Shamrock Sour

2 parts Basil Hayden's Bourbon
1/2 part Green Chartreuse
1/2 part Lemon Juice
1/2 part Grapefruit juice
1/2 part Agave Syrup (To make, combine equal parts water with Agave syrup)
1/4 part Egg white

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin and shake without ice to blend. Add ice and shake. Strain over fresh ice in a double rocks glass and garnish with a mint spring and a lemon wheel.

Diamonds In the Skyy (Courtesy of CulinaryDropout)

1 1/2 oz Skyy Vodka
1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
2 dashes cherry bitters
1 barspoon cherry gastrique
Ginger beer

Try the cocktail that made Marc Bonneton the winner of the Bacardi Global Legacy Cocktail Competition:

BACARDI Fizz

50 mL Bacardi Superior Rum
40 mL cream
15 mL Green Chartreuse
15 mL lemon juice
15 mL lime juice
15 mL sugar syrup
1 egg white
top with soda water

Dry-shake the egg white in a shaker with no ice, then add all the other ingredients and shake for a long time to emulsify the egg white and the cream. Fine-strain into a tall glass and top with soda water. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

The South Park Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Spring44 Gin
1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz agave nectar
2 dashes Angostura bitters
8 mint leaves

Shake all ingredients with ice, double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Good Things Come

Created by Jeff Grdinich; recipe courtesy Beta Cocktails, by Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak

1¾ ounces Redbreast Whiskey
½ ounce Pedro Ximénez Sherry
½ ounce Fernet-Branca
¼ ounce Yellow Chartreuse
Dash Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters

Combine the whiskey, Sherry, Fernet-Branca, Chartreuse and bitters in a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake. Strain into a coupe glass.

Smooth Sipping: Irish Whiskey Cocktail

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Irish whiskey makes the perfect St. Patrick’s Day cocktail—no green dye needed.

By Jessica Voelker Published -->

Photograph by Scott Suchman.

If green beer lacks the class you’re seeking in a St. Patrick’s Day beverage, consider a cocktail made with Irish whiskey. The spirit’s signature smoothness comes from a tradition of triple distillation—much of the world’s whiskey is distilled only twice. The extra step removes impurities but can also rob the beverage of complexity and character, which is why Scotch and bourbon fans sometimes snub it.

“They call it breakfast whiskey,” laughs Bill Thomas, co-owner of Jack Rose Dining Saloon in DC’s Adams Morgan. But Thomas stocks some Irish whiskeys that he says will satisfy complexity seekers, including the $65-an-ounce Knappogue Castle 1951 and several brands made at the Cooley distillery on Ireland’s east coast.

When experimenting with Irish whiskey in cocktails, Jack Rose beverage director Rachel Sergi recommends a less pricey product such as Powers Gold Label (about $19 for 750 milliliters at Calvert Woodley Wine & Spirits), which she describes as “caramely with some spice but not too sweet.” She uses it in her own version of the Tipperary—Irish whiskey, green Chartreuse, and sweet vermouth—named for the town in southern Ireland. The Chartreuse lends it a greenish cast, making the drink perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day. Sergi’s recipe—which calls for equal parts of the three ingredients—is virtually foolproof, which should help any St. Paddy’s soiree go smoothly.

1 ounce Irish whiskey

1 ounce green Chartreuse

1 ounce sweet vermouth (Sergi suggests Martini & Rossi or Dolin Rouge)

1 mint leaf for garnish (optional)

Pour the whiskey, Chartreuse, and vermouth into a pint glass, then add ice cubes until it’s about two-thirds full. Gripping a bar spoon as you would a chopstick, stir ingredients about 50 times, keeping the back of the spoon against the inside of the glass as much as possible. Strain ingredients into a chilled cocktail glass. Add mint leaf if desired.

This article appears in the March 2012 issue of The Washingtonian.

SMOKEJUMPER

by JACOB GRIER of Metrovino, Portland

2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
1/2 ounce lapsang souchong syrup (equal parts sugar and brewed tea)
Lemon twist

Pour all ingredients into shaker, then serve on rocks. Garnish with lemon twist.

Goodman’s signature drink, renamed the Hizzoner, is the keystone of an excellent cocktail menu, overseen by the team from Downtown Cocktail Room, perhaps the city’s premier cocktail lounge. Beyond the classic Negroni and Old-Fashioned, Sazerac and Aviation, are some unique originals: the Symphony Park, a blend of Bombay East gin and green chartreuse muddled with fresh cucumber, and the Romney, described as “our finest selection of still water,” a sly poke at Republican presidential contender, the teetotaling Mitt.