It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m looking to hold onto anything fun these days, so I thought I’d see if I could come up with a green cocktail.
Last year, I attempted a green margarita.
- 2 oz reposada tequila
- 1 oz lime juice
- 1/2 oz blue curaçao
- 1/2 oz honey syrup
- 1/4 oz Gran Gala
It tasted great, but it was a bit more teal or aquamarine than green.
This year, I first tried a variant of a French Harvest (which is itself a variant of the French 75, except using hard cider in place of champagne).
- 2 oz gin
- 1 oz lemon juice
- 1/2 oz simple syrup
- 1/2 oz blue curaçao
- A pinch of gold edible glitter (from the leprechaun).
As you can see, I was too heavy on the blue curaçao, and it was far more teal (or even blue) than it should have been. Using honey syrup would probably have helped, but I didn’t have any. I think it would have worked with only 1/4 oz of blue curaçao and honey syrup in place of simple.
In my defense, it was slightly more green in real life, but it was a very overcast day. I think sunlight would have brought out the glitter more as well.
The next one I tried was the Algonquin. It’s basically rye, dry vermouth, and pineapple juice and would normally be very yellow. I figured a splash of orange flavor might complement it well, so a bit of blue curaçao could turn it green without marring the flavor.
- 2 oz rye
- 1 oz dry vermouth
- 3/4 oz pineapple juice
- 1/4 oz blue curaçao
The color came out reasonably green:
Unfortunately, the drink itself was missing something. As my wife put it, it was very flat. I thought maybe a splash of cider might lift it a bit (as well as improving the color).
As you can see, the glass on the left is slightly more green, so the color did improve. It didn’t help the drink much. The Algonquin technically calls for a cherry garnish, and adding that did improve the flavor somewhat, but I wouldn’t say it was a drink I would voluntarily serve to someone else.
So I’ll keep looking. I did see a recipe online for a drink that called for white rum, pineapple and orange juice, and blue curaçao, so I may attempt something like that next year. Or my French Harvest variant was decent enough. Maybe with a little less blue curaçao, it would have the right color.
There’s always next year.
3 thoughts on “Green Cocktails”
Green Chartreuse was the first thing that came to mind. It’s kind of a yellow-green, but the greenest liqueur I can think of. I have a bottle but haven’t experimented too much with it aside from a couple Last Words. Last Words come across more yellow than green if I remember correctly.
Creme de Menthe comes in a green variety, but you’re basically limited to Grasshoppers. I don’t remember my parents drinking much (or really at all), but my mom would bring me to a liquor store once every few years in March to buy Creme de Menthe. She wouldn’t make drinks with it, but use it for baking things such as grasshopper pies.
Chartreuse is expensive enough that I haven’t tried it yet.
Maybe I should have tried something with Absinthe or Midori.
Yeah, the monks who make Chartrueuse decided to cap their production and the popularity has soared, making it quite expensive.
I don’t think I’ve ever tried Midori before, that is an interesting one.