endeavor

1/3 Bourbon (1 oz Eagle Rare 10 Year)
1/3 Green Chartreuse (1 oz)
1/3 Lillet (1 oz Cocchi Americano)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

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

Last Monday, the Endeavor from the UKBG Approved Cocktails book caught my eye. With green Chartreuse, an aromatized wine, and a base spirit, the recipe reminded me of the gin-based Bijou (or Scott Holliday's rye-base Family Jewels variation) and the Irish whiskey-based Tipperary. Here, the spirit and wine ingredients were Bourbon and Lillet, respectively. What is curious is that these British bartenders published the recipe only 4 years after Prohibition had ended; the recipe calls for Seagram's, a Canadian company that purchased several American distilleries after Prohibition ended and began a few decades of making Bourbon in the States.
The Endeavor's aroma was a pairing of orange oil and green Chartreuse. On the tongue, the sip contained citrus notes from the Cocci Americano punctuated by an herbal tingle from the Chartreuse, while the swallow was a combination of the Bourbon, the spice of the Angostura Bitters, and the main brunt of the Chartreuse complexity. As a food pairing, Andrea discovered that the drink went rather well with a square of Newman's Own Organic Orange Dark Chocolate. Compared to a Bijou, the Green Chartreuse was more pronounced here; perhaps the Lillet did not mute the Chartreuse as well as sweet vermouth or perhaps the whiskey intensified its character.