Diamondback
A Diamondback is 45ml of rye, 22.5ml of calvados and 22.5ml of yellow Chartreuse, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick & Nora, with a cherry or no garnish. About 3.7 UK units. There is no citrus, sugar or soda; the only sweetness is the yellow Chartreuse, which Chartreuse’s own page describes as characterised by its sweetness. Difford’s Guide, adapting Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up of 1951, says it was the signature drink of the Diamondback Lounge at the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, and Saucier’s recipe uses applejack. We have found no source that names who first mixed it. Rye gives it pepper and grain, calvados apple, and yellow Chartreuse honey, saffron and herbs. Each sits in a different place, so three strong bottles make one drink. It belongs after dinner, and one is enough.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: None and Maraschino cherry dropped without ceremony
Ingredients
45ml
A rye at 40% ABV or stronger. It leads, so it needs pepper and grain to hold two loud partners; a soft rye leaves the drink tasting of Chartreuse. A rye at 50% makes the drink about 4.1 UK units.
22.5ml
Apple brandy from Normandy at our working 40% ABV, with some age on it. We pour calvados; Difford’s Guide’s reproduction of the 1951 recipe names applejack, which in our view is rounder and a touch sweeter and works as well.
22.5ml
Chartreuse’s own page gives 43% ABV; in our view it is honeyed and herbal, and it is the only sweetness in the drink. Green Chartreuse, which its own page gives at 55%, is too forceful for the apple.
Instructions
Chill a Nick & Nora glass.
Add the rye, calvados and yellow Chartreuse to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Drop in a cherry, or leave it without garnish.
Our version
Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up (1951), as Difford’s Guide reproduces it, gives a jigger of Old Schenley rye, half a jigger of applejack and half a jigger of yellow Chartreuse, shaken and served over cracked ice with a mint sprig. We keep its two-to-one-to-one proportions as 45ml, 22.5ml and 22.5ml, with calvados in place of the applejack, stirred and served up.
Source: our own specification.
Expert Tip
Stir for the full 20 to 30 seconds. With no juice or soda in the glass, melting ice is the only thing that softens the drink, and an under-stirred Diamondback is hot rather than strong. Use yellow Chartreuse, not green. Chartreuse’s own pages give green at 55% ABV and yellow at 43%. In our view green is far more forcefully herbal and pushes the apple out of the glass, where yellow is softer and honeyed and leaves room for the calvados. Keep the calvados to one with some age on it. A young, sharp apple eau de vie fights the rye; an aged one rounds it.
Behind the Diamondback
Flavour Profile
A Baltimore Hotel Drink
The Diamondback was the signature drink of the Diamondback Lounge in the Lord Baltimore Hotel, Difford’s Guide says, and Explore Baltimore Heritage says the hotel was built in 1928 to a design by William Lee Stoddart. Its best-known early printing is in Ted Saucier’s Bottoms Up of 1951, where Punch notes it is made with rye, applejack and yellow Chartreuse. Saucier shakes it and serves it over cracked ice with a sprig of mint, as Difford’s Guide reproduces the recipe.
We have found no source that names the bartender. Punch says the drink saw a revival in the cocktail renaissance, and that modern versions tend to be stirred and served up.
Three Strong Bottles
Rye is dry, peppery and grainy. Calvados is rounder, with baked apple. Yellow Chartreuse is honeyed, with saffron and herbs. Each sits in a different part of the mouth, so the three build one taste instead of fighting.
The Chartreuse binds the drink as well as sweetening it, which is why it gets a full 22.5ml. Cut it back and the drink splits into rye and apple brandy sharing a glass.
The Widow’s Kiss, Rearranged
George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks prints the Widow’s Kiss in 1895 as a pony of apple brandy with half a pony each of yellow Chartreuse and Bénédictine and two dashes of Angostura, shaken. The Diamondback keeps the apple brandy, calvados in our version, and the yellow Chartreuse, gives the lead to rye and leaves out the Bénédictine. One is an apple drink with herbs around it; the other is a rye drink with an orchard behind it.
The Strength
Ninety millilitres of spirit and liqueur go into the mixing glass and nothing lengthens them. In a small glass that comes to about 3.7 UK units, nearly as much alcohol as two double measures of rye.
That is not a flaw and it does not want fixing. The Diamondback is built to be a single slow drink, and lengthening it takes away the density that makes it worth drinking in the first place. If you want something in the same register, our Widow’s Kiss is about as strong, at about 3.7 UK units by our calculation, and sweeter, with Bénédictine beside the Chartreuse.
Rye, Apple and Chartreuse Drinks
The Diamondback beside our Widow’s Kiss and American Trilogy; all three are our recipes and the units are our calculation
Lead spirit
- Diamondback
- 45ml rye
- Widow’s Kiss
- 45ml calvados
- American Trilogy
- 30ml rye, 30ml applejack
Second spirit
- Diamondback
- 22.5ml calvados
- Widow’s Kiss
- None
- American Trilogy
- None
Liqueurs
- Diamondback
- 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse
- Widow’s Kiss
- 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse, 22.5ml Bénédictine
- American Trilogy
- None
Sugar and bitters
- Diamondback
- None
- Widow’s Kiss
- Two dashes Angostura
- American Trilogy
- A brown sugar cube, two dashes orange bitters
Served
- Diamondback
- Stirred, up
- Widow’s Kiss
- Stirred, up
- American Trilogy
- Stirred, over one large cube
UK units
- Diamondback
- About 3.7
- Widow’s Kiss
- About 3.7
- American Trilogy
- About 2.5
| Element | Diamondback | Widow’s Kiss | American Trilogy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead spirit | 45ml rye | 45ml calvados | 30ml rye, 30ml applejack |
| Second spirit | 22.5ml calvados | None | None |
| Liqueurs | 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse | 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse, 22.5ml Bénédictine | None |
| Sugar and bitters | None | Two dashes Angostura | A brown sugar cube, two dashes orange bitters |
| Served | Stirred, up | Stirred, up | Stirred, over one large cube |
| UK units | About 3.7 | About 3.7 | About 2.5 |
How to Serve It
Up, in a chilled Nick & Nora, after dinner. The small bowl keeps a slow drink cold. A cherry is the usual garnish and adds little; leaving it out is just as correct.
