cedric's chartreuse smash

2 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Muddle a half dozen or so mint leaves with simple syrup. Add rest of ingredients and ice, shake, and double strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fresh mint and add a straw.

For Andrea's drink at Silvertone, she requested from bartender Josh Childs a Chartreuse Smash. The recipe for this libation appears in Drink & Tell: A Boston Cocktail Book; however, it has yet to find its way on to the blog until now. The history I provided in the book is, "At Silvertone, if Cedric Adam's name is associated with a drink, there is a good chance it contains Green Chartreuse." Indeed, my first drink at Silvertone years ago was Cedric's Chartreuse Gimlet. As I mentioned in the summary of the History and Change of Downtown Boston Bar Culture talk, Cedric was one of the first bartenders in town pouring and prosthelytizing about the wonders of this herbal elixir, and he is often cited as the reason it became so popular here starting around 15 years ago. Silvertone was also one of the leaders in using fresh juice in Boston, so drinks like the Gimlets and Smashes would shine more than drinks made with Roses' and bottled juices back then.
As for tasting notes, the mint contributed greatly to the Smash's aroma along with Chartreuse herbal notes poking through. A lime sip gave way to Chartreuse and fresh mint on the swallow. There are no great surprises here, but its simplicity of ingredients still provides a wealth of flavor as it does in another Boston Chartreuse legend, the Silent Order.