Roger, two of these aren't green, I demand a recount. All right, Fresh Off the Cuff, Cold Open Reaction 2. Why does this one look like mouthwash? Why do we have to taste last words? What a s*** cocktail. I honestly don't even know what that is. Says the guy who always wants the last word. Yeah, sweet irony. I just want to swamp water. Zing. There are seven, there are seven last words, and we're doing this, why are we doing this? During COVID, everybody started bartending, and I got a lot of people that would go, hey, what's a good cocktail? And everybody started googling, what are good cocktails to make? And mixologists out there happened to fall in love with obscure weird things that cost a lot of money, and they like this proprietary French herbal liqueur called Chartreuse. So it went from- Were they blaming COVID on the disappearance of Chartreuse? Yes, it absolutely is what caused it, yeah. Oh. Their sales doubled. They sold more Chartreuse than they've ever sold in the history of making it, and it came- Well, it was originally medicinal. Maybe people thought it was like the new ivermectin. They weren't listening to our president and telling him to inject the bleach. Inject Chartreuse straight into your veins. So yeah, it was a very classic supply and demand thing. This thing has always been made in pretty small quantities. It's just that no one really knows about it, except people who like to geek out on cocktails. Then all of a sudden, a bunch of people wanted it because they like the cocktail. As Brof's joke before, everyone's like, what do you do with Chartreuse? They go, you make one cocktail called the last word. Terrible. There's a few others, but for some reason, the last word is the cocktail that really captures everybody. So what we've run into with this is a lot of people can't get their hands on it. So the idea today is to- We can't get it, you can't get it. They only sell it to bars. And it's not that they're making less, they're just not upping production. They are, they actually did cut production back. That was part of the official word this year. So they had done their best to keep up with demand, and then the monks kind of had a little monk huddle, whatever you call that, and they got together and they said, we need to focus on being monks, not being on global spirits executives. And so they cut production back and they're focusing on being silent and prayerful. And they're still making Chartreuse, but the importer for the US is focusing that stock into the on-premise, the bars and restaurants, because that's where the brand was built. So now bars that used to buy one bottle a month are maybe buying a case a month and just kind of sitting on it. Right. And then- They're loading up. Bars are loading up. There are mountains of Chartreuse at bars right now. There's plenty of Chartreuse available, but they're not selling it to stores. Yeah, I can attest to that. I've seen mountains of Chartreuse in bars. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to sound like a sore loser here. And I understand wanting to focus on the on-premise with it. But at some point, after however many months of still only going through a bottle of Chartreuse a month, how much more do you need to purchase? So I'm hearing a pretty strong Blanton's sigh coming out of Pat about Chartreuse. Yeah, kind of. I mean, it becomes a point where what we were saying before was, can't they sprinkle it? Let's give most of it to on-premise, but give us a little bit. That requires a slight modicum of effort. Things will even out eventually. We'll get it back. So what will be really cool today is that I poured 14 different things here for you guys. So we're going to do this blind and we're going to figure out if Chartreuse is all it's chalked up to be. We don't even know which one Chartreuse is Chartreuse. I think what's really happening is- I brought him six alternatives. Global warming is causing these mountain herbs to grow higher and higher elevation. The monks just don't want to walk up. They literally have cited that as a part of it. Are you serious? They don't, not that aspect, but that if they were to up production, it would have environmental impact and they don't want to do that. They also were reminded by the Vatican apparently that they're not businessmen, which made me laugh like, hey, Vatican, shut up. Yeah. I asked Brett yesterday if we happen to have any Chartreuse stash at Links and Mark and he just yells through the phone to me, why? What snob needs it? I read that text with exactly that tone of voice. I was laughing about this one. What I'm anticipating here is that I think there are alternatives that you can do Chartreuse that are just as good. Some bartenders like to snobbly say- Old statement from the guy who poured the blind tasting. They like to go, nothing is the same as Chartreuse, is the thing people like to say, we're about to find out. You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, and I'm feeling a little green today. Green around the gills. And I'm Chris. Greg's having an identity crisis. Yeah, I'm Chris. I'm not green at all. I'm Roger, I do beer, also cocktail enthusiast. I'm Jenna, I do communications. Hey, I'm Pat. I tell people we are sold out of Chartreuse. Well, so Roger's doing you a favor here. We're going to find out, are there Chartreuse alternatives that work? Let's find out. Never has, is having to taste seven different last words considered a favor, okay? Come on, I've never had a last word in my life. This is a good cocktail. It's got nice balance. Although, this one that looks like Scope is