Last Word

Equal Parts

The equal parts format is one of the most demanding in bartending because it offers nowhere to hide: the ratios are fixed, and the drink succeeds or fails on whether its ingredients can coexist at identical volume. The Last Word passes that test with room to spare. Gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and fresh lime juice are four of the most assertive ingredients in the cocktail canon. In the Last Word they hold each other in check, each present, none leading at the expense of the others. That balance is the drink’s defining achievement.

Detroit, 1915

The Last Word was created at the Detroit Athletic Club around 1915, in the years immediately before Prohibition. It was attributed to Frank Fogarty, a vaudeville comedian who performed as the Dublin Minstrel and apparently introduced the drink to the club. Ted Saucier documented it in his 1951 book Bottoms Up, the earliest known printed source for the recipe. Prohibition took most of the pre-war cocktail culture with it. The Last Word did not survive in active circulation; it survived in print, in a single book, largely unread, for half a century.

Green Chartreuse

Green Chartreuse is produced by Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery near Grenoble using a recipe that dates to 1737. It contains 130 plants, flowers, and herbs; only two monks know the complete formula; it is bottled at 55% ABV. In the Last Word it appears at 22.5ml, the same measure as every other ingredient, present and assertive without overwhelming. Its herbal complexity is the drink’s dominant aromatic note. The sweetness it carries is balanced by the lime, the intensity by the maraschino. It is not a background ingredient; it is one of four equals.

Maraschino

Maraschino liqueur is made from Marasca cherries, a sour variety grown primarily in Croatia, and their pits, which contribute a faint bitter almond note. It is not maraschino syrup, the sweet, artificially flavoured liquid found in jars of cocktail cherries; they share a name and nothing else. Luxardo is the benchmark producer, drier and more complex than most alternatives. In the Last Word the maraschino performs a bridging function: the Chartreuse and the lime pull the drink in different directions, and the maraschino sits between them, softening the lime’s tartness and complementing the Chartreuse’s herbal intensity without duplicating it. In a drink where it contributes one quarter of the total flavour, the quality of the bottle matters.

The Lime

Fresh lime juice squeezed immediately before use; this is not optional. Lime juice oxidises and its flavour changes within twenty to thirty minutes of juicing, and the clean tartness that cuts through the sweetness of the Chartreuse and maraschino is only present if the juice is fresh. Bottled lime juice produces a flat, slightly bitter result that throws the balance significantly. Where every component carries an equal load, the lime is not a minor consideration. It is a quarter of the drink.

The Rediscovery

Murray Stenson’s rediscovery of the Last Word at the Zig Zag Café is one of the origin stories of the modern craft cocktail movement, demonstrating that the best recipes do not always come from innovation; sometimes they come from recognising what has been overlooked. The Last Word was overlooked for fifty years. It spread from a single bar in Seattle within a few years, and by the end of the 2000s it was being ordered on every continent. The recipe had not changed. It just needed finding.

Frequently Asked Questions