Dissecting a Cocktail

Chartreuse Swizzle

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

In 2003, San Francisco bartender Marcovaldo Dionysos entered his city’s cocktail competition for the fifth year in a row, pining for top honors. The contest was sponsored by the French herbal liqueur Green Chartreuse. According to cocktail historian Robert Simonson, Dionysos considered sitting out the year’s competition. “I didn’t have any great ideas,” Dionysos remembers. “I decided to make something fun and went in a tropical direction.” His idea nabbed first place that year and has since popped up in cocktail bars across the country and the world, becoming a modern classic.

Dionysos’ cocktail, the “Chartreuse Swizzle,” combined the herbal liqueur with pineapple and lime juices, Velvet Falernum (a low-ABV rum liqueur made with almonds, cloves and lime) and mint. Commonly made with rum, “swizzles” can be potent. They’re usually mixed with fruit juices and a sweetener, built and mixed in the drinking glass with a swizzle stick. Originally, these pronged sticks came from trees native to Bermuda, but the garden-variety lookalikes are made of metal, plastic or wood. One of my first introductions to Green Chartreuse was Dionysos’ Swizzle. For such a high proof (and pricy) spirit, it’s a little shocking how popular it became. What’s not surprising is how the four ingredients complement each other for a perfect tiki-themed sipper.

Specifications

1 1/2 ounces Green Chartreuse

1 ounce fresh pineapple juice

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce Velvet Falernum

Garnish: mint sprigs

Execution

Combine all ingredients into a Collins glass and add pebble (or crushed) ice. Insert a swizzle stick or barspoon into the mixture, rubbing your hands together to “swizzle” the stick until frost appears outside the glass. Add more ice and garnish with mint.  PS

Tony Cross owns and operates Reverie Cocktails, a cocktail delivery service that delivers kegged cocktails for businesses to pour on tap — but once a bartender, always a bartender.