With calvados in the lead and Bénédictine, a Widow’s Kiss; with rye and applejack over a sugar cube, an American Trilogy.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Rye)Rye whiskey, under the US standard 27 CFR 5.143, takes at least 51% of its grain from rye and its colour from new charred oak, and goes into bottle at a 40% ABV minimum; our recipes take 40% as the figure. Rye makes a drier, spicier, more peppery spirit than corn, which is why stirred classics such as the Manhattan, Vieux Carré and Brooklyn are written for it. It appears in 23 of our recipes.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Diamondback?
Where does the Diamondback come from?
Is it named after the snake?
Calvados or applejack?
Can I use green Chartreuse instead?
How does it relate to the Widow’s Kiss?
How strong is a Diamondback?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Diamondback” (secondary source: adapted from Ted Saucier’s 1951 Bottoms Up; the Diamondback Lounge Cocktail was the signature drink of the Diamondback Lounge in the Lord Baltimore Hotel, opened 1928; named after the diamondback terrapin, the Maryland State Reptile; Saucier’s recipe: 1 jigger Old Schenley rye whisky, 1/2 jigger applejack, 1/2 jigger yellow chartreuse, shake well, serve over cracked ice, sprig of mint).
- Punch, “Diamondback” (secondary source: featured in the 1951 book Bottoms Up by Ted Saucier, who credits its creation to the Diamondback Lounge at the Lord Baltimore Hotel; rye, applejack and yellow Chartreuse; the original shaken, modern versions tend to be stirred and served up; revived in the cocktail renaissance).
- Explore Baltimore Heritage, “Lord Baltimore Hotel” (heritage page: built in 1928; designed by hotel architect William Lee Stoddart; a twenty-two-story steel frame building, the largest hotel building ever constructed in Maryland).
- George J. Kappeler (1895), Internet Archive, “Modern American Drinks” (primary source: Widow’s Kiss (p. 110): a pony of apple brandy, half a pony each of yellow chartreuse and benedictine, two dashes of Angostura; shake well, strain into a fancy cocktail-glass).
- Chartreuse, “Chartreuse Jaune” (maker’s own page: 43% vol.; characterised by its sweetness, spicy scents and natural colour from 130 plants, flowers, bark, roots and spices).
- Chartreuse, “Green Chartreuse” (maker’s own page: 55% vol.).
You Might Also Like
Widow’s Kiss
A Widow’s Kiss is 45ml of calvados, 22.5ml of yellow Chartreuse, 22.5ml of Bénédictine and two dashes of Angostura, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a cherry. About 3.7 UK units, which is more than it tastes. It appears in George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks of 1895, in the Internet Archive’s scan: one pony of apple brandy, half a pony each of yellow Chartreuse and Bénédictine and two dashes of Angostura, shaken and strained into a fancy cocktail glass. Our measures keep his two, one, one; we stir it and add a cherry. The calvados brings apple and a spirit backbone, the Bénédictine honey and spice, the yellow Chartreuse saffron and herbs. The bitters are the only dry note in the glass, and they keep two liqueurs from settling into syrup.
Nuclear Daiquiri
A Nuclear Daiquiri is a daiquiri built on two strong spirits: 25ml Jamaican overproof rum, 20ml green Chartreuse, 10ml falernum and 25ml fresh lime juice, shaken hard and double strained into a chilled coupe with no garnish. There is no sugar syrup: falernum alone sweetens it, bringing clove and ginger with its sugar. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says Gregor de Gruyther created it at LAB bar in London in 2005. The name is a fair description: Wray & Nephew’s own page gives its White Overproof at 63% ABV and Chartreuse’s own page gives Green at 55%, and what pours from the shaker is a pale, warning-sign green. Taking those strengths, one glass holds about 2.8 UK units, more than our 60ml Daiquiri at 2.4. The lime and falernum keep it bright enough to hide that, so one is usually plenty.
Tipperary
The Tipperary is 50ml of Irish whiskey, 25ml of sweet vermouth, 15ml of green Chartreuse and two dashes of Angostura bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled Nick and Nora glass, with a lemon twist. About 3.3 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, dates the Tipperary to Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks of 1916, with equal parts whiskey, Chartreuse and vermouth. That is a far louder drink. The modern measures, which Difford’s traces to Harry MacElhone’s 1922 recipe, pull the Chartreuse back so it seasons the whiskey rather than leading it. Irish whiskey is usually cast as the gentle spirit. Here it stands up to a liqueur bottled at 55% ABV on Chartreuse’s product page, and a single pot still whiskey, with more weight and pepper, holds its own best.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026