in San Francisco, although Izarra was purchased by a big liquor company a few years ago so it’s likely more available internationally. But Chartreuse what I would probably use if I had a choice as it’s a little “rounder.”

My favorite cocktail! I’ve also had it made with yellow Chartreuse — the bartender called it “The Editor.” :)

Sounds yummy, this reminds me of something I just had a cute little bar in downtown Orlando on Saturday, Its called “Staid in The Tropics”. It’s tequila, cilantro simple, lime, habanero bitters and then topped with coconut foam. It was AMAZING.

This sounds delicious! I’ll make it when I get tired of my fave winter cocktail: fresh-squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice with Campari on the rocks —2/3 juice (and don’t strain it too much, a little texture is nice) with 1/3 Campari. So refreshing on dark winter days.

Great post! What Italian specialty shop is it? I often have trouble finding Marsala Wine in Paris (even at Italian shops), so I am always looking for more Italian shops to try!

Marsala can be a challenge, too (although oddly, I recently saw bottles at the Marché U.) I got the Luxardo at Idea Vino (88 Avenue Parmentier, 11th)

I love Last Words! I’m not a fancy cocktail drinker but I went right out and bought all the ingredients for this after I tried it the first time. So refreshing and so very very green. I like the glass you chose to serve it in!

Mine may seen particularly bright because it’s winter right now in Paris and the sunlight goes away around 4pm, and I have to dial up the exposure because it’s so dark. (And as much as I want, it’s probably not a good idea to make, and photograph, cocktails at 2 in the afternoon!)

I will always remember, I was hitting a few restaurants in Seattle, asking staff where I should hit. One bartender said Murray Stenson (referenced in comments above) is working tonight, head over to Il Bistro! I asked the bartender if Murray was working tonight, his response, “does he owe you money?” I quickly looked online for a pic and it was him. We played had some good banter. Before I left I said, I was told that if I visited Seattle, I had to order the Last Word, do you know how to make it? He smiled, said “I think so.” I was great watching the focus and intensity of a master craft his signature cocktail

I looked at the color and wondered why it was so very green – it is decidedly a paler shade when made with green Chartreuse as it always is in the U.S., where the Last Word has become an iconic cocktail, at least among cocktail enthusiasts, so much so that it has inspired many bartenders to create many mostly delightful variations. Now I’ve never heard of Izarra before, let alone tasted it, but from what my online research tells me, I’m guessing from your photo that the one you used was the minty one, which doesn’t sound like it would have much resemblance to Chartreuse. I’m not saying that a Last Word with Izarra would not make a good drink, but I don’t think you should call it a Last Word. You’ve invented a new riff on it. Maybe call it the Basque Word.

Thanks for this great post. I concur with the above comments about Green Chatreuse over Izarra and using 3/4 oz rather than 1 oz for the amounts. Not only is the Chatreuse more complex but it clocks in at 110 proof and that extra zing, well, makes the drink really zing or pop. I have heard there is s newer higher proof of the green Izarra nearer to that of the Chatreuse but haven’t yet seen it in the flesh. Also I have tried Last Words with other maraschinos and suggest stick with the Luxardo. Again thanks so much for your cocktail posts they’re great, great fun!

Happy New Year! I first discovered The Last Word at Le Perchoir (14 rue Crespin du Gast), so if you’re feeling fancy I highly recommend both the cocktail and the stunning view. Thank you for providing a recipe so I can try my hand at one myself.

Kiki here! So glad you gave it a try. Last Word is all I drink anymore, cocktail-wise. I just keep going back to it.

So, I’m responsible for the 1 oz recommendation, folks! But he did say in his recipe that it makes two cocktails, or one jumbo. I prefer the jumbo! Y’all must be lightweights :)

Thanks so much for getting me to try it. Yes, it’s a great cocktail. Someone on my Facebook page suggested using mezcal in place of the gin, which sounds amazing too. Time to stock up now on mezcal? ; )

If you replace the gin with mezcal, the campari with aperol, and the green with yellow chartreuse you have another amazing cocktail: the Naked and Famous. Invented at Death & Co. in NYC.

Sorry – swap in Aperol in place of the Maraschino.

One of the best cocktails I ever had was made by a friend in Indianapolis, using maraschino liqueur, which was not available in that state then– he’d brought several bottles from California. It was called a Hemingway, also gin-based; it was crisp, cool, elegant, and unforgettable.

There’s a French version substituting Rhum Agricole for the gin – Le Dernier Mot, of course.

oooh! I’ll have to try that one, since I don’t think gin is gluten-free…

Kiki made me a Last Word and it was divine. So grateful to be her friend!

