Division Bell
A Division Bell is 30ml of mezcal, 22.5ml of Aperol, 15ml of maraschino liqueur and 22.5ml of fresh lime juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a grapefruit twist expressed over the top and thrown away. About 1.9 UK units. VinePair says Phil Ward created it in 2009 at Mayahuel, his East Village bar in New York, and Difford’s Guide dates it the same. It is a Last Word with two swaps: mezcal for the gin and Aperol for the green Chartreuse. VinePair says Ward allegedly took the name from Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell, which he played on repeat while the bar was being built. Aperol brings bitter orange and softens the smoke, the maraschino adds cherry and bitter almond, and the lime holds the three together. With Aperol at 11% ABV on its own FAQ in place of Chartreuse, it is lighter than the Last Word.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Grapefruit twist expressed and discarded
Ingredients
30ml
An espadín at our working figure of 40% ABV or a little more; Del Maguey Vida is the usual choice, and the one VinePair and Difford’s Guide both name. It leads the drink, so choose a bottle you would drink neat.
22.5ml
Bitter orange at 11% ABV on Aperol’s own FAQ, standing where the Last Word has green Chartreuse. It softens the smoke and gives the drink its colour.
15ml
Luxardo (32% ABV on Luxardo’s own page) or a similar maraschino: crystal clear, with a marasca cherry distillate aroma and roasted nuttiness in Luxardo’s description, and sweeter than it tastes. Fifteen millilitres seasons the drink without taking it over.
22.5ml
Squeezed the same day. It is the only acid in the glass and the frame the other three sit on.
Instructions
Squeeze the lime juice the same day.
Chill a coupe.
Add the mezcal, Aperol, maraschino and lime juice to a shaker.
Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe.
Express the grapefruit twist over the surface and discard it.
Source: Difford's Guide (Phil Ward’s 2009 Mayahuel specification; the same measures as PUNCH; method ours). Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Express the grapefruit twist and throw it away. Its oil bridges the Aperol’s orange and the mezcal’s smoke; left in the glass, the peel adds pith bitterness to a drink that already has bitterness covered. Use a mezcal you would drink neat, an espadín for preference. The smoke leads here, so a harsh or very smoky bottle shows straight through. Measure the maraschino. Fifteen millilitres is less than any of the other three, and it needs to be: maraschino is loud for its volume, and a heavier pour puts cherry ahead of the smoke.
Behind the Division Bell
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Phil Ward created the Division Bell in 2009 at Mayahuel, his bar in New York’s East Village, VinePair says, and Difford’s Guide agrees. He had already made the Oaxaca Old Fashioned, which Punch dates to 2007 at Death & Co, and VinePair says the debut menu at Mayahuel ran to twenty mezcal- and tequila-based cocktails.
Mezcal was not yet on just about every cocktail menu, as it is now, and VinePair calls this a pioneering drink that helped bring mezcal into the limelight in the United States. The name is said to come from Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell, which VinePair says Ward allegedly played on repeat while the bar was being built.
Two Swaps From the Last Word
The Last Word is gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino and lime in equal parts. The Division Bell keeps the maraschino and the lime, puts mezcal where the gin was and Aperol where the Chartreuse was, then leaves equal parts behind.
Joaquín Simó’s Naked and Famous, from Death & Co, came a few years later, on VinePair’s account, and works the same idea the other way: mezcal and Aperol again, with yellow Chartreuse in place of the maraschino, in equal parts.
Three Relations Compared
The Division Bell beside the Last Word and the Naked and Famous: measures from Difford’s Guide and the IBA, strengths from Chartreuse’s, Aperol’s and Luxardo’s own pages, units ours
Division Bell
- Spirit
- 30ml mezcal
- Herbal or bitter
- 22.5ml Aperol
- Liqueur
- 15ml maraschino
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
- UK units
- About 1.9
Last Word
- Spirit
- 22.5ml gin
- Herbal or bitter
- 22.5ml green Chartreuse
- Liqueur
- 22.5ml maraschino
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
- UK units
- About 2.9
Naked and Famous
- Spirit
- 22.5ml mezcal
- Herbal or bitter
- 22.5ml Aperol
- Liqueur
- 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
- UK units
- About 2.1
| Drink | Spirit | Herbal or bitter | Liqueur | Citrus | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division Bell | 30ml mezcal | 22.5ml Aperol | 15ml maraschino | 22.5ml lime | About 1.9 |
| Last Word | 22.5ml gin | 22.5ml green Chartreuse | 22.5ml maraschino | 22.5ml lime | About 2.9 |
| Naked and Famous | 22.5ml mezcal | 22.5ml Aperol | 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse | 22.5ml lime | About 2.1 |
The Maraschino
Maraschino is a clear liqueur made from marasca cherries. Luxardo says it infuses the cherries and distils both the liquid and the solid parts, and describes the result as marasca cherry distillate with roasted nuttiness. To us it reads faintly funky rather than fruity, and it is sweeter than it tastes.
It is loud for its volume, so Ward uses less of it than anything else in the glass. At 15ml it sharpens the smoke and leaves room for the Aperol’s orange.
How to Serve It
Cold, up in a coupe, with the twist expressed and gone. It looks like little in the glass, a pale, cloudy orange, and tastes of smoke, bitter orange and cherry in that order.
For the honeyed version with yellow Chartreuse, make a Naked and Famous; for the gin original, a Last Word.
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 in a Division Bell?
Who created the Division Bell?
How is it related to the Last Word?
How does it differ from a Naked and Famous?
Why discard the grapefruit twist?
What mezcal should I use?
How strong is a Division Bell?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Division Bell” (secondary source: created in 2009 by Phil Ward at Mayahuel in Manhattan; 30ml mezcal, 22.5ml Aperol-style liqueur, 15ml maraschino, 22.5ml lime).
- VinePair, “The Story Behind The Division Bell” (secondary source: created by Phil Ward in 2009; Mayahuel in the East Village, debut menu of 20 mezcal- and tequila-based cocktails; name allegedly from the 1994 Pink Floyd album; predates Simó’s Naked and Famous by a few years).
- Punch, “Division Bell” (secondary source: 1 ounce mezcal, ¾ ounce Aperol, ½ ounce maraschino, ¾ ounce lime; Ward’s Oaxaca Old-Fashioned created at Death & Co. in 2007).
- Luxardo, “Maraschino Originale” (maker’s page: 32% Alc. by Vol.; marasca cherries infused, liquid and solid parts distilled; roasted nuttiness).
- Aperol, “Aperol FAQ” (maker’s page: Aperol has an alcohol content of 11%).
- IBA, “Last Word” (official specification: equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and fresh lime juice, 22.5ml each).
- IBA, “Naked and Famous” (official specification: 22.5ml each of mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol and fresh lime juice).
- Chartreuse, “Yellow Chartreuse” (maker’s page: 43% vol.).
- Chartreuse, “Green Chartreuse” (maker’s page: 55% vol.).
You Might Also Like
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.
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.
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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026