"The Last Word", BLtB's Vintage Cocktail of the Year for 2018

Better Living Through Bitters is proud to announce the Vintage Cocktail of the Year for 2018:  The Last Word.  I've been obsessed with this libation after first having tried it in Detroit, the city of its invention during Prohibition, and have been buying limes by the dozen ever since.

The Last Word

• Into an iced cocktail shaker, add 1 1/2 ounce each of:
• Gin (I used Two James Cockney gin, also made in Detroit in the shadow of the soon-to-be-not-abandoned-anymore Michigan Central Station.  Besides being vigorously juniper forward, it's got a subtle and nice pepper and orange thing going on that makes it truly stupendous in this cocktail, so much so that I don't understand why they don't have the rest of the ingredients to make this drink at the tasting room),
• Green Chartreuse,
• Maraschino liqueur, and
• freshly-squeezed lime juice.
• Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
• Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Besides being a gorgeous cocktail, pale green with an angry red coal of a cherry settled at the bottom of the glass reminiscent of an ember of the fire out of which this Prohibition-era cocktail was triumphantly reborn within the past decade, it's extremely well-balanced and delightful to drink.  The interplay between the ingredients is astounding: like a good quartet, it's easy to pick out each single element, or simply relax and bask in the harmonies.  The Last Word is charming, complex but not unapproachable, and is 2018's Vintage Cocktail of the Year.

Experiments in Vesper

So, I ran myself out of Lillet Blanc.

This is kind of an embarrassing situation when, the morning after St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to whip up a batch of Corpse Reviver No. 2's.  Not finding a recipe where the Reviver is made with Cocchi Americano (which I bought when I ran out of Lillet, as the more modern replacement for Kina Lillet of "Vesper" fame), I resorted to some hair-of-the-dog Jameson and Ginger highballs.  Not exactly preferred.

But it got me thinking: what makes the best modern Vesper?   The original recipe, of course, calls for Kina Lillet, which hasn't been available since the 1980s.  What about the replacements?  Inspired by my fellow cocktail afficianado Ted -- and all my best cocktail ideas come from Ted -- I got myself another bottle of Blanc (hey, it's not going to go bad, right?  I made a lot of Corpse Revivers!) and decided to taste test both recipes.

* 3 oz. dry London gin (I chose Tanqueray this time)

* 1 oz. vodka (I picked 100-proof Smirnoff, as I think that's more along the lines of where James Bond was actually going with this.)

* 1/2 oz. Cocchi Americano / Lillet Blanc

* Shake over ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a thick lemon twist

Both are outstanding.  The one made with Lillet Blanc is just a touch sweeter, maybe with just a tad more citrus.  The one made with Cocchi Americano allows the dryness of the alcohol to come through just a little bit more.  But they're difficult to distinguish when they're not right next to each other.  I think I'd say that, which the Cocchi cocktail arguably tastes like James Bond's original recipe a little bit more, the cocktail made with Lillet Blanc instead is excellent, too -- a little bit more well-rounded, a little bit more complex.  I'm hard pressed to identify a favorite.