chas

2 1/4 oz Bourbon (Eagle Rare)
1/4 oz Amaretto
1/4 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz Curaçao

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

On Friday night, it was time for cocktails and Andrea wanted something more modern. Thus, we began to flip through Robert Hess' The Essential Bartender's Guide and Andrea picked out the Chas. The drink was created by Murray Stenson in Seattle's Zig Zag Café. One night, Charles, one of the patrons, challenged Murray to create a new drink, and with the knowledge that Charles was a big bourbon fan, the Chas was the end result. The spicy bourbon and Benedictine appeared on the front of the sip followed by the amaretto taste lingering at the end. The Cointreau and curaçao were not as evident as an orangeness but contributed to the whole rich gestalt of the drink and they certainly donated some sweetness to it. We were out of oranges so we skipped the garnish, but the twist or perhaps a dash of orange bitters would have brought these citrus notes more to the forefront.

As a postnote, I found a Gary Regan article in Sfgate about Stenson and the Chas. Apparently, Charles never liked to have the same drink twice (which I can understand especially since it would make for a slow blog if all I did was have Vieux Carrés or other across town) so Stenson must have been used to these improv drink requests.