Last Word

Equal parts, and nowhere to hide

The Last Word surfaced around 1915 at the Detroit Athletic Club and then vanished for most of a century, kept alive on paper until a Seattle bartender, Murray Stenson, put it back on a menu in 2003 and the drink spread outward from there. Its structure is brutally simple: four ingredients in identical three-quarter-ounce measures.

Why equal parts works here

Green Chartreuse is 55% ABV and carries more than a hundred botanicals, so it normally needs taming. Maraschino is intensely sweet with a faintly funky edge. Lime is sharp enough to cut both. Because the liqueurs are so concentrated, a quarter ounce either way is audible in the glass, which makes this a poor recipe to freestyle. If yours tastes hot, the lime was not fresh; if it tastes like sweets, the maraschino is cheap.

What shaking does

Unlike a Martini, this drink needs the tin. Twelve seconds over cubed ice chills it, aerates the lime and softens the herbal assault enough for the finish to read as floral rather than medicinal. Double strain into a chilled coupe: the Last Word is traditionally served with no ice and no garnish, and a fine strain keeps it clear.

Strength and calories

About 28% ABV once chilled and around 190 calories, which is why it belongs in a small stem.

Mistakes worth naming

• Substituting yellow Chartreuse, which is sweeter and weaker and turns the drink soft.
• Using lime cordial, which adds sugar the drink cannot absorb.
• Stirring it, which leaves the Chartreuse tasting like medicine.

Related drinks

The Final Ward replaces the gin with rye whiskey and the lime with lemon. The Naked and Famous uses mezcal, Aperol, yellow Chartreuse and lime in the same equal-parts shape.

Does the gin matter?

Yes. A juniper-forward London dry keeps the drink in focus; a floral gin fights the Chartreuse and muddies the finish.

Is the Last Word very herbal?

Very. If you dislike Chartreuse, no adjustment will save it — try a Final Ward instead, where the rye carries more of the weight.