definitely freaking me out. Yeah, it's freaking me out too. I've never had Chartreuse, and I've never had a last word. All right, so a little background here for people that don't know. So Chartreuse is made by the Cartuthean monks. One of the charming things behind this is that it's such an old, it's been around for so long, it's crazy. The rumor with the legend of it is that it's based on a manuscript from 1605 for an elixir of long life. They've been making it since 1737, and it contains 130 different herbs, plants, and flowers. They found a recipe from 100 years ago, and they're like, I bet this works. What's hysterical too about it is that things really do go in trends. When I was talking to Pat about this and he was begrudgingly like, okay, he goes, we need to make that cocktail called swamp water or whatever because in the 70s, nobody wanted this stuff. It wasn't selling at all. It's famously very high in alcohol, because they're macerating all these herbs, the secret blend of herbs and spices in really intense. In neutral spirit. Yeah. I'm hearing absinthe. I'm hearing a strong comparison to absinthe. Very absinthe-esque, yeah. We'll get to the swamp water cocktail, but it was really fallen into obscurity until somebody dug up this old prohibition era cocktail called The Last Word. That gentleman's name was Murray Stenson. In 2004, he was working at a place called the Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle, and he was looking through an old drink book called, it's a great name here, Ted Sossier's Bottoms Up Book from 1951. That is definitely the Chili's of the time. Thanks to good old Ted Sossier's Bottoms Up Cocktail Book, it was the first printed reference to a cocktail which was created at the Detroit Athletic Club in 1915. Isn't that the same place where they were drinking the bull fat mixed with something? The bull shot? Yeah. I don't think so. But yeah, same idea like a private club. And one thing I found that was pretty interesting was that somebody, that club is still open and they were researching this once this became such a popular cocktail. They wanted to find documentation that yes indeed, they did serve this there that long ago. So someone there found a 1916 menu, and the Last Word cocktail was on there for 35 cents, which made it the most expensive cocktail on their menu at the time. That's wild. When I hear prohibition cocktail, I think strong flavors to cover up just how rotten the alcohol that they had was. Yeah, I think the gin was pretty bad. It was literally bathtub gin, so good call. Yeah. So this is an equal parts cocktail. This is Brophy's favorite. Yeah, maybe I'll soften on it. Equal parts of how many ingredients? My question is, how do you get your hands on good Maraschino liqueur and Chartreuse, but have to use bathtub gin? I know. That's hysterical. I know. I was thinking the exact same thing. It was the most expensive cocktail because it uses these really fancy pants European liqueurs, but they have to use garbage gin. They are probably wasted away in somebody's back room. Speaking of garbage gin, it looks like you're forcing Bombay Sapphire. I was waiting for that comment to show up. Speaking of bathtub gin, this one tastes like soap. I did this for two reasons. A, you're crazy. Sapphire is a good gin. It is good. It is good. B, it's hire proof. A lot of bartenders like a hire proof, like a Navy strength gin for cocktails in general. It's a shame we don't have Heyman's Navy strength out on the show. Well, the other reason is that people like you would then complain that this cocktail costs too much money to make because you need to buy Chartreuse or an alternative that's really expensive, but you can use a nice affordable gin. Many bartenders use Beefeater, which I don't care for, so we're using Bombay Sapphire. Beefeater is all right. Yeah, I like Bombay Sapphire. I mean, it's not going nuts. Well, Beefeater is a solid London Dry. It's just- Someday, someday we'll do the gin blind tasting. Exactly what London Dry should be. Gin classics. That'd be a fun one. Yeah. So- Booths. Salty McSalty over there. You've got any more complaints you want to enter in here before I talk about how I mix? Yeah. Can I fricking taste anything yet? I mixed seven different last words for you. I regret that since this is a blind cocktail tasting, we didn't get to see Roger crush the limes with his mitts. There were so many that I used Dwayne The Rock Johnson's Terra Mana Lime Squeezer. It was just too much. This is like a dozen limes to get all the lime juice needed for this, so. To paint a vivid picture for folks listening, playing along at home, we have two placemats here, two tasting mats, numbers one through seven, and we have an array of green liquids in cups, and also an array of cocktails in cups on the other placemat. So the last word cocktail, equal parts, gin of your choice, typically a London Dry, Chartreuse or Chartreuse Alternative, a Maraschino Liqueur, Luxardo is the classic, and then fresh squeezed lime juice. Equal parts, all four of those things? Yeah. That's such a weird drink. What a weird drink. We had a bottle of Luxardo, I had to go get another one because normally, you only use like teaspoonfuls of this, so to use equal parts is bonkers. Buddy, I have one of those in my basement, and it might be one of the oldest bottles in my basement, because I have never found a use for it. It's really strongly flavored, so it's like not just cherry, it's like menthol too. And almond and salt. Yeah. Well, it's those cherry pits. So yeah, let's taste through all the, so there's seven in