Green Chartreuse, current version—the original recipe dates from 1605—is a liqueur made from 132 different herbs. The exact recipe is divided between the custody of two Carthusian monks, who each know only half the recipe.
It’s a bouquet of almost every herb and spice from Alpine France, very fragrant and packed with flavors as complex as a symphony. Syrupy, slowly flowing across your lips and tongue, it’s a jumble of herbal, floral, citrus, and aromatic notes—among them, cloves, pine, gentian, génépy, fennel, rosemary, sage, and wormwood—all coming together in a very intense experience, like carpet bombing your senses all at once, in a good way. Down it straight or on the rocks.
—Adapted from Chris Carlsson, “Chartreuse Green,” Spirits Review
Photo of Green Chartreuse bottle link:
ReplyDeletehttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chartreuse_verte.JPG
Photo courtesy of Blois-Blois
Photo of Green Chartreuse shot glass link:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schnapsglas_gr%C3%BCner_Chartreuse.jpg
Photo courtesy of Ospalh
Gonzalinho
RED HERRING at WRITERS BAR, RAFFLES HOTEL, SINGAPORE
ReplyDeleteRed Herring at Writers Bar, Raffles Hotel, Singapore, is a spinoff of the familiar Manhattan in the cocktail circuit.
Writers Bar puts together a delightfully inventive concoction distinguished by strong cocktail flavors—lemony citrus sweetness, whiskey smoothness, herbaceous bitter notes—all suffused with heady vaporous aromas. Always consume chilled. Suitably named, this seductively crimson aperitif unfailingly diverts from the issue at hand.
Gonzalinho
Rating: 5 stars
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RED HERRING
ReplyDeleteIngredients
30 ml Gin 23rd Street
15 ml Brandy Cherry Vok
15 ml Lemon juice
10 ml Sugar Syrup
10 ml Coffee Brew
100 ml Ice
Original recipe is mild and flavorful, swimming in gin, cherry, and lemon notes. Always serve chilled.
Gonzalinho
Rating: 2 stars
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PROLOGUE GREENHILLS, SAN JUAN CITY
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MOJITO
ReplyDeleteWhen life’s waterless sands and drying winds afflict us sorely, just then might be the time to chill with a Mojito loaded with floating ice—of Cuban origin, it’s a well of subterranean alcohol touched by mint notes, sweet lime, and tiny effervescent streams, lingering. They draw cartoons inside your throat.
Gonzalinho
Rating: 4 stars
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PROLOGUE GREENHILLS, SAN JUAN CITY
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PRESIDENTE MARGARITA at CHILI'S, ROCKWELL CENTER, MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteIf you revel in strong contrastive flavors, Chili’s Presidente Margarita might just be the aperitif for you. Delightful as well as a digestif. Honey-sweet orange liqueur brightly chilling crosses swords throughout with lip-smacking salt crusting all along the glass rim. Quietly blends in the brandy. Watch out for the tequila—it kicks like a flying horse.
Gonzalinho
Rating: 5 stars
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SINGAPORE SLING at THE WRITERS BAR, RAFFLES MAKATI, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteNothing to rattle your ice cubes about. It’s a classic sling—honeyed, ever so faintly fruity, musky but without enough kick. Goes down better with another shot of gin. Another dash of bitters wouldn’t hurt. Don’t tell Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s sometime ruler. He said, “If you disagree with the ruler, he chops off heads.”
Rating: 3 stars
Gonzalinho
NEGRONI at VU’S, MARCO POLO HOTEL, PASAY CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteRefreshingly chill and bittersweet, Italian Count Camillo Negroni’s remarkable concoction invokes the character of life itself. Sweetness flows from the Campari and sweet vermouth, while gin, Campari, and especially the vermouth imbue it with a multifaceted bitterness suffused by heavy licorice aromas and notes. Negroni the French general and hero of the War of 1870 may have passed away in 1913 yet his bold and indomitable spirit lives on.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
DON PAPA
ReplyDeleteDon Papa is a top-of-the-line rum from the storied haciendas of Negros island in the Philippines.
Caramel sweet and darkly aromatic with vanilla notes, it smoothly satisfies, suffusing alcohol finely throughout.
On the rocks, its golden color glistens.
Genius, it has been said, stands on the shoulders of giants.
Don Papa - the superbly refined result of over 170 years' experience distilling sugar cane in the Philippines - perches astride the shoulders of its distiller forbears, if a bit unsteadily.
Rum to sip and savor.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
MOJITO at the SPORTS LOUNGE, MANILA POLO CLUB, MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteThere are Mojitos and then there’s the Mojito at Manila Polo Club. Difference is the puckeringly sour lime juice commingling with the fierce soda water together with a generous dollop of larger than usual mint flakes. All of it iced by drifting Arctic bergs. White rum kicks a football across the field.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
DISCERNMENT OF THE SPIRITS: ERMITANYO at SALAMANGKA, QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDescription: Raisins in gin infusion, lemon, crushed peanuts
Sweet lemony punch touched by bittersweet raisin notes all swimming together in musky flavorful gin. Accented by chewy peanut fragments, inspired. Refreshingly chill.