Swap the Bombay for Nolet’s a FAR superior gin!

So glad that you found (and shared) this wonderful cocktail! And I loved reading all the comments about where people first tried it. It was actually created in the 1920s at the Detroit Athletic Club – and they’re still serving it there. If you’re ever in Detroit – and don’t have an invite to the DAC – be sure to check out the versions served around town. Love my Detroit!

Santé et Bonne Année, David!

The color alone makes me want to try it.

Love The Last Word! I first had it at the wonderful but now closed Moss Room at the Cal Academy of Sciences. David, you could try using up your Izarra by making the Braised Rabbit with Chartreuse from the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook. Yum.

David, this was the cocktail discovery of the year (or more) for us. We happened to have everything to hand, though my bottle of maraschino ran dry at the 35ml mark instead of 45ml. I adjusted the Chartreuse to 35ml as well, but had already committed 45ml gin and lime juice to the shaker, so the proportions weren’t quite true to your original, but it was still delicious! Very fresh, with a gorgeous balance of sweet and tart. Absolutely loved it, and couldn’t help drinking it in unseemly haste. Am now lamenting the empty bottle of maraschino. Thank you, and thank you to Kiki. This one is a keeper!

Hi – Would this work with vodka in place of the gin? I get ill from gin.

just try it what can you lose?

I would try it with something more flavorful, like mezcal or aquavit.

My mouth is watering in anticipation. One question. There are a number of izarras

according to wikipedia one is dominantly almond tasting, one minty, and one izarra54. For the chartreuse version, there are green, yellow and vep (lengthily aged, like me). = what is your recommendation for which izarra or which chartreuse (o; Merci, Lorena

lorena: I would use regular green Chartreuse. I don’t know the other Izarra liqueurs, but like Chartreuse, I used the regular “vert” as they call it, or green. (I’ve not seen the 54º Izarra in Paris, although like maraschino, I’m sure if I do some scouting around, I could find a bottle.)

This cocktail sounds so tasty – and looks so unique without being too fussy. I like that in a drink. Kiki is a bonus. She sounds like a lot of fun!

I was buying gin in Auchan the other week, and they certainly had Bombay Sapphire on the shelves. Perhaps you need to look in the “Grandes Surfaces” rather than dedicated booze shops.

My current favourite cocktail is a mixture of sloe gin and white wine, a sort of kir, I suppose, but oh, it’s good!

Looking forward to trying this – my favorite cocktail lately has been the alaskan – gin, yellow chartreuse, orange bitters (though I often use genepy instead of chartreuse)

Now that you have Luxardo Maraschino, another jewel-colored cocktail is the Aviation.

Shake & strain: 2 oz gin + .5 oz Maraschino Liqueur + .25 oz Creme de Violette + .75 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry or lemon peel.

I second the Aviation…delicious cocktail.

I recently tried an Aviation at a cocktail bar and could only manage a few sips. It was an unappealing cloudy grey color, and the crème de violette was too much for me. Perhaps it wasn’t made well?

There are some pretty sticky-sweet, syrupy crème de violettes out there. I see those bright purple bottles and don’t think I’d want them in my cocktail either. Tempus Fugit makes nice spirits from flowers, fresh mint, and fruit kernels, so I’d try to use theirs, or one that’s similar.

I wonder if they used syrup from Marschino cherries, instead of Marschino liqueur? It shouldn’t be cloudy or much sweeter than a Manhattan.

It sounds delicious. And those glasses are just killing me.

I found them at a thrift store in the south of France. I love them too and was searching for the rest of the set – I only found two (they were €1/each), and there were none others in the store so I just bought a pair of them. We went back a few days later and they had the rest and – one of my biggest regrets: I didn’t buy the rest. My cabinets have way too many glasses in there, which was why I passed. But I really (really) wish I had bought them all!

Try popping in a Luxardo maraschino cherry. Makes it all lux and Christmassy.

Being an avid user of a granite mortar and pestle, I read the New York Times article on your love of that kitchen tool, and clicked the link to your web site. A most excellent blog of Paris and food! I spent 2 hours perusing old posts and wild garlic pasta caught my eye. I get one or two meals from foraging ramps each spring and had not thought of pasta as a possibility. I will this spring. Your post was from April 2014 and I will be living in Italy this coming April. I will watch for bear’s garlic in the markets. You might be interested to know that Chicago is derived from a native American word for the wild garlic place. Here is the relevant quote from the first paragraph of William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis Chicago and the Great West: “Chicago remained a gathering place like so many other gathering places between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. What distinguished it were the wild garlic plants that grew among the grasses and sedges of its low-lying prairie. From them it had gained its name: Chigagou, “the wild garlic place”.”