front of us, various shades of green, one of these is Chartreuse, the other is all alternatives. Number one. Nice number one. That was a good read. This one's kind of yellow, the most yellow of them, straw, rich straw. Well, we could point out that there is a yellow Chartreuse, which is lower in alcohol. Yeah. And lower load of botanicals and lower in alcohol. So yellow is 80 proof, I believe, and green is 110. Yeah. So when we talk about how high proof Chartreuse is, we're talking about the green. Right. Just sniffing across all of them real quick. Do you guys have a guess on which one's the actual Chartreuse? I think it's three. Oh, wow. Number seven smells like pencils. Number two smells gross. Yeah. Seven does kind of smell like a racer. I'm going to agree with three. I was thinking five earlier. Three and five. Pay any guesses? By the eye. Three or five just by the eye. I think the nose gives it away on three, personally. Well, let's talk about these one at a time though. Back to number one. Both of the first two are pretty sweet, but back to number one. It's pretty minty. It's minty. It's got a grassy herbaceous to it. I would guess it's probably 80 proof. It's not particularly vibrant in green color, and I think it's got a fair dose of added sugar. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Now, compare that to number two here. Number one kind of tastes like toothpaste a little bit. Number two absolutely looks like Scope. It's like aqua. It doesn't smell like it. Number two is really strong with the almond cherry pit thing. And alcohol. Which is not, I don't think of Chartreuse when I think of this, so I'm kind of curious to see what this one actually is. Pepper and caraway. It's much more peppery. Oh, and then it's got this like scrubbing spearmint across the mid palate to the finish. That's very intense. It's interesting. I like it. Very spicy on the finish. I like it quite a bit. It's got enough of the spicing, that white pepper, spearminty spiciness, that it's not really coming off as overly sweet, even though I think it is more sugar added than number one. This has to be higher in alcohol too, right? Yeah, I think all of this is right. I think it's higher in alcohol. I think you can't tell the sugar content, which I think is high, and it's just a really intense flavor. I don't think it's more than 90. This one smells so much more complicated. It's like, it's really good. Maybe it's less sweet, is just it? I don't know, I'm just going for the nose here. It's much more floral. I will say this, I don't think this is Chartreuse, because I don't think it's high enough proof. This is really good though. It's really fantastic, but I don't think this is 110 proof. Got a lot of mint. Sorry, dinner. No, it's okay. Way more like black licorice, anise. Yes. It has flavor to it. Yes, and pepper. Yeah. Is that how you say it, anise? Anise. Is that how you say it? I say anise. I've always been saying anise. Anise, anise, either one is acceptable. Okay, cool. But the herbal complexity is stronger here. It's really interesting. It's awesome. I really, really like this. Yeah. I get floral notes in the nose, lots of different herbs. Like elderflower. Yeah. The sweetness feels natural and not piled on in sugar. This is a complex one, whatever it is. Yeah. Worth mentioning that Chartreuse is so old that the color takes its name from the liqueur. So definitely part of its charm is what it looks like. And three and five, I think, are really, yeah, clearly nailing it for the color wise. If you're going to look with your eyes and that's not how they look. I kind of associate number six more with the color Chartreuse. Have I been missed? Yeah, six and seven are no slouch. No, not at all. Yeah, you're right. Like it's got a little more yellow. Three and five are more neon-y. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, absolutely. All right, let's move on to number four here. Number four. Unless I'm rushing us too much. I mean, this color here is close to clear. I mean, it's pale, pale yellowish. And the nose is close to absent. It smells like chlorine. By absent, you mean wormwood free. No, I mean, nothing there. There's nothing there on the nose at all. I don't know, I get a little bit of licorice. Almost like salted licorice. Like the amount of smell you would get if you had a, if you spat your peppermint, your hard peppermint candy out into your palm, it smelled like that's how much smell I get. It smells like those tree air fresheners for your car. Whoa. That tastes like aftershave. Like the new car scent. It is peppermint and black pepper. Black pepper all over the place. And Barbazole. And booze. Yeah, and booze. I think this one's higher proof than some others. It's hot, but it's hard to parse that intense spice from the alcohol because it's wrapped up in each other. Can I tease the proof on one of these, Roger? You pat nose, huh? Well, you will know, but they'll line up. But I know one of them is 140 proof. Wow, it's probably that one. I think the 140 proof is more green in color, though. I'm not sure. Jenna, are you going to spew? No, I need to take a towel. She's quietly walking over to the sink. If you're going to spew, spew in this. Spew into this. I would just turn to my left. That's rough. Wow, that's- It is, though. It is rough. Yeah, aggressive. I mean, maybe if the point were alcohol and not necessarily flavor, because the flavor is there, but it's dialed down. You do? But it's got no nose to it at all. It's leaving a lingering bitterness, like a bitter. That's why I like it. Not as complex as the other one. But