Sometimes it’s fun to just follow the muse. I stumbled on the Chartreuse Swizzle at the excellent tiki cocktail blog “A Mountain of Crushed Ice”. It is a tiki cocktail blog, written by Helena “Tiare” Olsen a Swede who is in love with New Orleans and tiki cocktails. The world is indeed becoming smaller. The blog is full of joy, passion and great cocktail recipes. I’ve become an instant fan.

I found this recipe and was immediately smitten. I have been enjoying Chartreuse in Last Word cocktails, and this drink seemed too fun not to try. The drink features green Chartreuse, aged rum, pineapple, lime, falernum and bitters- all good stuff. The suggested caramelized lime garnish is way over the top, but this is a tiki drink, so why not?

The drink is great, with the full range of “tiki” flavors but some extra complexity from the Chartreuse. Tiki drinks are all about flavors that seem exotic and hard to pin down- this drink certainly has that. We had our neighbor, Jeni over to test the drink and she liked it as well. The Chartreuse keeps the drink from being too sweet or cloying at the finish, but it is still very much a tiki drink.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this cocktail, even though it was a bit or work. (Ok, I did end up using the broiler to fully caramelize the lime- but whatever, it worked). Something about fire and tiki drinks seems fitting. The Chartreuse Swizzle will certainly be a good conversation starter.  Continue reading →