Alaska
An Alaska is 50ml of London Dry gin and 25ml of yellow Chartreuse with two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick & Nora, with a lemon twist. About 3.1 UK units, all of it spirit. It was in print by 1914, Punch says, when Jacques Straub’s Drinks listed it as Old Tom gin with a smaller measure of yellow Chartreuse and a dash of orange bitters, shaken. The gin-led ratio has held; the Old Tom and the shaking have not. The name is unexplained; Difford’s Guide offers only a conjecture about the Alaska gold rush and the drink’s golden colour. Yellow Chartreuse is the drink. Sweet and spicy at 43% ABV on Chartreuse’s own page, softer than green, it sweetens the gin and seasons it at once. A full 30-second stir is what turns two strong bottles into one smooth drink.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Lemon twist expressed over the glass and either discarded or rested on the rim
Ingredients
50ml
Around 40% ABV, with plenty of juniper. It has to stay in front of a sweet, herbal liqueur, and a soft or floral gin gets lost. Difford’s Guide prints Straub’s 1914 recipe with Old Tom, the sweeter style.
25ml
Yellow, not green: 43% ABV on Chartreuse’s own page, which calls it sweet with a soft structure, against green at 55%. It does the sweetening and the seasoning together. Green at the same measure makes a harder, hotter drink.
2 dashes
Two dashes join the gin’s citrus to the Chartreuse’s honey and lift the finish. Angostura, which its own page describes as a bouquet of herbs, fruits and spices, pulls the drink somewhere else, so keep to orange.
Instructions
Chill a Nick & Nora glass in the freezer.
Add the gin, yellow Chartreuse and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Express a lemon twist over the surface, then rest it on the rim or discard it.
Our version
The IBA lists no Alaska. Straub’s 1914 recipe, as Difford’s Guide prints it, is Old Tom gin with a smaller measure of yellow Chartreuse and a dash of orange bitters, shaken. Ours is 50ml of London Dry gin, 25ml of yellow Chartreuse and two dashes of bitters, stirred.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Stir for the full 30 seconds. With no juice and no vermouth, the melt is the only water in the glass, and an under-stirred Alaska tastes hot and sticky where a properly stirred one is silky. Chill the Nick & Nora and keep the pour small. Yellow Chartreuse turns cloying as it warms, and a 75ml drink is finished before that happens. Taste the ratio before you change it. Two to one keeps the gin in front; equal parts makes a sweeter drink led by the Chartreuse, and three to one a drier one. Move 5ml at a time.
Behind the Alaska
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Punch says the Alaska was in print by 1914, in Drinks, a book by Jacques Straub: a dash of orange bitters, yellow Chartreuse, and Old Tom gin as the larger measure, shaken, as Difford’s Guide prints it.
Where the name came from is unknown. Difford’s Guide calls the idea that it refers to the drink’s golden colour and the Alaska gold rush a conjecture, and no bartender or bar has a documented claim to it.
Yellow Chartreuse
Chartreuse’s own page describes Yellow Chartreuse as 43% ABV, with sweetness, spicy scents and a soft structure, and says its production differs significantly from Green, which is 55%. Where green leads with heat and a medicinal edge, in our view, yellow is softer and floral.
In the Alaska it does two jobs. It is the only sweetener and the only seasoning, so the drink rises or falls on it.
The Orange Bitters
Two dashes tie the gin’s citrus peel to the Chartreuse’s honey and lift the finish. They should be felt rather than tasted; if you can pick them out, there are too many.
The Ratio Question
Straub made the gin the larger measure, as Difford’s Guide prints him, and two to one keeps it in front with the Chartreuse in support. Equal parts gives a sweeter drink in which the Chartreuse leads; three to one leaves it as a background note.
Three ratios for the Alaska: ours is two to one, the others are variations of our own; UK units ours, with yellow Chartreuse at 43% on Chartreuse’s own page
Two to one (ours)
- Gin
- 50ml
- Yellow Chartreuse
- 25ml
- Character
- Gin in front, honey behind
- UK units
- About 3.1
Equal parts
- Gin
- 40ml
- Yellow Chartreuse
- 40ml
- Character
- Sweeter, Chartreuse leads
- UK units
- About 3.3
Three to one
- Gin
- 60ml
- Yellow Chartreuse
- 20ml
- Character
- Drier, Chartreuse in the background
- UK units
- About 3.3
| Ratio | Gin | Yellow Chartreuse | Character | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two to one (ours) | 50ml | 25ml | Gin in front, honey behind | About 3.1 |
| Equal parts | 40ml | 40ml | Sweeter, Chartreuse leads | About 3.3 |
| Three to one | 60ml | 20ml | Drier, Chartreuse in the background | About 3.3 |
The Stir
Straub shook it. We stir it, as for a Martini: with nothing cloudy in the glass, stirring keeps it clear and dense, and the dilution is easier to judge.