it is not as complex, no. I truly dislike it. Wow. All right. So I bet also we're not even thinking about this. You think that's better in the last word? Less flavor, more punch? I don't know. The other thing worth mentioning is it doesn't have any of the sugariness of some of the other ones. Yeah. That might be part of why Pat likes it. It's not really like a liqueur. I think in the context of the cocktail, you actually need that sugar. Oh, for sure. For the line. Yeah, exactly. I think you need all of those powerful herbaceous flavors that this is lacking. This one is the sweetener. Yeah. This one smells like marshmallows? To me, the nose is really shy here. I'm not going to lie. Maybe. It's really minty. On the palate. Yeah. It's good on the palate. Maybe three was Chartreuse. I didn't think it was high enough proof, but I think it is. Yeah. This I don't think it. It kind of tastes like mouthwash. It's minty. That's kind of what Chartreuse tastes like. Kind of tastes like mouthwash. It's like those sweet mints you get after dinner. Now, remember, don't generalize. Is it more mouthwash or toothpaste? It almost has that chalky sensation that those have. The chalky sensation of those after-dinner mints? Yeah. The ones with horse bone meal? Probably. They just dissolve in your mouth. Those are nice. Number five is delicious. It's good. The nose just doesn't show much. No, the nose doesn't show much. Which is why I think three is where we're at. It's pretty mint-dominant as we've all beaten here to this point, but I think it's good. Has a nice creaminess to it. Yeah. It's good. Actually, it's very nice. I just went back and tasted three against it because I think that's the most apt comparison so far. Three has more herbal and pencil-lead notes that I really like a lot. This is the easiest one to drink as a cordial. If you were going to drink a little cordial glass and sip on it, instead of just shooting. With your pinky out. Five, you're saying? Yeah. Five would be the easiest. Yeah. All right. What do you guys think of number six? What is number six? I think it might be the thing. This is a nice honeyed character. It tastes pretty high proof. It smells like plastic. I think it smells like honeyed herbs. I think honeyed was a good call out. Oh yeah. It's way less minty and it's way more my grandpa's cologne. This is your Morrow Drinkers Chartreuse or Chartreuse alternative. It's got a high but not overbearing proof. It's sweetness is way reserved and it allows a scraping herbal bitterness to clean off some of it too. There's a lot more savory herb going on here. That could be the thing. You think this is the guy? I think that might be the real deal. Number six being the real Chartreuse. As a big supporter of the Ricola brand of cough and throat drops, this reminds me of my favorite cough. Ricola. I'm a fisherman's friend guy. Oh, God. Hey, Greg, can we expense one of those big Alpenhorns sometime? No, not at all. I salute this suggestion. For the TikTok. For TikTok. So now we have to. Getting our Instagram numbers back up. All right. This is good. I like the balance this strikes between- This is really, really good.... high alcohol and you really taste an herbal complexity to this. A lot of the other ones have been very mint forward. This might be my favorite one. If it's not Chartreuse, I think it's really outstanding. This is one of my favorite of the day. I'm still sticking with three as Chartreuse, but this is very good. It's thoughtful and it's complex. Yeah. Because it tastes more like things like thyme and like other herbs and it's very layered. Oh yeah. This is your Garic spice. Yeah. Little rosemary in there, little sage. Rosemary, sage, yeah. Yeah, it's really good. Interesting. All right. Number seven. This one smells like pencil shavings too. This one smells like anise. Anise? Yeah. Oh, it has like grass. Caraway. Caraway. Yeah. It doesn't taste, I like the flavor, but it just falls very flat. It's gentian. That's gentian root. I think that the flatness that you're perceiving is almost zero sugar. Yeah. So it feels like there's no palate. It just washes away. Yeah. Right, Chris? This one's really good too. I would say that there is much less sugar supporting this one. Maybe more than four, a lot less than all the others. Yeah. I really like this one. I don't think it's the thing, but it's really good. I think it's pretty forgettable. I could take it or leave it, to be honest with you. I like it quite a bit. Maybe it's just because it's so much less sweet, that it kind of stands out as the little guy. The nose has kind of a soapy aftershave kind of Irish spring. Yeah. A lot of these have that though. This is kind of part of it, right? This more so reminds me of like hotel soap. Soapy, but I like it too. Not only does it smell like hotel soap, but it also smells like my soap at home, which is a bunch of little hotel soaps smooshed together. All right, and we're back. That was a long music break. We have seven tiny little fruity cocktails here. And one more time. Tiny, yes, fruity, questionable. For my sake, it's a quarter lime juice, it's a quarter Chartreuse or Chartreuse alternative, a quarter Bombay Sapphire, the world's deadliest gin, and a quarter Luxardo Maraschino liqueur. Okay. Which is a lot. It's a lot. Normally you use like a teaspoon of that in cocktails. It smells like Luxardo Maraschino liqueur. I actually think the lime really dominates the first one. Yeah. It's very limey. This is a really weird cocktail. Like it's very, you know, the amount of lime makes you think, you know, a tropical drink. Even the