This classic takes the Sidecar and turns it on its head, replacing dry curaçao’s citrus notes with the herbaceous flavor bomb of green Chartreuse. However, the drink remains balanced between the Chartreuse partnering and not competing with the other ingredients when compared with the Last Word I first discovered this during a socially distanced get-together with Joel & Rachel Silverman, dear family friends who helped keep our family sane (and vice versa) during the depths of the lockdown. Joel has a comprehensive collection of cocktail books and spirits. Tasked with picking a predinner cocktail, I turned to his books and found the late Sasha Petraske’s book Regarding Cocktails. That recipe for this delightful drink was the perfect cocktail for an al fresco dinner on the Silverman’s porch.
Here is another gin sour I keep in frequent rotation for my evening drink that comes from the PDT Cocktail Book I keep in frequent rotation for my evening drink. You must use a good quality cherry for this to work! I’ve tried this with many different gins, and it plays well with your classic London Dry as well as softer Plymouth. The cherry taste definitely reaches the stratosphere between the Luxardo liqueur and the muddled fruit.
The Corpse Reviver No. 2 belongs to a family of pre- Prohibition cocktails able to “rouse the drinker from the dead.” In other words: every bar had its version of a “reviver” drink, all meant to cure hangovers, increase vigor and otherwise improve one’s morning. This version comes from the classic Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which claimed that four of these taken in quick succession would reanimate the dead. I’ll have to get back to you on that, but in the meantime, enjoy. I used New Orleans’ anise-flavored liqueur Herbsaint in this drink for the first time I made it as I had a tough time tracking down a bottle of absinthe. The scent of anise here teases the senses as you sip from the glass. Heavenly!