David – you hit a New Year’s home run- out of the park!

I made The Last Word this evening and we LOVED it!

If things go sour in the world of baking and chewing.. you may have a future behind the bar.

Great way to start the year. All the best.

I cannot get over that color! And your writing – always manages to draw me in!

In between your fabulous cocktail posts and some great parties, I’m slowly developing and growing my cocktail repertoire… But, I’m struggling to find the right ingredients here in Paris! Where are these liquor stores in Paris that specialise in elusive liquors? Would you mind sharing with out me having to BEG? ; )

There are several and Paris. Probably the best is La Maison du Whisky. The shop near Place de l’Odeon has just about everything. (I’ve linked to them at the end of the post.) Lavinia also has a good selection of liquors/liqueurs. I haven’t been to Sipeasy but he looks like he has a nice selection, in a smaller space.

Oh yes, The Last Word! I ordered this drink once (after a long night of drinking) and it surely was the last word for me that night ;)

David- Now that you have the Luxardo, you can make a Martinez as well. :)

Martinez (stirred): 1.5 oz. old tom gin + 1 oz. sweet vermouth, .25 oz. maraschino liqueur + 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Never saw that one! But it looks very interesting to me! I might try this cocktail when we have our dinner party at the weekend. Just the color of the cocktail is an absolutely eye-catcher! Thanks for the recipe!

I just adore the Last Word Cocktail and updated it with absinthe, just a dash similar to another favorite cocktail the Corpse Reviver 2

In 1988 I happened upon my first bottle of maraschino liqueur Maraska brand in Izreal’s Epicerie du Monde (4eme). Never made a cocktail with it but ate plenty of fruit deserts soaked in it and it quickly replaced vanilla as my addition to whipped cream. Couldnt find it when I moved back to Chicago, so I would pick up a bottle to take home with me every time I would return to Paris. In many ways, my love of maraschino liqueur probably was the motivation for my own home-made liqueurs ever since. Thanks for the inspiration to try something more adventurous my current stash.

We were in Paris two summers ago and I saw several gentleman drinking a beverage about this color in the cafe we were staying near. We’ve never been able to guess what it was, especially as it was nine in the morning!

Yessss! I was so excited to see this recipe in my inbox as I had something very similar at Alembic in San Francisco many years ago. The bartender mixed it up off the menu and called it a Femme Fatale. But when I googled that name, I came up with something completely different. That bartender’s Femme Fatal was exactly this drink, but with simple syrup instead of Maraschino and a mint leaf on top. It was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. I can’t wait to make this! And the photos are stunners, every one.

I recently discovered this cocktail at The Normandie Club in LA (EXCELLENT bar, btw). The even more appealing part is my bartender replaced gin with mezcal. It blew my mind. The smokiness of the mezcal took this to another level!

Wish I’d had this in December. My dessert course for our 20th and final neighborhood progressive dinner included after dinner drinks. We all strive for new and different offerings and this would have been perfect. In my next life…

Since you have the Luxardo, you might want to try one or two of the four or so different Yale cocktails.

The most ancient Yale cocktail was made with Creme Yvette, but during the great American Creme Yvette drought Luxardo was substituted:

° ¾ oz dry vermouth

° 1 dash maraschino

° 1 dash sugar syrup

° 3 dashes orange bitters

and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

When imports once again began, the Nouveau Yale Cocktail was born:

° ¾ oz. Crème Yvette

° ¼ oz. dry vermouth

° Dash of orange bitters

In glass half filled with ice, stir all ingredients for 20 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a sliver of lemon peel.

Thanks for the Luxardo ideas. The first sounds great – right up my alley!

As most of us are on a diet early January (right?) I’ll just allow myself to admire your photos (great colors!) and will try the cocktail itself in a couple of weeks once we are through this silly period of new year’s resolutions! Cheers and happy new year!

Thanks for the info on the Zuppa Inglese. I didn’t know it was traditionally made with Alkermes, and we have a bottle of that sitting around that needs a use. (Corti Brothers here in Sacramento keeps it in stock.)

This looks so like one of my favorite cocktails. A Japanese slipper made with Midori. Super refreshing.

This is wonderful. I heard of this cocktail before but never have Chartreuse around. Have the Maraschino though. Will be trying out The French Blonde – gin, lillet blanc, st germain, grapefruit juice and lemon bitters. Actually, may try a few.

