Last Word
Equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime. A Prohibition-era Detroit drink that was forgotten for fifty years and is now one of the most copied templates in the world.
Built to the standard modern spec; not yet tested in our kitchen. How we test.
The recipe.
Scaling adjusts quantities only. Prepare shaken drinks in individual portions.
Let’s make a good drink.
Chill a coupe.
Add the gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice to a shaker.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 12 seconds — this drink wants real dilution.
Double strain into the chilled coupe. Garnish with a brandied cherry, or nothing.
A thoughtful finish
- Do not skimp on the shake. Chartreuse and maraschino together are intensely sweet and strong, and the water from a hard shake is what makes the drink balanced rather than syrupy.
- Measure precisely. The drink works because the four parts are equal; a heavy hand with the Chartreuse or the maraschino tips it over.
- A juniper-forward gin holds its own; a delicate gin disappears behind the liqueurs.
Common mistakes
- Using yellow Chartreuse. It is a different, sweeter, milder liqueur and the drink loses its herbal bite.
- Confusing maraschino liqueur with the syrup from a jar of cherries.
- Shaking briefly. An under-diluted Last Word is cloying.
A few good questions.
Why is it called the Last Word?
Nobody knows for certain. The most likely explanation is that it was the last drink of the night — strong, sweet and final — at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Is it very strong?
Yes. Gin at 40% plus Chartreuse at 55% plus maraschino at 32% makes a drink of around 25% after dilution, in a small glass. It is a sipper.
What is a good substitute for green Chartreuse?
There is no close one. Génépy is the nearest and makes a gentler drink; a strong herbal liqueur such as Strega works at a stretch. If you have neither, make something else.
What are the famous variations?
The Final Ward (rye and lemon for gin and lime), the Paper Plane (bourbon, Aperol, amaro, lemon), the Naked and Famous (mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, lime) and the Mezcal Last Word all follow its equal-parts structure.
Variations
- Mezcal Last Word — Mezcal for the gin.
- Paper Plane — Bourbon, Aperol, amaro and lemon in equal parts.
- Final Ward — Rye and lemon in place of gin and lime.
- Naked and Famous — Mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol and lime.
Where it comes from
c. 1916 · Detroit · Frank Fogarty (attributed) · Detroit Athletic Club
The Last Word was being sold at the Detroit Athletic Club around 1916 — the club’s own records show it on the bar list at 35 cents, the most expensive drink in the house — and it is usually credited to Frank Fogarty, a vaudeville monologuist known as the Dublin Minstrel, who performed in the city and is said to have brought the recipe. It was printed in Ted Saucier’s 1951 book Bottoms Up and then vanished. In 2004 Murray Stenson, bartending at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle, found it in Saucier and put it on his menu; it spread from there through the craft cocktail revival and is now a standard. Its equal-parts structure has spawned dozens of variations.
Sources
- Ted Saucier, Bottoms Up, 1951 (book)
- Detroit Athletic Club archives, 1916 (archive)
- Robert Simonson, A Proper Drink, 2016 (book)
Strength. About 1.64 US standard drinks at an estimated 26.2% ABV, estimated from the ingredients and technique, not measured. What that means.
A little character in every sip.
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