00:00 Introduction Barrel the Bottle, QuickSip, we got a question from a customer, and it was about Chartreuse and Chartreuse adjacent spirits, and I feel like we just did that, it was like two years ago. So we got an email from Ian. Ian writes, hello, can you lay out a recipe for the last word cocktail using elixir vegetal instead of green chartreuse? Please let me know if you've already addressed the elixir in a podcast or an article. Thanks, Ian. Heck yeah. Well, no, we haven't. Well, we haven't. Heck no. We're excited about this concept. Why don't we first say what is elixir vegetal? I'm not actually super familiar with this. This is one of those bottles that I feel like I've seen a million times. It comes out of the little bamboo thing. Yeah. It's got a little bamboo case. It's so teeny tiny. It's a little bottle. It's 30 bucks. It's 67 percent alcohol. Is that 200 milliliters? It's not. No, it's 100 milliliters. So we're into cocktail bitters country here. Yeah. It's also from France, which is good. It's Chartreuse. It's made by the Carthusian monks. True. It appears to be a concentrate of Chartreuse. On the actual thing, it says, a few drops on a sugar cube diluted in chilled water as a substitute for bitters in your cocktails infused with hot water as a toddy with honey. I feel like that would be very good as a toddy. I think this was the original thing they made. This is the elixir of long life. Right. This seems like old time. Underberg has been around for a while, but this stuff has been around for longer. This seems like the first underberg. It seems like something you would sip on to actually make you. That's what Roger was saying when we were talking about this yesterday. Yeah, aperitivos go back forever. Sure. With herbal aperitivos. Degestivos, aperitivos. This also says it's made from beets. Bees? Beets. The beets are probably the neutral alcohol spirits. Beets. Beets. Yeah. Beet-based booze. Okay. But the beet does not add flavor. The sugar distillate. From the Black Rockin Beets Distillery in Northern Italy. Black Rockin Beets. 2:14 Chartreuse Elixir Comparison What are we trying first, the original? Yeah, let's try the original. I think so. We're trying Chartreuse, just green Chartreuse. A 130-some botanicals in this, right? It's so thick. It is very sweet. It's very intense. A lot of herbal complexity. Mostly black jelly bean, though. There's a lot of anise, yeah. I like the sweetness. I think that the sweetness is great. I think that that's what's going to set it apart from this other thing. Yeah, exactly. Because this is syrupy in the glass almost. It's definitely viscous. And this other guy looks like poison. A little scary. I did not pour very much of it. Oh, yeah. So now we're tasting the Végétal. Yes. It's like the venom of a Gaboon viper. So the website is a Chartreuse. And the pepper and the mint dial up. Yeah. It still says 130 plants, flowers, spices, barks, roots, and berries. So the same stuff. Yeah, I just think they don't put as much sugar in and it's not stretched out. Yeah. The question is, is this what makes that or are they both products of the same other source? I feel like they're first cousins or maybe like siblings that have a big age gap. Well, they're very similar, but they're not quite the same. I think Chris is right. It's just, I think Chartreuse is just the elixir with a little more sugar and water. Yeah. Which is what we need to know to make a proper cocktail out of it. 3:49 Last Word Cocktail Test So I think we're talking about the last word, right? Yeah. Prohibition era cocktail that is made with equal parts of four things and from Detroit. Oh, yeah. Detroit. It's one of my favorite cocktails. This and an Aviation are just the most magical thing. And it's really fun the way that you can change the ratios a little bit if you like. Let's say you love Chartreuse and it's not a super hard to find bottle. You can add a little bit more. You can add a little bit less. You can go a little cherry heavy. You can change it up a little bit. And I think that that's one of my favorite parts about it. It's like a martini. You can change it up a little. You can definitely dial it into your own taste, but the classic recipe is equal parts. Yeah. But obviously not going to use equal parts of the elixir. Which is what I guess what I was saying. You need like some simple syrup or a sugar cube. Well, it says sugar cube and some water. Yeah. I did an equal thing just to try it. I can double everything else to try to counteract that. Equal vegetal? Yeah, just to see. Well, we might as well try it. Because I haven't tried it yet. Yeah, sure. We can try it or I can just add double or everything. Let's just