And how was The French Blonde? I like David’s Last Word far too much and would appreciate something similarly dry but full of flavor.

It’s so exciting to see The Last Word is still making the rounds after the initial rediscovery many years ago. I first saw it on a cocktail blog in 2009 and have been making these ever since. There is something positively alchemical about the lime juice and green Chartreuse–it almost sounds gross!–but the whole is assuredly much greater than the parts.

I see a lot of love for Luxardo here, but I have to say I prefer Maraska as it’s a tad drier and a lot deeper in flavor than Luxardo.

Wow, I’ve made this a few times now and I have to say, it *is* amazing. Absolutely perfect way to end the week, and only one is needed to do the job! ;)

I, too, am a fan of The Last Word (and of the Aviation!), but I have always found it much too sweet when made with equal amounts of gin, maraschino, and green chartreuse, so I use about twice as much gin as the combination of Luxardo and chartreuse. Yummy!

Last Word Cocktail Recipe

3 mins
Prep: 3 mins,
Cook: 0 mins
Yield: 1 Cocktail

The Last Word cocktail is a classic that is believed to have been developed during Prohibition. If such is the case, it is one of the better drinks to come out of the "drought." The rest of the story says that it was developed at the Detroit Athletic Club. This is all according to Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up and is quoted by Paul Clarke at The Cocktail Chronicles.

The recipe is fairly easy with equals parts of the four ingredients, though one may think it may end up a convoluted mess of flavors. However, the result is a spectacular drink and one that over the years has seen a few well-deserved spotlights on cocktail menus.

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How to make The Last Word:

15ml green Chartreuse liqueur

15ml Maraschino liqueur

15ml fresh lime juice

8ml cold mineral water

An abridged, inebriated history:

Original Last Word Cocktail recipe:

½ ounce lime juice

½ ounce green Chartreuse

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass

(As taken from The Essential Bartender’s Guide by Robert Hess).

The Last Word is a drink with a fascinating Detroit story

Allow us to offer a drink suggestion for the holidays.

You could call it the last word in craft cocktails because it is, after all, the Last Word — a drink with a fascinating story that began at the Detroit Athletic Club almost a century ago and came close to vanishing forever before being reborn as a cult sensation in Seattle.

Now, a mere decade after its revival, it's being served in top bars around the world.

Metro Detroit craft-cocktail bartenders and aficionados know the story and love the drink for its extraordinary balance and haunting flavor. But outside those circles, many metro Detroiters still haven't tasted it or heard about its hometown roots.

Five years ago, neither had the DAC.

The club first heard about the Last Word in 2009, when a spirits blogger called to ask about a drink — supposedly born at the DAC — that had become wildly popular in Seattle. Nationally known bartender Murray Stenson, then at the Zig Zag Café, had put it on his menu there a few years earlier after finding the recipe in a 1951 book called "Bottoms Up," written by Ted Saucier, a publicist for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.

The recipe was listed as "Courtesy, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit."

At first, DAC officials couldn't find any in-house records or mentions of the drink, so they were cautious about claiming it, despite Saucier's credit. And clouding the issue was this note: "This cocktail was introduced around here about thirty years ago" — around 1920 — "by Frank Fogarty, who was very well known in vaudeville," Saucier wrote. "He was called the 'Dublin Minstrel' and was a very fine monologue artist."

Some cocktail bloggers and hobbyists have surmised that Fogarty invented the drink, but DAC officials now have evidence that the Last Word was being served at their club in 1916 — four years before Fogarty "introduced" it in the Big Apple.

The drink was found listed on a dinner menu discovered by club historian Ken Voyles while researching the DAC's culinary history. In addition, he has a January 1917 DAC News magazine (a publication for members) containing an article about Fogarty coming there from New York to perform his minstrel show at the club and "enliven proceedings in the bar" — where the Last Word was already being served.

For Hassan Yazbek, the club's director of food and beverage, the issue is settled. "We truly believe from the evidence we have found in our historical menus and magazines that the drink was created at the Detroit Athletic Club," he says.

Today it's a signature drink of the DAC and a favorite among the private club's members.

The public can't go there to order one, but that's no obstacle to tasting it, says Sandy Levine, owner of the Oakland Art Novelty Co. in Ferndale, one of metro Detroit's best craft-cocktail destinations.

The drink "just sort of personifies the idea of a craft cocktail," he says, adding that any legitimate craft cocktail bar will know the drink and the four very specific ingredients needed to make it.

