Ultima Palabra
An Ultima Palabra is 22.5ml each of mezcal, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, pineapple juice and fresh lime juice, with 10ml of chilled water, shaken with ice and fine strained to a chilled coupe and finished with a thyme sprig. About 2.9 UK units by our strengths. Difford’s Guide prints 2.8. It is a mezcal Last Word with pineapple added. That separates it from our Closing Argument, which is the same mezcal, Chartreuse, maraschino and lime without the pineapple or the water. It is smoky and herbal, with the pineapple lifting the sharpness.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish:
Ingredients
22.5ml
Difford’s accepts another herbal liqueur. Counted at 55% ABV on our ingredient page.
10ml
Leave it out if the ice is wet, per Difford’s. No ingredient page.
1
The garnish. No ingredient page.
Instructions
Chill a coupe and have a thyme sprig ready.
Squeeze the lime the day you serve it.
Add the mezcal, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice and chilled water to a shaker with ice.
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Fine strain into the chilled coupe.
Garnish with the thyme sprig.
Source: Difford's Guide (recipe 3663, measures, method and garnish as printed (22.5ml Del Maguey Vida Puebla mezcal, 22.5ml Green Chartreuse or another herbal liqueur, 22.5ml Luxardo Maraschino, 22.5ml pineapple juice, 22.5ml lime juice, 10ml chilled water omitted with wet ice; shaken with ice, fine strained into a chilled coupe, thyme sprig); Difford’s credits Simone De Luca, High Road House Club, Chiswick, London, recipe courtesy of Gary Regan’s Ardent Spirits; no year printed. Differs from Closing Argument (recipe 3448 as held on our page) by the pineapple juice, the water and the garnish). Last checked 1 November 2026.
Expert Tip
Pick a mezcal with moderate smoke. The pineapple is a soft flavour, and a heavily smoked bottle will cover it. Skip the water if your ice is wet from the bag. It is there to replace the melt that dry, hard ice does not give. Slap the thyme once against your palm before it goes on the glass. It gives off more scent.
Behind the Ultima Palabra
Flavour Profile
A Last Word riff from a Chiswick club
Difford’s Guide says the Ultima Palabra is a riff on the Last Word, created by Simone De Luca at the High Road House Club in Chiswick, London. It credits the recipe to Ardent Spirits, Gary Regan’s publication. Difford’s prints no year, so we state none.
The name is the direct Spanish translation of Last Word, Difford’s says, which is why mezcal stands where the Last Word has gin. Difford’s adds that the pineapple juice is the other distinguishing feature, bringing fruity sweetness and complexity.
How it differs from the Closing Argument
The two drinks share four ingredients at 22.5ml each: mezcal, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice. Our Closing Argument stops there, shaken and finished with a twist of lime zest. The Ultima Palabra adds 22.5ml of pineapple juice and 10ml of chilled water, and is garnished with a thyme sprig. Difford’s lists the Closing Argument among the Ultima Palabra’s similar drinks.
The names do not describe one build, then. The pineapple and water take the drink from 90ml to 122.5ml before shaking, with the same alcohol in more liquid, so it is rounder and softer. The water is for dilution, and Difford’s says to leave it out if your ice is wet.
Pineapple against smoke
Mezcal brings smoke and earth. Difford’s prints Del Maguey Vida Puebla, and in our view a bottle with moderate smoke suits the pineapple. A very smoky one buries it. Our tequila versus mezcal guide explains how the two agave spirits differ.
Green Chartreuse is at 55% ABV on our ingredient page and supplies most of the alcohol after the mezcal. Difford’s accepts another herbal liqueur in its place. Maraschino liqueur is at 32% ABV and Difford’s names Luxardo. The fresh pineapple juice and lime add no alcohol.
The Ultima Palabra beside three Last Word relatives
Ultima Palabra
- Spirit
- 22.5ml mezcal
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
- Also in the glass
- 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse, maraschino and pineapple juice, 10ml water
Closing Argument
- Spirit
- 22.5ml mezcal
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
- Also in the glass
- 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse and maraschino
Last Word
- Spirit
- 22.5ml gin
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lime
- Also in the glass
- 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse and maraschino
Final Ward
- Spirit
- 22.5ml rye whiskey
- Citrus
- 22.5ml lemon
- Also in the glass
- 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse and maraschino
| Drink | Spirit | Citrus | Also in the glass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultima Palabra | 22.5ml mezcal | 22.5ml lime | 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse, maraschino and pineapple juice, 10ml water |
| Closing Argument | 22.5ml mezcal | 22.5ml lime | 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse and maraschino |
| Last Word | 22.5ml gin | 22.5ml lime | 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse and maraschino |
| Final Ward | 22.5ml rye whiskey | 22.5ml lemon | 22.5ml each of green Chartreuse and maraschino |
The Final Ward moves the same frame to rye and lemon. The Naked and Famous is the other well-known mezcal drink built in equal parts.
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 an Ultima Palabra?
How is it different from a Closing Argument?
Who created the Ultima Palabra?
What does Ultima Palabra mean?
How strong is an Ultima Palabra?
Do I need the water?
Can I swap the Chartreuse?
Can I make it with tequila?
Can I batch it?
Sources.
Correct as of 1 November 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Ultima Palabra” (recipe 3663: mezcal, green Chartreuse, maraschino, pineapple juice, lime juice, water, shaken, fine strained, coupe, thyme sprig; 2.8 units; created by Simone De Luca, High Road House Club, Chiswick; Last Word riff named for its Spanish translation; Closing Argument listed as similar).
- NHS, “Calculating alcohol units” (the 14-units-a-week guidance and the units calculation).
You Might Also Like
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 1 November 2026