try it. Yeah, let's try it and then adjust. Yeah. Yeah. If need be. Maybe it'll be brilliant. Maybe it'll make a slightly less sweet drink and some will like it. It might be a first word. A first word. I'm still fixated on this. It's a really interesting experience. It smells like honey, like honey across the bottom. And I don't get that on the Chartreuse at all. Maybe it's in there. And then there's this peppery, minty quality that just dominates it. Yeah. It is very spicy. And maybe it's just because it's more intense, but it feels more complex than the Chartreuse. Well, yeah, I think everything is more concentrated. And I think you're right. I think spice comes to the fore, where the herbs are the starring role in the herbaceousness, the mintiness, anise flavors in the Chartreuse are really accentuated by the sweetness. But here, that kind of peppery spice really pops out. Now, we will stop talking so Elixir can shake. So we did an episode of Barrel to Bottle The Binny's Podcast. September, 2023, called Got any Chartreuse? Barrel to Bottle gets the last word on Chartreuse and Chartreuse Alternatives. Aren't we clever? Because Chartreuse has become difficult to find in stores at least because the monks are only making what they're making and it's mostly going to bars because it's a huge cocktail ingredient and it became really huge during the pandemic. It also had a huge price increase, which is something worth noting. Right. Yeah, when that scarcity happened. Yeah. I mean, at $30 a bottle price increase, depending on where you go. 6:41 Cocktail Tasting Results All right. You have made two different versions of the last word cocktail for us. What are those four ingredients? We've got gin, you've got your Chartreuse or your Végétal, lime juice and Luxardo Maraschino liqueur. I'm just going to say with these two glasses right next to each other, that the nose with the, I keep forgetting what it's called, with the Végétal, head and shoulders above, the honey still shows with all the other ingredients in and it makes it Oh yeah. It smells amazing. Whoa, it smells floral. Yeah, it brings out all new elements here. And by comparison, the Chartreuse version is a lot more mellow. Now maybe you mixed it too strong because you used equal parts Végétal. Yeah. But I think that that's for the science, that's for the best. Yeah. All right, let's try them. It's funny because Chartreuse is not shy in the alcohol department at all. And it's clocking in at 55 percent. Yeah. And it has a wallop of verbatious flavor. But yeah, the elixir is much more intense. And it does show you a totally different side of all these botanicals, right? Yeah. They present in a completely different way. So the Végétal is 69 percent. Oh, yeah. And I mean, for the dialed up intensity, I think there's more intensity of flavor dial up than there is alcohol. Yeah. The last word, the proper way, is delightfully balanced. It's tart. It's bitter. It's delight. I think that the Végétal has got this like spirit heavy bite that is probably a little bit much for most, which makes sense. I like it so much. I'm sure. You know, I am surprised that it doesn't taste completely insane. Yeah. I would drink this cocktail as it is with the elixir, which- And it comes with a little flake of gold on top. Yeah. Which is weird. And here's my other note on these, both of them, you could cut the lime juice by half and I would be happy. I disagree. You disagree? I like it, yeah. I like sour, yeah. I tend to drink more sour cocktail. Yeah, more sour cocktails. My jam, so. Man, the aromatic complexity on the Végétal version. They're both quite good. But yeah, I mean, there is a lot more subtlety and balance to the original one. Yeah. 9:07 Substitution Recommendations All right, this is eye-opening. Here's what I'm going to say. Ian's question, I think the answer is you take the last word cocktail and you start off with something like, I don't know, a quarter to half of the amount that you would put in of Chartreuse. And then you adjust up until you find the balance that you think is best. Right. And if you feel like you need some sugar, just a splash of simple syrup, or even if it's a splash of water too. All of these are possibilities. A sugar cube and some water. Yeah. I think you could probably, so it calls for equal parts. It doesn't matter how much you want to use depending on the size of your glass that you're drinking out of. If you're doing, let's just say, a one to one to one to one, I would take that one ounce of Chartreuse, and I would do half an ounce of the Végétal, and then half an ounce of simple syrup to kind of equal that same one. So your ratio is still the same. That makes sense. I