December 24, 2015 Advent with SusieJ

Last Word

John O'Brien

John explains that the Last Word is one of his favorite cocktails because he associates it with the two most important women in his life: his partner Melissa, and his mother. John wasn't much of a cocktail drinker until he met Melissa. During one of their first dates, they drank Last Words on the second-floor deck of Apothecary, Philadelphia's earliest modern cocktail bar. A year or more later, John and Melissa mixed a batch of these cocktails for Thanksgiving dinner at his mother's house, using entire bottles of gin and Chartreuse, fresh lime juice from two dozen or more limes, and a pasta pot as a mixing bowl. It was a memorable, hours long event around the large dining room table, filled with hilarious, heady, stimulating conversation, well-lubricated by the Last Word.

• 3 parts gin (1 1/2 oz)
• 2 fresh lime juice (1 oz)
• 2 green chartreuse (1 oz)
• 1 maraschino (1/2 oz)
• dash Angostura

Shake gin, lime juice and chartreuse over ice and strain into a coupe. Add a dash of Angostura bitters.