Tonight was a slow night.
I mean, I AM far behind my classes’ reading schedules, I know that by heart. But I’ve been so worn out lately that I really just can’t set my mind on reading the ever-so-interesting microbiology textbook or the biochem textbook. I just can’t. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are lab research days anyway, so I don’t really need to prepare for tomorrow. So what the heck. 
I decided to give myself a little break, and maybe post something new on my blog… which means I get to make myself a drink, I think that’s the catch there, if you didn’t quite get it. :p
The Pisco Sour was a first, both in terms of experience and post. After that, I thought I’d go back to something I’m more familiar with. I’ve been thinking about Martini a lot, given that it’s probably my favorite drink and how today’s collegiate society knows very little about it beside the contemporary fruity variations of martini’s (Apple-tini, cholcolate-tini, and the likes). But then, it is precisely because I like it so much, I think it deserves more than a Wednesday night to write about.
So I thought to myself: what should I make tonight? A classic, a fruity drink, or a pretty drink?
Thanks to the ingenious Morganna – Amazing Morganna Almighty, helped me to come to a verdict: “all three in one!” “A classic, fruity, pretty one!”
Immediately, Last Word came into my mind. It’s perfect!
The Last Word was a prohibition-era cocktail, according to Ted Saucier in Bottoms Up. And just like many of the other old classic cocktails, somehow it just started fading away from people’s memory. The most recent rediscovery actually occurred right here in Seattle, in The Zig Zag Cafe behind Pike Place Market. Since then, The Last Word has been regaining its fame in the cocktail world.
The Last Word
Recipe:
3/4 oz. Gin
3/4 oz. Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz. Maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz. Lime juice
Garnish with a grape or lemon twist
Procedure:
Put all ingredients in a shaker half filled with ice.
Shake.
Strain and pour into a cocktail glass.
Taste:
It’s sweet, from the Green Chartreuse and a bit from the Maraschino; it’s sour, from the lime juice; and it’s perfectly complex and balanced!
The Green Chartreuse combined with gin provides all the herbal complexity in the cocktail: the gin’s juniper flavor is semi-covered, not completely, by the Maraschino and the lime juice, but just enough that you can still taste it; the strong Green Chartreuse flavor is “mildened” as well, by the other ingredients in this drink, but it still shines.
It’s fantastic.
I’ll talk about gin when I write about Martini. :p
Today I think I’ll talk about Green Chartreuse.
Green Chartreuse was created by the Carthusian monks back in 1605 for the French King Henry IV as an “elixir of long life”. The recipe for this liqueur calls for 130 herbs and flowers, as well as some secret ingredients. In 1903, a change in French law expelled the Carthusian monks from their monastery as well as distillery, so they took their secret recipe to their refuge – Spain. The monks later regained the possesion of the distillery.
Today, Chartreuse is produced using the herbal mixture prepared by 3 monks. No one else knows what the recipe is except for them 3. It is rumored that no single one of them knows the complete recipe, but each one holds only 1/3 of the complete recipe.
It’s a liqueur so important, it has a color named after it
Hope you guys enjoy this drink. 
