THE GREEN MAGIC POTION AND A CHARTREUSE DELIGHT

Green chartreuse is really something – its the elixir of pure pleasure! a little of it and its like magic drops transforms an average drink into a potion of dreams..

This magic potion made by the Carthusian Monks since the 1740s and composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbal extracts can really make you smile..

This fantastic liqueur is named after the Monks’ Grande Chartreuse monastery, which is located in the Chartreuse mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France and is one of the few liqueurs that improves with age in the bottle.

A tasty blend of aged cachaca, fresh lime, acacia honey-mix, sugar cane syrup and green chartreuse…shaken with cracked ice and what do you get? well – its a hybrid of the Pineapple Delight and the Chartreuse Swizzle..and it`s one heck of a refreshing cocktail.

In the Mixohouse in New Orleans this summer, we served green chartreuse swizzles in flower vases with a bunch of straws so everybody could get their sip of the magic potion. This drink is actually addictive – in a good way.

It blends especially well with dark rum, JWray, aged rhum agricole or aged cachaca (haven´t tried tequila yet..) pineapple and mint. Also a splash of the raw cocoa flavored chocolate spirit Mozart Dry makes wonders in it.

The Pineapple Delight has the rhum agricole, JWray and honey-cream-mix and the Chartreuse Swizzle the green chartreuse, falernum, and rum..both has pineapple and lime – and now we have a mix of the two with aged cachaca as the base spirit and where the green chartreuse act as a float.

I shall confess that i could drink bucket loads of this if only my body could cope with that. But of course that won´t work so i settle with two this time. After all the chartreuse is a strong potion.

CHARTREUSE DELIGHT

1.5 oz premium aged cachaca ( i used Abelha Gold and then Rainhas Das Gerais)
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
1 barspoon acacia honey-mix (equal parts honey and water heated to dissolve and then cooled to room temp)
0.25 – 0.5 oz sugarcane syrup (Petit Canne)
Float green chartreuse (enough to taste the herbal flavor but i like a generous float)
1 oz pineapple juice
Crushed ice
Mint for garnish

Shake with cracked ice and strain into a highball filled with crushed ice and garnisih with mint. Float green chartreuse.

Whatever cachaca you may use – I have noticed that the choice of cachaca in this drink is of utmost importance. Premium aged cachaca – nothing else will do.

Also – you may try this with a GOOD aged rhum agricole – like Clemént VSOP

If you use Rainhas (i believe this may be for some of the cocktail bloggers) you´ll notice that after the herbal flavor of the chartreuse, there´s a very pleasant buttery aftertaste. Otherwise i think Abelha Gold is a good aged cachaca.

Sip and enjoy!