The Last Word is far from the final statement on 4-ingredient cocktails, but it could be one of my favorites. Originally the Prohibition-era signature drink of the Detroit Athletic Club, the recipe was published in the 1950s but didn’t become part of the cocktail revolution until just this side of the turn of the century. It was almost lost to obscurity until it was rescued in the mid-aughts by a Seattle bartender. It’s amazing how differently these variations taste, with huge swings in flavor profile but barely different ingredients. The possibilities here are endless, and serve as the ideal template for further experimentation. One variant, The Paper Plane made up of equal parts bourbon, Amaro Nonino Quintessentia, and lemon, is one of my absolute favorites.
Named for the county where I live, I created this peach Manhattan variant to celebrate Atlanta’s historic impact on the 2020 election. To go all-out Georgia, use Atlanta-based distilleries’ ‘American Spirit Works(ASW)’ Resurgens Rye and Blended Family’s peach liqueur.
This equal-parts variant created in the late 2010s, stems from the Prohibition-era Last Word and even more directly from Sam Ross’ Paper Plane invented a few years earlier. The key difference here is the introduction of a spicy Ancho Reyes liqour.