Luxardo to some degree is, it's at home in small amounts in some other tiki cocktails. But I'm going to taste seven of these. Yeah, right. I feel like it just tastes like limeade. Like I just taste the lime. And this one, I'm in number one anyway. The first one, I don't think is that great. I think that's the Chartreuse alternatives. I'm getting strong notes of making a cocktail out of whatever bottles I still have in my house right now. So I may have made a cocktail involving Luxardo liqueur and also Raki. Two, I think is... I know. Two is... You say that, but here it is. I enjoy two better than one. One is a little too much savory. Two is a little sweeter, more floral. The lime kind of pops in a sweeter way and less of a sour way. It's probably more balanced from the sweetness of the alternative or Chartreuse. I agree with this completely. Number two has an unhealthy, bluish-green glow. It's pretty. It reminds me of a true emerald, polished emerald. Two has a plus sweetness versus one. I've been to the Losadro Museum of Lapidary Arts lately, Roger. They have quite many exquisite specimens. Okay. What do you say, Pat? Number? One, I thought was fine, but it really just tastes like sweetened lime juice. Two had a sweetness that added to the texture of it, and it had this just like kind of plushness and texture that I kind of liked. The herbaceousness comes across on the nose and palate more. Two is pretty solid. Yeah, I like two a lot. Three is more licorice dominant to me. It kind of smells like cleaning solution. I know it's good. I like the way this one smells. I like three the best so far. It's got the cleanest palate as far as like mouth feel goes. The sugar is there, but it's not taking over anything else. And the heightened complexity of the licorice is coming across. Yeah. This is the sweetest yet, but it's like really improved the balance. Yeah, but it's the most well balanced. That lime juice needs some sweetener. Yeah, because you get that sweetness up front and then the lime juice comes in at the end and just whisks it through the palate. That's pretty good. What's weird is how the mint and herbal character, I think it's kind of dominated by the lime and the Luxardo. Yeah. What's weird is the fact that this cocktail still exists in popular culture. Yeah. It's like, well, we made all this f**king Chartreuse, we got to do something with it. Yeah. This cocktail sucks. I don't know, I think number three is pretty good. Oh, man. I mean, I'm not sending it back, but like. I agree. It's fine. It's fine. If you took out the Luxardo, first of all, take that out and swap the gin for rum, I guess we just have a daiquiri, huh? Yeah. You know what? Swap the lime juice and all of the herbal liqueurs for vermouth, right? And bourbon. And the gin we use rye. So it does remind me a little bit of the Hemingway daiquiri use Luxardo. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I thought you used grapefruit juice. You do. Yeah, both. Both. Four is a great example of you never would have guessed it. I don't like this one at all on its own, but I like it in the cocktail. By the way, I think there is a final word cocktail that uses rye instead of gin. Oh, no. We got to do seven more. Yeah. Four is an outstanding cocktail. It has a dry finish. There's a herbal complexity in there. I like it. I don't think it's quite as good as three, but it's considering you guys kind of universally hated four on its own. I like four on its own. Yeah, that's interesting. But that blast of proof from four doesn't really come through that much in the cocktail. I can't disagree. And black licorice pops out to me on this one. But I didn't when I was tasting the four. The black licorice comes across. Try four again. I hate four on its own, and it's great in the drink. It's really weird. It's still really strong. It's a very strong drink. Really strong. And that's coming from me. Really strong notes of like black jelly bean on this one. That's probably your rocket fuel one. Whenever it's 140. Probably. It's got to be. I thought the rocket fuel one was more brightly colored green though. But nothing tasted hotter than this. No, nothing did. Context clues, everybody. Number five. See, this one's got a great herbal nose. This is the first one that the nose isn't dominated by the lime juice. Like, this is actually smells like herbal liqueur. You know, something that's not popping out in any of these that Pat hasn't said anything about is the gin. The gin is trounced by everything else. This is really good. He's right. You don't need your very expensive Navy gin here. You could use any old Beefeaters. So five, I think, was the one where it's very sweet on its own, but it it works in the cocktail because there's so much lime juice. I agree. Comparatively. This might be my favorite one so far. I also think it's weird because I was struggling to pull a lot out of the nose, but I think you're right, Greg. There's herbs, or Pat, whoever said it, that the herbs come through on the nose here. Yeah, they do. But did you think that the straight thing was very aromatic? I still have trouble finding much. No, barely. It smells like my hand. Yeah. Lord knows what that's. It's a really good cocktail. I mean, that's dangerously like this is worth mentioning a very strong cocktail, which I think is part of why people like it. I'm imagining if you order this where it costs $24 and it's fancy and they have velvet on the walls. I imagine that it's in a dumb little coop. Oh yeah, of course. It's going to be drank real fast. Garnish King, what do you garnish this? It doesn't require