2oz London dry gin
1oz green chartreuse
1oz luxardo maraschino liqueur
1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake until frosty, strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a luxardo cherry or brandied cherry.
The Last Word was first served at the Detroit Athletic Club, circa 1915. Initially you would have had to be a club member to taste it, but it does appear to have spread and had some popularity during prohibition. It faded in popularity over the years but appeared in print in Ted Saucier’s 1951 book, “Bottoms Up.” Unfortunately that didn’t really make much difference and the Last Word basically faded from memory completely until the early 2000s when a bartender at Seattle’s Zig Zag Café found Saucier’s book and put it on the menu. From there it blew up thanks to the prohibition era cocktail revival of the early 2000s, and it quickly became a staple in high end cocktail lounges across the country.
The Last Word is made with London Dry Gin, Maraschino Liqueur, fresh lime juice, and green chartreuse – a bright green, sweet, spicy, herbal, minty liqueur from France. The bright green color is 100% natural and comes from the blend of 130 herbs and botanicals that are used to make it. It’s made by monks in small batches so it’s a little pricey, but a little goes a long way so if you want to make a Last Word I suggest looking for a small bottle. These are all very strong flavors that seem like they wouldn’t go together, but it all somehow works really well.
Most Last Word recipes you’ll find online call for all the ingredients to be mixed in equal parts, but that’s an unusual ratio for most cocktails and seemed odd to us. One post we found said that the writer’s grandfather used to work at the Detroit Athletic Club and the original recipe they would server there had 2 parts gin to 1 part everything else. We tried both versions and preferred the one with more gin, but if you like a sweeter cocktail, feel free to scale the gin back to 1 oz.