They are: equal parts of your preferred gin; freshly squeezed, not bottled, lime juice; Green Chartreuse, a French liqueur first made by monks in the 1700s, using 130 herbal ingredients, and Luxardo Maraschino, a sweet but complex Italian cherry liqueur dating from the 1820s.

"Theoretically, it shouldn't work because all of those ingredients are such strong flavors," Levine says. "They overpower other things, but somehow they work together."

The Last Word — a pale green, innocent-looking thing usually served in a stemmed glass — tastes like no other cocktail.

For someone accustomed to sweet, smooth everyday bar drinks or ones made with commercial mixers or sodas, the Last Word's complex, haunting flavors are a delicious surprise. There are notes of anise, and herbs whose names elude you; the evergreen freshness of gin; the sweetness of cherry, but more complex, and the tartness of just-squeezed, juicy lime.

With the drink being three-fourths alcohol, it's a cocktail made for sipping and savoring — slowly.

"Those old classic cocktails are both strong in flavor and alcohol," Levine says. "The Last Word is both of those things, but for some reason, people still really like it."

Surprisingly, it isn't listed on the Oakland's menu. "We don't really need to put it on the menu," he says, because "it's something people just order. . It's a drink where — if people know what it is and know they're in a quality bar — they'll just ask for it."

Contact Sylvia Rector: srector@freepress.com and 313-222-5026. Follow her on Twitter @SylviaRector. Subscribe to her weekly email newsletter at www.freep.com/newsletters.

3 /₄ ounce gin (your choice)

3 /₄ ounce green Chartreuse

3 /₄ ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur

3 /₄ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice; shake vigorously and strain into a stemmed glass.

From Hassan Yazbek, food and beverage director; Detroit Athletic Club

(The DAC bar now garnishes the drink with a Michigan cherry soaked in Luxardo and impaled on a clear plastic cocktail pick.)

Last Word

Cocktail recipe

#19 / 24 in Green Chartreuse Cocktails
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#224 / 287 in Lime Juice Cocktails
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#8 / 11 in London Dry Gin Cocktails
|
#21 / 23 in Maraschino cherry liqueur Cocktails

4 Ingredients

1oz Lime Juice 1oz Lime Juice 2.5 cl Lime Juice 25 ml Lime Juice 1oz Lime Juice 1oz Lime Juice
1oz Green Chartreuse 1oz Green Chartreuse 2.5 cl Green Chartreuse 25 ml Green Chartreuse 1oz Green Chartreuse 1oz Green Chartreuse
1oz London Dry Gin 1oz London Dry Gin 2.5 cl London Dry Gin 25 ml London Dry Gin 1oz London Dry Gin 1oz London Dry Gin
1oz Maraschino cherry liqueur 1oz Maraschino cherry liqueur 2.5 cl Maraschino cherry liqueur 25 ml Maraschino cherry liqueur 1oz Maraschino cherry liqueur 1oz Maraschino cherry liqueur

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The Last Word is a pre-prohibition era cocktail that's coming back strong. With bold flavors from green chartreuse and maraschino liqueur, this is one of my . ">Basic Cocktails - How To Make The Last Word https://www.youtube.com/embed/eEnRehTrJZA

Subscribe to Munchies here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-MUNCHIES Chef Lee Tiernan travels to Seattle to meet up with legendary bartender Murray Stenson.">How to Make The Last Word Cocktail https://www.youtube.com/embed/WAg0e1tvArk

For the full Last Word recipe, click here: http://liquor.com/recipes/the-last-word/ This complex, herbal cocktail will win any argument. Top San Francisco bartender . ">How to Make The Last Word Cocktail - Liquor.com

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1oz Lime Juice Lime Juice ( )
1oz Green Chartreuse Green Chartreuse ( )
1oz London Dry Gin London Dry Gin ( )
1oz Maraschino cherry liqueur Maraschino cherry liqueur ( )

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суббота, 27 января 2018 г.

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How to make The Last Word:

An abridged, inebriated history:

Original Last Word Cocktail recipe:

The Last Word

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Last Word Cocktail Recipe

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How to make The Last Word:

An abridged, inebriated history:

Original Last Word Cocktail recipe:

The Last Word is a drink with a fascinating Detroit story

Last Word

Cocktail recipe

4 Ingredients

Microbadges (Expand)

Found In Lists

Activity on this cocktail

Can you make this?

Elsewhere on the net

You might also like

The Lumière

Mission Impossible

Recent searches

Add to a list

Add to basket

Add to My Bar

Email the recipe

Text the recipe

And . done! Awesome.

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суббота, 27 января 2018 г.