would do something like that, and then just shake it a tiny bit longer than you would prefer typically. Dilute it down. Get a little more dilution. Dilute it, but it'll still be nice and incorporated. Good plan, Lexi, I like it. Hey, can I talk about the science that I looked up that Frank was poo pooing? Yes. So if you take the Végétal, if you want to get it down to 55% alcohol, if you have two ounces of that, you add a half an ounce of water to get it down to 55. Well, then you've got the same alcohol, but you don't have the same sugar levels. So it's still going to be a little wack. What I'm saying is, so I think then you would want to maybe add. So a half ounce of water and maybe a sugar cube might equal, and you could probably play around with that too. But I think. You could also, so when you typically do a simple syrup, it depends on your ratio, but you could do like a two to one. Yeah. Let's say you're doing a two to one. Try a one to one. Yeah. Try a one to one. It'll be a little bit watery of a sugar, and that would be. Also, you could reduce it a little bit more. I usually do one to one and cook it for like 10 minutes. Oh my god. You guys, it's shades of gray once again. If I'm switching the gin in this, use Bombay Sapphire. I think that was an excellent choice because it really carries with the spirit. But if you used a lower lying, more viscous, more citrus, orange peel kind of gin, you wouldn't do some math to get it closer to Bombay Sapphire. You would use it as its own unique ingredient and then play off of its own qualities. That's why I think you should do it this. Yeah, but don't try to dilute it and sugar it up to make it match our truth. Let it be what it is. Well, I know. Let it shine through. The point is that this little bottle is $30 and it's 100 milliliters, right? 100, whatever. Yeah. So people are not going to buy it for... Yeah. The sake of diluting down there to make it match the Chartreuse. No, I think that's what the guy is asking for. Is this a concentrated version? It's not. It's its own product. It doesn't have the sugar. It's a different product. But I think if you have some sugar and some water, you can get something similar. Right. So what do you say the ratios are? Two ounces to like a half ounce. Okay. So if you add sugar in there, I think you're right. A one-to-one simple syrup, forget about the water component and just make that. Let it be its own thing. Yeah. Because there are plenty of Chartreuse alternatives. You're not buying this more expensive tiny bottle to replace the Chartreuse. You're buying it because it's its own unique thing, and let it showcase itself in its own way. Yes. Yeah. I think answering his question, is it an equal swap? No, absolutely not. But it can be if you want it to. Or it can be very similar if you want it to. And some people are just, it has that green color. It's more green. The one with Chartreuse, it looks kind of like lemonade, whereas the one, this one looks, it's definitely greener. Yeah, I eat it from Wicked. Right. Yeah. Yes. You get a much more vibrant color out of the elixir, obviously. Yeah. And try a bunch of other Chartreuse alternatives. Right. So we did that- Like our winner from- Boomsma. Yeah, we did that whole episode. Dolangenopy. Right. And- So many of them were good. I recall thinking the Boomsma was the closest and the best in the last word. This is what I've, according to this, it's the most recommended alternative, the most well-known alternative. The Boomsma. No, the Dolan. Oh, the Dolan. Well, yes, Dolan genopy is widely available and close, but I don't think there were some distinct differences, as I recall in my mind, and I thought the Boomsma was the closest in profile. So yeah, there are some alternatives. You can check out our podcast episode from about two years ago, Two and Change. There are alternatives, but there is this weird little bottle that you might see in our stores. It comes in a little wood box thing, and it's a little Russian nesting cup. A little wood bottle, because that's the glass bottle. Yeah. And the answer is, you can just straight up substitute it, makes a very intense version. Yeah. Oh, it's the millionaire's last word. Yeah. Or just play around with it with a little simple sort of... The Chartreuse website says it basically sounds like you're using it as a cocktail bitter. Just put a few dashes on there, comes with a little fun restrictor. So, right. That's a great way to use it. Use it as an accent on top of your Chartreuse version. Yeah. All right. We answered Ian's question. Hey Lexi, what's the last word of this Barrel to Bottle quick sub? Key... Well, that's two words. Okay. Last two words. Keep tasting.