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"The Last Word is a prohibition-era cocktail that, like many of its cohorts, has stood the test of time without ever really changing.."
This bartender favourite is one of those strangely perfect combinations of complex herbal notes, fresh citrus and the delicate sweetness of a classic liqueur, without any syrup or sugar.
Chill a martini glass/coupette in the freezer or fill it with ice.
Take your Boston glass or small tin and, using your jigger to measure, add the gin, Chartreuse, and maraschino liqueur to the shaker.
Using your Mexican elbow and a jigger to measure, squeeze 25ml of lime juice and add it to the shaker.
Fill your shaker with cubed ice and seal using your Boston tin or lid, before shaking vigrously for 10-12 seconds, or until your tin is very cold.
Remove your glass from the freezer, or empty of ice if necessary.
Using your Hawthorne strainer and your fine strainer, double strain the cocktail into your chilled martini glass or coupette.
Garnish with a cocktail cherry, serve and enjoy!
Shaker
Jigger/Measure
Mexican Elbow
Hawthorne Strainer
Fine Strainer
Cubed Ice
The Last Word is generally agreed to have been created sometime during the prohibition at the Detroit Athletic Club’s bar. The first written instance of the cocktail is in Ted Saucier’s 1951 book Bottoms Up! In the book, Saucier recounts that the drink was created around 30 years before at the Athletic Club and that it grew in popularity, eventually spreading to New York, thanks to its popularity with a successful vaudeville performer named Frank Fogarty.
Sadly, some time after WWII the Last Word fell into obscurity, being lost to a whole generation of drinkers and mixologists until, in 2004, bartender Murray Stenson of the Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, was searching through an old copy of Bottoms Up! for new drinks to serve at his bar. Setnson stumbled across the Last Word and it immediately caught his eye. He began serving it at the Zig Zig and it soon became a cult hit at bars around the Pacific Northwest, before making its way around the world.
Though pretty much all bartenders, drinkers and cocktail publications agree that the recipe for a Last Word contains equal parts of all its ingredients, somewhat bafflingly, the Difford’s Guide recipe, ups the gin and lowers all the rest to give a 3:2:2:2 ratio and for some strange reason includes a splash of chilled mineral water.
We don’t condone adding water to any cocktail unless its soda and it’s going on top, best stick to the original recipe for this one.
25ml Gin
25ml Green Chartreuse
25ml Maraschino
25ml Lime Juice
Maraschino Cherry to garnish
Prep: 2 Minutes
Make: 30 Seconds
Total: 2 Minutes and 30 Seconds
185 calories
Serves 1
Chill a martini glass/coupette in the freezer or fill it with ice.
Take your Boston glass or small tin and, using your jigger to measure, add the gin, Chartreuse, and maraschino liqueur to the shaker.
Using your Mexican elbow and a jigger to measure, squeeze 25ml of lime juice and add it to the shaker.
Fill your shaker with cubed ice and seal using your Boston tin or lid, before shaking vigrously for 10-12 seconds, or until your tin is very cold.
Remove your glass from the freezer, or empty of ice if necessary.
Using your Hawthorne strainer and your fine strainer, double strain the cocktail into your chilled martini glass or coupette.
Garnish with a cocktail cherry, serve and enjoy!
Shaker
Jigger/Measure
Mexican Elbow
Hawthorne Strainer
Fine Strainer
Cubed Ice
The Last Word is generally agreed to have been created sometime during the prohibition at the Detroit Athletic Club’s bar. The first written instance of the cocktail is in Ted Saucier’s 1951 book Bottoms Up! In the book, Saucier recounts that the drink was created around 30 years before at the Athletic Club and that it grew in popularity, eventually spreading to New York, thanks to its popularity with a successful vaudeville performer named Frank Fogarty.
Sadly, some time after WWII the Last Word fell into obscurity, being lost to a whole generation of drinkers and mixologists until, in 2004, bartender Murray Stenson of the Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, was searching through an old copy of Bottoms Up! for new drinks to serve at his bar. Setnson stumbled across the Last Word and it immediately caught his eye. He began serving it at the Zig Zig and it soon became a cult hit at bars around the Pacific Northwest, before making its way around the world.
Though pretty much all bartenders, drinkers and cocktail publications agree that the recipe for a Last Word contains equal parts of all its ingredients, somewhat bafflingly, the Difford’s Guide recipe, ups the gin and lowers all the rest to give a 3:2:2:2 ratio and for some strange reason includes a splash of chilled mineral water.
We don’t condone adding water to any cocktail unless its soda and it’s going on top, best stick to the original recipe for this one.
The Last Word is a prohibition-era cocktail that, like many of its cohorts, has stood the test of time without ever really changing — its simple, memorable recipe has remained the same since its creation.
The Last Word is a classic cocktail similar to a Corpse Reviver No.2 in that it combines gin, citrus, liqueur and herbal fortified wine or liqueur in equal parts and somehow, miraculously produces a drink that is at once devilishly strong and frighteningly moreish, it has a balanced flavour that belays little of its potent combination of ingredients.
Both these drinks are sure to please and surprise guests and make great additions to a gin-based or classically styled menu, The Last Word in particular is something of an elusive drink, revered by bartenders and cocktail aficionados but little-known to the general drinking public.
The Last Word and the Corpse Reviver No.2 are both quite strong cocktails so if you’re planning a menu around drinks like these it’s worth offering some lighter options too, as well as a range of beers, ciders or wines to choose from, there are a bunch of great gin cocktails that follow a similar theme without packing quite so much of a punch.
If you’re planning to serve a Last Word at your event and want to know more about what drinks might be good to serve with it, be sure to speak to your event organiser or check out some other gin-based, classic and sour-style cocktails from our list.