a garnish. It doesn't call for one. No, not even like a little lime peel or something? You can do whatever you want, but the classic recipe does not call for one. Okay, hear me out. You just grate some nutmeg right on top. Just keep it on the side, fat rails. A little side of nutmeg, sidecar of nutmeg. It's funny you say that because the other drink that pretty much revive this Chartreuse is a Chartreuse Swizzle, and that is garnished typically with nutmeg and mint. Well, okay, so I say that jokingly, but also you guys opened my eyes to the fact that all of these rum-based Caribbean cocktails and Tiki cocktails have a lot of baking spices in them. I found out apparently that these herbal flavors and lime go with that really well. Mover and Shaker just put out its fall, the Fred Armisen Allspice Tram meme from Parks and Rec, where he's like, the blah, blah, blah cocktail, Allspice Tram. Also this one, also Allspice Tram. Third one, believe it or not, also Allspice Tram and every time I see that, I think of Roger. That's pretty great. Are we on number six? Well, I don't know if I can't remember if I commented, but number five is maybe the best balanced of the whole. I think number five is my favorite. It's really good and it's surprising because I thought the spirit was really good, the liqueur. But it's so weird how you put things together and then something pops out that you can't even find in the spirit itself. True. I think with number six, we're back to citrus focus. Yes. On the nose at least. Lime city. Some herbal on the finish, but the lime really dominates it. It just tastes like lime juice, yeah. Yeah. We're back to number one territory. That's weird. It's pleasant, but it's certainly dominated by the lime juice. Number six on its own is like the Alpine aftershave one. Yeah. Six reminds me of like, you could blind someone on that and tell them it's a margarita, and I mean, it's like, yeah, it's really margarita-esque. It's not bad, but the herbs just aren't there. You're totally right. It could use a little bit of orange, but other than that, yeah. Yeah. Meh. The most hated, the most, what, what, what, the most... Reviled? Reviled the whole... Seven is my least favorite. I don't like the nose on seven. It's simple. Seven's the first one where I think the Luxardo really pops through. Yeah, I agree. That was also the one, the Chartreuse Oral Alternative, that was the least memorable to me, and I don't notice it at all in the cocktail either. The spirit itself was very anus-heavy, and I certainly get some of that in the last word here, but I think that kind of nuttiness from the Luxardo really pops through on the cocktail. Roger, we're about to accuse you of having an uneven hand when it comes to ingredient proportionment. These were all measured. Measured. Lied from table level, no parallax involved or surface tension, altering the measurement of the liquid. Parallax view. I mean, he altered the outcome by observing it. Oh, that's true. Yeah, we all did though. You can't act on anything without altering it. All right. You can't measure anything without altering it. Favorite of all these, number five. I think five. Yeah. Five for both, the straight spirit and the last word. Pat, if five comes out as actually real Chartreuse, good luck buddy. So sorry. I'm the one who said I thought five was the real Chartreuse. I think three is the real Chartreuse, and I think five is the best cocktail. I'm just really hoping that there's a better Chartreuse that you have plenty of that you can sell to people. You can say honestly, we picked this one blind. Five is the best cocktail. Five is the best cocktail. It's not even like a question. Yeah. It's a very good drink. Three is pretty close. I'm shitting on it here. I'm shitting on it, but that's a delicious cocktail. Yeah. Five is great. Again, it needs the extra sugar that five provides because it's such a ludicrously conceived cocktail. All right. After the break, we're going to reveal which ones these are and hoping that five is made by Leather B or some shit. Leather B is working on a Chartreuse alternative. It's not out yet. Are they? Yes. Cool. That'd be awesome in that little minimalist bottle. So coming up, we'll have Leather B and there's actually another one imported by Henry Price that's coming, that has both a green and a yellow, although they're both only 80 proof. I've not tasted them yet. You ready for the reveals? Are you going to make a swamp thing? We can do the reveals first. Dude, look at the swamp water ad. Did you bring one up? Dude, they're awesome. We need a swamp thing cocktail here. The cocktail I had at Graceful Ordinary, the other week, I was at a dinner with Mrs. Brophy, and I ordered a Chartreuse cocktail on the menu at this local restaurant. I think they called it the greenest or the greeniest or something. Why did you do that? Because it sounded awesome, because all it's listed as is Chartreuse, pineapple, coconut syrup, lime. I asked them, and it's equal parts Chartreuse and pineapple juice, and then three-quarter ounce coconut syrup, half ounce lime juice, but I might have those two mixed up. I've got it written down on my phone. It was the best Chartreuse cocktail I've ever had. Wow, Roger. That's offensive. It's pretty much a riff on or the swizzle. I mean, the swizzle is essentially a riff on, see, supposedly unintentionally, but Chartreuse holds a cocktail competition every year, and that one one year, and it was, but when we talk about swamp water, it's basically just a reimagining of swamp Interesting. It was really good. All right. You guys ready? Yeah. You