Komodo

Substitutions are real fun, and the Singapore Sling template makes so many tasty fizzy sours. For this adventure, I went with another herbal liqueur in place of the Bénédictine: the incomparable green Chartreuse. The resulting color and big flavor, together with a powerful alcohol wallop, reminded me of one of them gigantic reptiles they have in Southeast Asia, the ones that might just as soon eat you. They stun their victims with poison and then finish ’em off. Last I knew, these creatures are only wild in Indonesia, though maybe by now they’ve headed over to the Western Hemisphere and acquired a taste for rhum agricole in addition to the occasional person. In any case, the drink seems fairly pleasant to me, which might explain a few things around here.



Komodo

• 2 oz London dry gin
• 1/2 oz Martinique rum (La Favorite Cœur d’Ambre)
• 1/2 oz green Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz crème de pêche (Massenez)
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1 1/2 oz soda

Shake all except soda with ice and pour into a collins glass. Top with soda. Fresh ice to fill.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Up the Beach

Aloha, people. Tiki Month is here again, and we welcome you to another fine tiki moment here at the Fogged In Lounge. Here’s a little libation by yours truly that ought to help you while away a bit of time in the shoals of contentment with some Wray & Nephew Jamaica rum, green Chartreuse and homemade crème de banane.



Up the Beach

• 1 1/2 oz Wray & Nephew overproof white rum
• 1 oz crème de banane (Serious Eats recipe)
• 1/2 oz green Chartreuse
• 1 oz lime juice
• 1 1/2 oz soda

Shake all except soda with ice, and strain. Add fresh ice and top with soda.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

The Last Word?

From time to time, I find a great drink from a bygone era that’s a little sweet for my taste. Such is the case with the Last Word, an equal parts cocktail that’s two parts liqueur. A certain amount of drinking of things not entirely to your taste is par for the course in the appreciation of classic recipes. But I’m not averse to drying them down if it doesn’t mean dumbing them down too. Luckily, the Last Word has a lot of flavor and adapts easily. I added a little more sour to cut the sweet, but mostly I made it ginnier.



The Last Word (Paraphrased)

• 2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz maraschino
• 3/4 oz lime juice

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

As with most classic cocktails, the history of the Last Word is anecodotal. Paul Clarke sums it up with typical elegance.

Speaking of the Last Word, I try not to annoy bartenders, but I had this once in a bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn while waiting for the rain to let up, and the person working there shook the thing until I finally had to stop her. She was a little too special to begin with, and didn’t like the customer explaining how he wanted the drink. Kindly don’t over-dilute my booze.

Last Will and Testament

A drink for summer’s end: green and gold notes, hints of spice and smoke. There are some finicky little measures, but it has several things that could easily overpower it so I’ve specified the amounts to keep it under control.



Last Will and Testament

• 2 oz gin (Tanqueray)
  
• 1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz Velvet Falernum
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp Ardbeg single malt
• 1/4 tsp allspice dram
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
  

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

The Breakfast Cocktail

Rich, elegant, herbal. The housemate and I are of differing views on whether this is best with bitters or without. Good either way, though for me, the bitters adds an astringency that makes it and dries the whole thing down. But I suppose adjusting the ratio of Chartreuse to cognac would cut the sweet a bit while preserving what the housemate calls a roundness. I see his point.

The Breakfast of Champions, as a certain Vonnegut waitress tells us, is the Martini, though Dr Johnson notes that to be a hero, one must drink brandy.



The Breakfast Cocktail

• 1 oz Green Chartreuse
• 1 – 1 1/2 oz cognac
• 1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
• 1 tsp Poire Williams
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Creole Bitters or other aromatic bitters (optional)

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN. FOGGED IN LOUNGE

For an old friend.

Heart of the Chartreuse Beast

At a stream somewhere in the Sierra Madre, a large animal laps the water. It makes low, growling, purring sounds that travel through the forest and stop all other creatures in their tracks. It licks its whiskers and speaks a little French.

This latest drink in my current exploration of Mexican spirits is, in outline, a Chartreuse Swizzle transformed by mezcal. (The incomparable Tiare has fun with this too in her Del Maguey Vida review.) For a fan of smoky single malts like me, mezcal is a very exciting ingredient to work with. Like scotch, it has not just smoke but intensity and mystique. And it’s a great pairing for the sweet herbal complexity of Chartreuse.

I based this swizzle on yellow Chartreuse, which tends to inspire me more often than green. I dunno—maybe it’s that I never know when the green plus a lime, delicious though that can be, is going to give me heartburn. Or maybe it’s that I just love the color of the yellow one so much. Yellow Chartreuse is particularly good with pear, and I busted out the juicer again for this one just cuz I could. It’s worth doing a whole bunch of pears at once and storing the juice in the refrigerator.



Heart of the Chartreuse Beast

• 1 1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz mezcal
• 1/2 oz cognac
• 2 oz pear juice (about 1 small-medium pear)
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• Black pepper, for garnish
• Mint, for garnish

Swizzle with plenty of crushed ice and pour into a large glass. Garnish with mint and coarse cracked pepper.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Moment’s Notice

I pretty much walked in the door one evening and started grabbing bottles. It’s cool when a drink just happens. The name’s inspired by the John Coltrane composition of the same name from Blue Train. Appropriately, it was the first phrase that came to mind.



Moment’s Notice

• 2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz yellow Charteuse
• 3/4 oz dry vermouth
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/4 oz Poire Williams

Stir with ice cubes and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

Edmond Clément

This is a small cocktail, and should be kept that way. It’s named for a French lyric tenor I knew nothing about until I went looking for a name that represented style and elegance on a more intimate scale.

The measurements are given for two drinks, but if you want to make one, the absinthe reduces to about 3 drops.



Edmond Clément

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz Lillet blanc
• 1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
• 1/8 tsp absinthe

Stir in a mixing glass with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glasses. Makes two drinks.

Source: Rowen, Fogged In Lounge