Final Ward
A Final Ward is 22.5ml each of rye whiskey, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and fresh lemon juice, shaken hard for ten to twelve seconds and passed through a fine strainer into a chilled coupe. About 2.9 UK units, with a rye at 40% ABV. Phil Ward created it in 2007 at Death & Co in New York, and Difford’s Guide calls it perhaps the best-known riff on the Last Word. It keeps that drink’s equal parts and swaps two things: rye for gin, lemon for lime. Rye brings grain spice where the gin brought juniper, and the acid is lemon’s rather than lime’s. Everything else stays where the original put it.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lemon twist expressed over the drink, then discarded and Maraschino cherries skewered
Ingredients
22.5ml
Difford’s prints a 100 proof rye. Our units use the 40% ABV on our page, and a bottled-in-bond rye at 50% takes the drink to about 3.1 units and stands up to the Chartreuse better.
22.5ml
Difford’s allows another herbal liqueur; Punch specifies Chartreuse. Yellow Chartreuse is softer and sweeter and makes a different drink.
22.5ml
A dry, cherry-and-almond liqueur at 32% ABV. It is not the syrup from a jar of cherries.
Instructions
Chill a coupe, then squeeze the lemon just before shaking.
Pour the rye whiskey, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lemon juice over ice in a shaker.
Shake hard for ten to twelve seconds.
Pour through a fine strainer into the chilled coupe.
Express a lemon twist above the glass and throw it away.
Add a skewer of maraschino cherries.
Source: Difford's Guide (recipe 2406, measures, method and garnish as printed; Punch’s Final Ward page prints the same four equal parts at 3/4oz). Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Measure all four to the same line. In an equal-parts drink the recipe is the proportion, so a generous hand with any one of them breaks it, and Chartreuse breaks it fastest. Fine strain every time. Shards of ice in a drink this strong dilute it in the glass and turn the last sips watery. If the drink tastes sharp, check the lemon, not the Chartreuse. Lemons vary far more than the bottles do.
Behind the Final Ward
Flavour Profile
Phil Ward’s rye version of the Last Word
Difford’s Guide dates the Final Ward to 2007, made by Phil Ward at Death & Co in New York, and calls it perhaps the best-known riff on the Last Word. Punch agrees on the build: the equal-parts structure of the original, with rye whiskey in place of gin.
Two swaps, one structure
Every measure stays at 22.5ml. Rye takes over from gin, and lemon takes over from lime, as Difford’s notes. Nothing else moves, so the drink is easy to hold up against the Last Word and see what each change did.
Why rye holds the Chartreuse
Green Chartreuse is 55% ABV and heavily herbal. Gin shares botanicals with it and sits close to it. Rye whiskey has a grain spice of its own, so it stands beside the Chartreuse and keeps its identity. Difford’s prints a 100 proof rye, 50% ABV, and a rye at that strength has the weight to match.
Maraschino liqueur brings a dry cherry and almond sweetness, and the lemon handles the balance. Sweet, sour, herbal and grain all arrive at the same volume, and none of them is allowed to lead.
Final Ward and its equal-parts family
Four equal-parts drinks compared
Final Ward
- Base
- 22.5ml rye whiskey
- Liqueur one
- 22.5ml green Chartreuse
- Liqueur two
- 22.5ml maraschino
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lemon
Last Word
- Base
- 22.5ml gin
- Liqueur one
- 22.5ml green Chartreuse
- Liqueur two
- 22.5ml maraschino
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
Naked and Famous
- Base
- 22.5ml mezcal
- Liqueur one
- 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse
- Liqueur two
- 22.5ml Aperol
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
Corpse Reviver No. 2
- Base
- 30ml gin
- Liqueur one
- 30ml Cointreau
- Liqueur two
- 30ml Lillet Blanc
- Citrus
- 30ml lemon
| Drink | Base | Liqueur one | Liqueur two | Citrus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final Ward | 22.5ml rye whiskey | 22.5ml green Chartreuse | 22.5ml maraschino | 22.5ml lemon |
| Last Word | 22.5ml gin | 22.5ml green Chartreuse | 22.5ml maraschino | 22.5ml lime |
| Naked and Famous | 22.5ml mezcal | 22.5ml yellow Chartreuse | 22.5ml Aperol | 22.5ml lime |
| Corpse Reviver No. 2 | 30ml gin | 30ml Cointreau | 30ml Lillet Blanc | 30ml lemon |
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.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Final Ward?
Is the Final Ward the same drink as the Ward Eight?
How does it differ from a Last Word?
How strong is a Final Ward?
Can I use bourbon in place of rye?
Can I make a Final Ward in a batch?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Final Ward” (recipe 2406: 22.5ml each of straight rye (100 proof), green Chartreuse, Luxardo maraschino and lemon juice, shaken and fine strained into a coupe; history: created in 2007 by Phil Ward at Death & Co, New York; riff on the Last Word with rye for gin and lemon for lime).
- Punch, “Final Ward” (secondary source: 3/4oz each of rye whiskey, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lemon juice, shaken; equal-parts build of the Last Word with rye in place of gin).
- 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.
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.
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 1 November 2026