Chartreuse Swizzle, cocktail of the month

The name of this cocktail comes from the utensil that was used to mix it, the swizzle stick.

Originally it was a branch of a Carib tree, the Quararibea turbinate, which has the peculiarity of having a curious way to get out the star-shaped twigs.

 Historians place it around the eighteenth century. A first drink called switchel was known, based on molasses and water very common in African slaveholdings. We have also the knowledge of another cocktail, called a swizzle based on rum, which is most popular today. At some point, the practice of using a branch of Quararibea to swallow beverages began.

Origin of the name

According to “Century Dictionary: An Encylopedic Lexicon of the English Language,” the origin of the word could have two versions: one would be the combination of the words swill and guzzle and the other the mixture of the words switchel and fizz. In any case, being its true origin or not, the question is that they are called swizzles the drinks that use the swizzle stick to mix, be it the original version in wood or the most modern versions that can now be found in other materials. This utensil has become so famous that it has even become the subject of collecting.

The Chartreuse swizzle, cocktail of the month of May, was created in 2002 by Marcovaldo Dionysos when he worked in Tres Agaves, in San Francisco (USA). This bartender, originally from Seattle, began working at Casa U Betcha in Portland, Oregon, and then moved to San Francisco, California, where he had a full-time career working at such emblematic cocktail bars as Enrico’s Sidewalk Cafe, the Absinthe Brasserie & Bar or the Smuggler’s Cave.

The cocktail contains the main ingredient Chartreuse Vert, a liquor made with 130 different plants, the recipe of which only some monks of the Cartuja know, resulting in this green colour so characteristic and unique. Well known as digestive, we present it in a cocktail combined with falernum, a sweet liqueur flavoured with lime juice, ginger and other spices that gives the group an exotic touch with many nuances of botanists.

Formula:

4 cl Chartreuse
2 cl liquor of falernum
6 cl pineapple juice
2 cl lemon juice
Pinch of nutmeg
9,50 €

Chartreuse Swizzle, let yourself be seduced by this exotic proposal. You won’t regret it!