I shopped at our downtown liquor and beer store for a change instead
of the suburban one near the house and was surprised to see how
different the inventory was, even though it's run by the same owner.

Some time ago I had complained here that several fine old liquors
and liqueurs had been discontinued to make way for silly but trendy
new flavoured vodkas and schnapps, alcopops and coolers. Well the
downtown store continues to carry such things as Wray & Nephew
Overproof Rum and Chartreuse.

So I am now the proud owner of a 375 ml half bottle of green
Chartreuse (they didn't have the yellow) and had my first taste of it
since I moved up here way back in 1979. Now for those of you who
are not familiar with it, it is the original, stronger (110 proof),
less sweet, very vegetal version of the two. I had a small shot it
it straight up and it was somewhat unpleasant tasting but then I
mixed a half ounce of it with an ounce of vodka and an ice cube and
it became quite pleasant.

Most of the recipes I could dig up called for gin, sweet red
vermouth and yellow Chartreuse and I had on hand vodka, a tiny bit
of gin, dry white vermouth and the green stuff.

Now the gin was very juniper forward (Tanqueray) so this is what I
did: I added 3 oz of vodka to the remaining 3 oz of gin to produce 4
jiggers of not quite so junipery gin mix.

I then combined 1 jigger each of white vermouth and cranberry
cocktail, 1 shot of Chartreuse and 3/4 oz of honey and stirred to
blend in the honey.

My first cocktail was 1 1/2 oz of the gin mix with 1/2 oz of the
Chartreuse mix on the rocks. And it was good: some juniper aroma and
taste but not too much and nicely in balance with just a hint of
Chartreuse herbiness, ever so slightly sweet overall but still as
suitable for a pre-dinner aperitif as a post dinner digestif.

I came up with a winner here.



Cheers

Jim


... I drink because I can't fly.

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