Closing Argument
A Closing Argument is 22.5ml each of mezcal, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and fresh lime juice, shaken hard, fine strained into a chilled coupe and finished with a lime zest twist. About 2.9 UK units, counting the mezcal at 40% ABV, the maraschino at 32% and the Chartreuse at 55%. Difford’s Guide gives 2.8. Difford’s Guide describes it as a mezcal-based Last Word and prints no creator or date, so we give neither. It is a short, sharp, smoky sour, equal parts all round.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime zest twist expressed over the drink and used as the garnish
Ingredients
22.5ml
Difford’s accepts another herbal liqueur in its place. Our ingredient page lists Green Chartreuse at 55% ABV.
Instructions
Chill a coupe and cut a lime zest twist.
Squeeze the lime the day you serve it.
Add the mezcal, Chartreuse, maraschino and lime juice to a shaker with ice.
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Fine strain into the chilled coupe.
Express the lime twist over the drink and use it as the garnish.
Source: Difford's Guide (recipe 3448, measures, method and garnish as printed (22.5ml each of Del Maguey Vida Puebla mezcal, Green Chartreuse, Luxardo Maraschino and lime juice, shaken, fine strained, coupe, lime zest twist); Difford’s prints no creator or date). Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Measure all four to the same line. The drink depends on equal parts, and a heavy pour of Chartreuse swamps the mezcal. Choose a mezcal with moderate smoke. A very smoky bottle takes over the herbs. Do not skimp on the ice in the shaker. The drink is strong, and good dilution is what makes it drinkable.
Behind the Closing Argument
Flavour Profile
A Last Word with mezcal in place of gin
Difford’s Guide describes the Closing Argument as a mezcal-based Last Word, and its review says it works. The Last Word is built from equal parts, and this drink keeps that pattern. Only the spirit changes.
Difford’s prints no creator, bar or year for it. We found none there and have not supplied one from memory. Difford’s also notes that the Last of the Oaxacans uses the same recipe with a different garnish.
What each part does
Mezcal brings smoke and earth where gin brings juniper. Difford’s prints Del Maguey Vida Puebla. Our guides on tequila and mezcal and the complete guide to tequila explain how agave spirits differ.
Green Chartreuse adds herbs and a high strength. Maraschino liqueur brings a dry cherry-stone nuttiness that softens the edges. Lime juice is the sour that holds the other three together.
Because each of the four is measured at 22.5ml, the drink is easy to remember and easy to scale. Because three of them are strong in flavour, a small error shows. Measure with a jigger.
The Closing Argument beside three equal-parts sours
Closing Argument
- Spirit
- Mezcal
- Herbal liqueur
- Green Chartreuse
- Cherry liqueur
- Maraschino
- Citrus
- Lime
Last Word
- Spirit
- Gin
- Herbal liqueur
- Green Chartreuse
- Cherry liqueur
- Maraschino
- Citrus
- Lime
Naked and Famous
- Spirit
- Mezcal
- Herbal liqueur
- Yellow Chartreuse and Aperol
- Cherry liqueur
- None
- Citrus
- Lime
Paper Plane
- Spirit
- Bourbon
- Herbal liqueur
- Amaro Nonino and Aperol
- Cherry liqueur
- None
- Citrus
- Lemon
| Drink | Spirit | Herbal liqueur | Cherry liqueur | Citrus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closing Argument | Mezcal | Green Chartreuse | Maraschino | Lime |
| Last Word | Gin | Green Chartreuse | Maraschino | Lime |
| Naked and Famous | Mezcal | Yellow Chartreuse and Aperol | None | Lime |
| Paper Plane | Bourbon | Amaro Nonino and Aperol | None | Lemon |
The Last Word is the original, and the Naked and Famous is the other well-known mezcal take on the equal-parts sour.
Make it at home
The Spirit
MezcalMezcal is distilled in Mexico from cooked agave hearts, always 100% agave under Mexico’s standard, NOM-070, at 35 to 55% ABV, and counted at 40% in our recipes. Artisanal mezcal, cooked in pit or masonry ovens, is where the smoke usually comes from. Espadín is the common agave, poured from a split base under tequila in an Oaxacan Old Fashioned to a full 60ml in a Mezcal Margarita.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Closing Argument?
Who created the Closing Argument?
How strong is a Closing Argument?
Is it the same as the Last of the Oaxacans?
How is it different from a Last Word?
Can I use yellow Chartreuse?
Can I use tequila instead of mezcal?
Can I batch it?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Closing Argument” (recipe 3448: 22.5ml each of mezcal, Green Chartreuse, Luxardo Maraschino and lime juice, shaken, coupe, lime zest twist; 2.8 units; described as a mezcal-based Last Word; no creator or date printed).
- NHS, “Calculating alcohol units” (the 14-units-a-week guidance and the units calculation).
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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.
Naked and Famous
A Naked and Famous is 22.5ml each of mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol and fresh lime juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with no garnish. About 2.1 UK units. These are the IBA’s measures. Difford’s Guide says it was adapted from a recipe Joaquín Simó created in 2011 and is best known for its early appearance at Death & Co in New York. It takes the shape of the Last Word, four equal parts with fresh citrus, and shares Aperol with the Paper Plane. VinePair says Phil Ward’s Division Bell, which predates it, had already put mezcal with Aperol. Each part has one job. Mezcal brings smoke, yellow Chartreuse sweetness and spice, Aperol a soft bitter orange and lime the acid. Use yellow Chartreuse, not green: Chartreuse’s own pages give 43% ABV against 55%, so yellow is gentler, and the balance depends on it.
Paper Plane
A Paper Plane is 30ml each of bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and fresh lemon juice, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe. Four equal parts, which is the IBA specification: bitter orange, herbs and lemon over bourbon, at about 2.6 UK units. Punch, a secondary source, says Toby Maloney, who helped open The Violet Hour in Chicago, asked Sam Ross to create a drink for the bar, and that it was on the menu there in the summer of 2008. Ross named it after the M.I.A. song Paper Planes. The first version used Campari; Punch quotes Ross finding it slightly too bitter and short of sweetness, and he moved to Aperol. Equal parts leaves nowhere to hide. Squeeze the lemon the same day and use Nonino, not a cheaper amaro, because each ingredient is a quarter of the drink.
Mezcal Margarita
A Mezcal Margarita is 60ml of joven espadín mezcal, 30ml of fresh lime juice and 15ml of agave syrup straight from the bottle, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass with half a salt rim and a lime wheel. About 2.4 UK units. It is a Tommy’s Margarita with mezcal in place of the tequila, at the measures Difford’s Guide gives for a Tommy’s: 60ml, 30ml of lime and 15ml of agave syrup. The IBA gives its Tommy’s 30ml of agave nectar; ours follows Difford’s, with the syrup straight from the bottle. There is no orange liqueur. That absence is why it works. Orange and smoke sit in the same part of the palate and fight; agave syrup sweetens an agave spirit without adding a flavour the smoke has to argue with.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 1 November 2026