Saturday, June 21, 2008

green ghost

2 oz gin
1/2 oz green Chartreuse
1/2 oz lime juice

Shake with ice and pour into a cocktail glass (or at Green Street, a champagne coupe). Recipe from CocktailDB.com and I assume Green Street does not vary greatly from this recipe.

For my second and last drink last night, I followed up the Avery's Arrack-ari with a lime drink of similar complexity, an old favorite called the Green Ghost. For some reason, Andrea does not care for the combination of gin with either Chartreuse (despite the fact that she loves both ingredients separately), so often I will choose these cocktails when I am out and not mixing for two at home. Andy was more than happy to make it for me, although his super-excitement shows through when Andrea asks for a suggestion on a glass of bourbon like she did last night.

While googling for a drink history of this cocktail, the first entry was by Lauren Clark of DrinkBoston.com, which is interesting in that she walked into Green Street after attending the craft beer fest and sat down next to us to chat as I ordered and drank my Green Ghost. The history of the cocktail is pretty slim save for CocktailDB citing "J. B. Hurrell" as the creator.

5 comments:

dfan said...

I'll try this at home. I enjoy the related Last Word (equal parts gin, green chartreuse, maraschino, and lime juice), although I've found that I need just a touch of simple syrup to smooth it out. It'll be interesting to see if I have the same reaction to the Green Ghost.

frederic said...

Hmm... now I'm going to have to try my hand at a Last Word here sometime soon. Sounds rather tasty...

Colleen said...

Just bought my first bottle of Green Chartreuse today, specifically to make this cocktail- can't wait to try one!

frederic said...

The Green Ghost still is one of my favorite gin cocktails. And it still holds up after the 70+ years since it's creation (it first appears in the 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book).

Unknown said...

Maybe limes here in Tejas are extra limey, but i found the drink to be out of balance of sweet and sour elements. I would add some simple syrup to the green ghost, or as I did, 1/2 an ounce of Maraschino to balance the acid. This ended up being a "last word" variation which was quite balanced. I never liked the original last word because the sweet/sour elements were way too intense for my palate, so this "green ghost" variation is quite nice.