got to pull out the bottles while you do this, so. Oh, so we can all go, whoo. All right, Roger. Number one. Number one is Dolan, Genepe. Genepe. This used pet be called Genepe to Alp, right? And now they changed it. What's that all about? The chamois. I don't know. Like the chamois. It's from Chamois. Yeah, it's from Chamois. Got you. This guy is 45% ABV, so 90 proof, whereas you're looking at 110 for Chartreuse. Pretty good, though. I liked it. Yeah, not bad. I liked it on its own. But you can tell it's sweeter. Yeah. That's the thing whenever I've talked to people about like, well, we don't have Chartreuse, we have this, but it's lower proof and it is significantly sweeter. It made one of my least favorite cocktails, I have to say, I think. Yeah, it made a sweet lime juice cocktail. This gets its name, it's made with 30 herbs, so it's a little weak in that department. 30 is weak. It's 100 shot. Just 100 shot. One of the most popular ways to consume this is in hot chocolate, actually. Didn't you guys do that on a show? Yeah, it was awesome. I wish I was there. The chouvert. So try that. One thing worth mentioning, this is only 32.99. Yeah, the classic apres ski is Geneppe in a hot chocolate. This, I would say more than anything else, if you were to Google, I can't get Chartreuse, what should I use? This usually comes up as the alternative. I think we have better options. I agree. Yeah. Number two. But Geneppe is still fantastic. You should still buy and use it for others. Yeah, absolutely. Go back and listen to Pat on tape and hear what he actually said. Escorial. This is one of my favorites. This is a very obscure. Don't see it even in many Binny's. You'll find it at a bunch of German restaurants and bars. This is 56 percent alcohol. So this is very much. 114. Remember when the Coors Light gimmick was the tornado bottleneck? Yeah. Why are they doing that? So you can guzzle it faster. The Escorial, that's 114 proof? 112 proof? Well, it stands out on the bar. It definitely, you'll remember it. Beautiful label. It's a classy throwback. Yeah. It's Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau. Yeah. I think the standout with this is that on its own, I get so much white pepper to the point that it reminds me of KFC, which is one of the main things in KFC. One of the 11 herbs. You know the 11 herbs and spices? You bet I do. I've watched many a recreation and detective work on figuring out what they are. You're right though, that is the signature flavor. It is the main flavor. I never even thought about YouTube in that. This is the one that looks either like an emerald or mouthwash. And I think on its own, it's too one-dimensional, but in the cocktail, it did make a nice cocktail. Nice cocktail. Not the best cocktail. I totally thought this was going to be a tiny American craft distillery swing and a miss, but it's an old school one. Yeah. Wow. This is pretty affordable as well. Same price as the Dolan. It's $32.99. Again, considering how pie proof it is, it's a very good deal for that. It lists as far as what kind of herbs, well, it doesn't even say it's made with these, but I would assume it's part of it, but peppermint, fennel, genapis, spearmint, juniper, cardamom, and nutmeg. Anyway, I think White Pepper is the star of the show on this one. Number three is Chartreuse. Number three was Chartreuse. Hey, that's good news for the rest of us. Number three was pretty good. Yeah. Number three is pretty good. A little sweet. That's one of the things that tipped me off was that Chartreuse is quite sweet. Drank under its proof. I'll give it that. I mean, it was my second favorite, so. It's very good. It tipped you off, Chris. You didn't say which one it was. You thought it was. I did. I did repeatedly. Three or five. Three. Three. Just three? He repeatedly said he thought three. I didn't want to pick the same thing, so I picked five. Oh. I said I like the cocktail man with five, perhaps the best. Dude, I don't even remember which one I picked. But I said three over and over for that Chartreuse. Well, congratulations. I think the color. The color, I think, kind of gives it away. But what's like identical to the color of five? Very, very close. Yeah. Five is really close. Which is, I'm going to advocate strongly for five, depending on what it is, unless I hate it. No, it's good. Well, Chartreuse, it's classic. Pretty good. Pretty good. Right up there. Until we see another shipping error, or they decide to change their stance in selling it to bars who have eight cases stacked in their basement and don't need anymore. That one time that Pat found a stash of Chartreuse, and he texted all of us and he was like, you guys want me to grab you a bottle? And I was like, I never wanted Chartreuse before. Now that I can't have it, I still don't want it. You're a rare being. I passed. And again, in the past, this has been super enlightening because I used to always use a Scorial. I think we found a better sub here. So, but absolutely. A lot of these subs are great. Scorials are chumped. It's something else when you're sitting at a bar drinking beer all day and then you do rip a shot of that. It's kind of like Onderberg on steroids. It's kind of like mouthwash. It looks like mouthwash, but it tastes like the Colonel's Secret Recipe. He likes it because it reminds him of fried chicken. Okay, so number four is Enrico Palazzo. Enrico Toro Centurba. This is the one that, because Brophy's Insane, is 140 proof. We tasted that correctly. Yeah, we knew that. I just went back and tasted number four cocktail and it's gross. Yeah. I don't like this