Lumière
- 1½ oz Hendricks Gin
- 3/4 oz Green Chartreuse Liqueur
- 1/2 oz St Germain Elderflower Liqueur
- 3/4 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 dash orange bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime twist.
We came across this drink when we discovered the delights of Green Chartreuse as a cocktail ingredient. We found the recipe online at Make Me A Cocktail though we've adjusted it a little to our taste. Apparently it was developed by Nitehawk Cinema's Beverage Director Jen Marshall.
Chartreuse imparts a wonderful herbal note to a cocktail and it comes through strongly in the Lumière. The recipe is similar to the Prohibition-era cocktail the Last Word. In this recipe the elderflower liqueur replaces the maraschino liqueur of the Last Word and we definitely think that's an improvement placing it firmly on our top shelf.
Sadly, the monks that make Chartreuse are now focussed more on vespers than liquors and consequently Chartreuse is no longer available to the laity, draining the light from our Lumière. The Educated Barfly suggests three possible alternatives to Green Chartreuse of which we have tried two. In a side-by-side comparison of two Lumières, one made with Green Chartreuse and the other with Dolin Génépy Le Chamois, we found the Génépy drink slightly more yellow in color but otherwise very hard to detect any difference in taste. In another test comparing Génépy to Faccia Brutto Centerbe herbal liqueur, we found the color restored but the taste lacking. The Centerbe is less sweet and I felt it leaves a hollow feeling, it is lacking something.
Thus is the light rekindled in our Lumière! We will use Dolin Génépy Le Chamois and increase the gin a little to compensate for the difference in alcohol content.