Moniker notwithstanding, it’s best with friends.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
ITALIAN SMASH at ITALIANNI’S, NEW MANILA, QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDescription: Tanqueray, fresh lemon juice, basil leaves, sugar
Musky and complex—Tanqueray, one of London’s finest gins—clashes mightily with sweet lemony sour in a battle of highly contrastive flavors chilling all around. Mint adds color and ambient notes. Italian—or so it claims—and smashing.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
DISCERNMENT OF THE SPIRITS: MANANANGGAL at SALAMANGKA, QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDescription: Calamansi, cucumber, mint leaves, vodka
Calamansi is the star of this cocktail with mint flakes and fresh cucumber bits floating about like constellation highlights in the vault. Wonderfully complex and coldly satisfying, tasty and bitter. Vodka suffusing throughout kicks gently—the current of a dreamy river.
No dreadful monster here. It’s just a ruse to make you drink.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
BLOODY MARY at THE LONG BAR, RAFFLES MAKATI, MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteThe Long Bar at Raffles Makati does a good job with this classic.
Deliciously cold and lightly sour, theirs is a thickly satisfying tomato mash strongly laced with black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and tabasco and freshened by savory green olives. Squeezing a single lemon slice brings the vegetable flavor to the fore, one or two more works possibly better. Vodka infuses complexity and gives it the obligatory kick. Salt along one side of the glass rim adds zing to an unforgettably lip-smacking experience.
So good it’s reported that near closing time vampires have been spied dipping their fangs into the mixture.
We recommend cracking open some peanuts and littering shells on the floor according to the bar’s venerable tradition.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
COCO ISLAND LAMBANOG PURO
ReplyDeleteAfter Taste Atlas 2023 ranked Quezon, Philippines lambanog (coconut liquor) 10th best spirit in the world among a competitive field of 49, I decided to give our local lambanog a shot by trying the Coco Island brand, which is registered with the Philippine Food and Drug Administration. (Colorum lambanog has poisoned consumers in the past, some to their deaths.)
Notably sweet, slightly bitter, it goes down smoothly, no harshness at all. Agreeably musky, the taste and aroma, and aftertaste besides are reminiscent of gin 80 proof but not as bitter. Refreshing on ice, which is an absolute must. It matches up well, interestingly enough, with chocolate cookies.
Rating: 5 stars (surprise, surprise)
Gonzalinho
RED SANGRIA at ANILA RESTAURANT, ANYA RESORT, TAGAYTAY CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDescription: Red wine, triple sec, whiskey, lime juice, cinnamon, seasonal fruits and herbs
This version of the classic Red Sangria, the apples, lemon, and lime all get along swimmingly like Scandinavians in an ice bath of red wine, triple sec, and whiskey. So temptingly chill I saw penguins sliding toward the rim.
Deliciously sweet, lightly sour, winningly fruity all around, and best of all, smoky whiskey flavor suffusing throughout. Double size means double kick.
Happily snack on apple chunks as you please. They make a tasty diversion...the Garden of Eden, a distant memory.
Rating: 5 stars
Gonzalinho
B&T at ITALIANNI’S, NEW MANILA, QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDescription: Bombay Sapphire, strawberry, dill, lemon peel, tonic water
Deliciously cold play on a classic, Italianni’s offers gin and tonic connoisseurs a crystal, fresh cocktail characterized by mildly sweet, satisfyingly effervescent washes tastily reminiscent of strong lime together with a smoky, bitter gin flavor throughout, including the aftertaste, suffusing with a musky aroma. Gin always kicks rascally like a hare, there’s no exception here.
Rating: 4 stars
I’m not a fan of gin.
Gonzalinho
PSYCHEDELIC BLONDE CRAFT BEER
ReplyDeleteSweet, pleasantly so…fresh, clean taste, little complexity or none at all…appealingly fragrant…delightfully sparkling…slightly intoxicating—satisfies like the finest pilsner. Blonde, yes, golden. Psychedelic, no. Not a molecule of acid.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
AMARETTO SOUR at MANILA POLO CLUB, MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDeliciously sweet, sour, and icy—what separates Amaretto Sour from cocktails with similar flavor combinations is the inimitable syrupy almond flavor, slightly bitter, joined to a strong sour lemonade base. Distribution of flavors is uneven so that the deeper levels are denser. Bittersweet almond and lemony sour strains intensify as you finish more of the drink and descend to lower levels. Chill throughout, upper levels are colder. Ice cubes knock together musically as you empty the glass, clattering brightly. An agreeable aftertaste accompanies a pleasant, palpable kick. Cherry is sweet, crunchy, flavorful, and luscious. You’ve got to be a cherry eater to enjoy it.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho
GREY GOOSE LEMONADE at CHILI'S, ROCKWELL CENTER, MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES
ReplyDeleteDescription: Grey Goose vodka, fresh squeezed lemon juice and syrup
Cocktail for sweet tooths that will leave them licking their sticky lips afterwards. Syrupy, chill, slightly bitter with a distant lemony citrus flavor. More bitter than sour. Adding the lemon slice deepens the flavor, so trample it well below the surface with the swizzle stick. Sipping it quietly bestows intimations of Arctic brine. Best part is the vodka—kick is dreamy, pleasant, mild. Rise self-assuredly from your seat because it’s nowhere near enough to knock you over.
Rating: 4 stars
Gonzalinho