For gin with sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse, try the Bijou; for green Chartreuse with lime and maraschino, the Last Word.
How to Serve It
Small and very cold in a chilled Nick & Nora, with lemon oil expressed over the top. It works before dinner in place of a Martini, or after it in place of a liqueur.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Alaska cocktail?
Can I use green Chartreuse instead of yellow?
What ratio of gin to Chartreuse should I use?
Why is it called an Alaska?
Should an Alaska be shaken or stirred?
Which gin works best in an Alaska?
How strong is an Alaska?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Alaska (Straub’s 1914 recipe)” (secondary source: Straub’s recipe 1 dash orange bitters, 1/3 jigger yellow Chartreuse, 2/3 jigger Tom gin, shake; conjecture that the name refers to the golden colour and the Alaska gold rush; its page is headed 1913 Straub’s Manual of Mixed Drinks and quotes the recipe as 1914).
- Punch, “Mastering the Alaska With Jim Kearns” (secondary source: the original recipe was published in Drinks, a 1914 book by Jacques Straub, with Old Tom gin and orange bitters).
- Tasting Table, “Was The Alaska Cocktail Named After The State?” (secondary source: in circulation since at least 1914 in Straub’s Drinks; allegedly named for the Klondike Gold Rush).
- Chartreuse, “Yellow Chartreuse” (maker’s page: 43% vol.; sweetness, spicy scents, a soft structure; floral notes).
- House of Angostura, “Aromatic Bitters” (producer’s own page: nose “Aromatic Bouquet of herbs, fruits and spices”).
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Bijou
A Bijou is 40ml of London Dry gin, 20ml of green Chartreuse, 20ml of sweet vermouth and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over cubed ice for 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, with a lemon twist expressed over it and a cherry. About 3.0 UK units. The Oxford Companion says the drink appears to be Harry Johnson’s adaptation of a cocktail first recorded in St. Louis and Cincinnati in the spring of 1895, and that his version appeared in the 1900 edition of his Bartenders’ Manual. Bijou is French for jewel, and Difford’s Guide gives the explanation that each bottle stands for a stone by its colour: gin for diamond, vermouth for ruby, Chartreuse for emerald. At 55% ABV on Chartreuse’s own page, green Chartreuse is the force to manage. Many recipes pour the three in equal measures; ours doubles the gin so its juniper holds against the Chartreuse, with the vermouth giving body and the bitters tying the herbs together.
Last Word
A Last Word is 22.5ml each of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and fresh lime juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled Nick & Nora or coupe. About 2.9 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s; the cherry or lime twist is ours. The Oxford Companion says the drink first appears in print in the Detroit Athletic Club News in 1916, on a menu at 35 cents, a high price then. Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up of 1951 prints the recipe, quoting a club source who says Frank Fogarty, a vaudeville monologist, introduced it there about thirty years earlier. In 2003 Murray Stenson put it on the menu at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle, from where it spread, the Companion says. Four strong flavours at equal volume, and none takes over. Chartreuse brings herbs and heat, maraschino cherry and a bitter almond edge, lime the acid, and gin holds them together.
Champs-Élysées
A Champs-Élysées is 45ml of cognac, 15ml of green Chartreuse, 20ml of fresh lemon juice, 10ml of sugar syrup and a dash of Angostura, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, finished with an expressed lemon twist. About 2.6 UK units. Difford’s Guide gives the earliest known recipe as the one in Drinks, Long and Short by Nina Toye and A. H. Adair, published in 1925: three parts brandy, one of Chartreuse and one and a half of sweetened lemon juice, with a dash of Angostura. Our measures keep the three to one of brandy to Chartreuse and split the sweetened lemon into fresh juice and syrup. It reads as a Sidecar with green Chartreuse in place of the orange liqueur. Chartreuse is 55% ABV on its own page and, in our view, intensely herbal, so even a small measure changes the whole drink: the cognac and lemon are still there, under a layer of mountain herbs.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026