Happy St. Patrick's Day! Going green with the Bijou Cocktail
So I'm not one for green beer and silly hats and St. Patrick's Day is the one day of the year you can be sure I will NOT be anywhere NEAR a bar. That being said, I do appreciate my fair share of Irish tradition. Corned beef and cabbage, banshees, Westlife...so I thought a green drink was in order and made myself a nice little hoilday-themed libation this evening. The Bijou Cocktail. Bijou means "jewel" in French and was named after the gin (diamond), vermouth (ruby), and chartreuse (emerald). The original recipe dates back to the 1890s. I modified it slightly, swapping the sweet vermouth for dry. Thus making it drier and, more importantly, green. FUN FACT: Tanqueray Malacca was introduced in 1997, and was similar to an "old tom" style gin, which was a bit sweeter and lighter than a london dry. A few years ahead of its time, it disappeared from the shelves in 2001. Thanks to the current cocktail resurgence and demand from craft bartenders, it is back, albiet in limited quantities in numbered bottles. I think the sweeter style of this gin lended itself to my tweaking of this well respected classic.
Ingredients:
- 1 oz Gin (I used Tanquerey Malacca, obviously)
- 1 oz dry vermouth (this should always be refrigerated!)
- 1 oz green Chartreuse
- 1 dash Regan's orange bitters
The original garnish would have been a cherry but a lime seemed right. So it's all green. Slainte!
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