Famous Prohibition Drink: Last Word & a Mezcal Variation | How to Drink

The Last Word is a modern classic and bartenders favorite with roots in prohibition, what's not to love? Today I make a Last Word and spin out a variation on it on the fly.

The Last Word is a cocktail with countless variations, some of which you may not even know is a Last Word variation, for example the Paper Plane. It was invented at the Detroit Athletic Club during prohibition and was quite popular for a time. It faded into obscurity as the 20th century ground on though. In 2005 Murray Stenson, bartender at the Zig Zig Club in Seattle, was thumbing through a copy of Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up! (A cocktail guide from 1951) looking for something new / old to put on the menu. He shook up a Last Word and was hooked. The Drink traveled east to NYC in the hands of Audrey Saunders who put it on the menu at her Pegu Club in NYC (Great Bar, go there) and the drink was soon everywhere.

The coolest thing about the Last Word though is how well it works as a formula. You can easily swap out a couple of ingredients and wind up with a near perfect drink that's completely different from the original. Maybe dial in the ratios a touch and you're there. So in this one I made a Last Word and then spun out a variation on the fly, and tweaked that variation slightly. Don't have name for that drink yet, got any ideas?

Last Word
1 oz. or 30 ml. Lime Juice
1 oz. or 30 ml. Maraschino
1 oz. or 30 ml. Chartreuse
1 oz. or 30 ml. London Dry Gin

HTD Word #1
1 oz. or 30 ml. Lime Juice
1 oz. or 30 ml. Maraschino
1 oz. or 30 ml. Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur
1 oz. or 30 ml. Mezcal

HTD Word #2
1 oz. or 30 ml. Lime Juice
1 oz. or 30 ml. Maraschino
.5 oz. or 15 ml. Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur
.5 oz. or 15 ml. Chartreuse
1 oz. or 30 ml. Mezcal

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