louis special

1/3 Dry Gin (1/2 oz Wireworks)
1/3 Benedictine (1/2 oz)
1/3 Green Chartreuse (1/2 oz)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Two Wednesdays ago, the cocktail hour began with a curiosity from the 1940 edition of The How and When by Hyman Gale and Gerald F. Marco. The Louis Special recipe was provided "courtesy of Louis Postenrieder, head barman Hotel Bristol, Wien," and the intense equal parts combination that includes Green Chartreuse and Benedictine seems like it could roll out of a hip speakeasy bar in Manhattan today moreso than a hotel bar in Austria over 70 years ago. Once mixed, the Louis Special offered a green herbalness to the nose. A sweet almost honey-like sip gave way to a swallow that presented the Green Chartreuse smoothed out by the Benedictine. Indeed, Andrea declared that it was "delicately sweet and floral." I was curious what the libation would be like as a room temperature Scaffa, although perhaps 1.5-2 parts gin to one part each of the liqueurs would work better since there would be no ice-melt dilution to cut the sweetness.