on its own at all and it was pretty terrible, but I think the cocktail isn't great. I think it's interesting in the cocktail. Yeah. It's hot. Number five is so much better. I don't know. I drank all the number five. I think five is the big reveal here. I'm saving my drinking for the Amaro episode we're going to record next. I care more about this alternative. Oh, we've ruined the mystery. Jim left my entire joke in the entire thing. I have now lost all editorial control of the show. I have nothing to do with the show anymore, except for making you guys shut up and get back on point. Buy us some better equipment, maybe we'll give you a little bit of control back. Oh, yeah, sure. That's it. Simply the headphones fit and he wants to focus. Right. All right. So are we in agreement that five was pretty impressive? Yes. I'm finishing the last of that cocktail now. Shy knows when tasted alone, but good on the palate and maybe the best cocktail. Number five, Boomsma Clare Campster Clusterbitter. Clusterbitter? Ask for it by name. This is the Dutch alternative. It is a monastic spirit, so to speak, but Boomsma known for their genivers, both Oud and Jong. Yeah, right. Booms young and old. They enjoy. But they also, bottle this now, they got the recipe from a monastery and it was all hand-forged ingredients. Why did the Dutch only use that one cylindrical bottle? I love it, but it's also. Yeah. What is that? Because they're tall, thin people, so they like a tall, thin bottle. I don't know. That sounds a little racist. I literally just gave you the answer. For the people who are familiar, the few people that have ever had like a geniver, this is in one of those kind of. Ceramic bottle. Yeah, the Dutch love their ceramics. Again, this has a really weird name, Boomsma, close to bitter, but look for this kind of ceramic looking bottle and also look for the nice price point of only $27.99. That's awesome. Now, it's 80 proof, I believe. It is very low. It's low. Not very low, but it's lower compared to Chartreuse, but it's half the price, less than half the price, actually. It's exactly the same color. Yeah. And it made a really good cocktail. Yeah. It is available in most Binny's, but not all the local distributor has been out of stock for the past like three, four weeks or so. Damn it. But no, but it's a regular thing. You're just, that's just a kind of standard cross-continental shipping delay there. I mean, we're talking about a pretty obscure. It'll be back. We've put it into most stores. If it's not at your local Binny's, just ask for it by name, as Roger said. Out in the cloister and into the cocktail. Bumsma. Bumsma. Bumsma. Bumsma. Clooster bitter. Clooster bitter. Number six. It definitely looks like milk should be in there. Number six I liked. Elixir. Elixir spirits beer. Yeah. Pretty label. Liquor de Herbe. Yeah, our buddy Andrea Loretto out of Eugene, Oregon. It's interesting. They have a cocktail in here that's somewhat similar to what we had, but a little different. What's their cocktail? One and a half ounces of Ver, one and a half ounces of London Dry Gin, three-quarter ounce simple syrup, three-quarter ounce lime juice. So we thought that this is the sweetener, but they don't think that they're sweet enough. Yeah, which is kind of crazy. I mean, I guess they're omitting the Maraschino, which has a little sweetness, but not a ton. But this made a nice cocktail. I like this cocktail quite a bit. And I liked it on its own. That was the one where Greg said, you said maybe that one's the most Chartreuse in color, because you think of it as being the mix of green and yellow. A tiny bit of yellow, yeah. Yeah. And that's all natural color just from the herbs. It took him a long time to get that right. And that's widely available at a Binny's New Year. And I think it's only 35 bucks. Yeah, he said he had a problem with it turning brown. Doing that all in the kitchen sink too, right? How much is it, Roger? $39.99. Okay. All right, that's fine. I like the proof on this. It's $100. I think that's good. It's close enough, not enough that you really feel the alcohol like on some of them, but this was actually not a hundred forty proof Chanturbay kind of guy apparently. Yeah, that's good for if you got to pass your emissions test, you can throw that in your gas tank. And it has a pleasant aftertaste. Last but not least, the numero seven is Fatsia Brutto. Fatsia Brutto, Chanturbay. Fatsia Brutto is a hip Amaro producer coming out of New York. We've got a few of their things in, only a few stores they are, the Amari are a little more expensive than all the Amari are like 50 bucks. They're no chinos, $70, for example. Totally did not expect you to say New York. Yeah. New York prices, $49.99. Yeah. That's the Chanturbe is in a few more stores than the Amari is, just because we need some Chartreuse alternatives other places. I thought it was good. What did I say about it at the time? A bit minty, I think. I've since finished it off. It made a good cocktail though. Yeah. I didn't like this one. This is the only one that I wouldn't care like buy or want to drink. If I recall, we steered the conversation away very quickly. It's anisey and minty. Let me ask you, was the Booms Mud the cheapest of the bunch? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we picked the cheapest of the bunch. Absolutely. There you go, people. Now, the last time I brought it, Roger poo-poo-ed it, I thought. I know. I don't think I cared for it. I brought that and the Veer, and those were the only ones we had at the time. What show was that? You just brought it for Roger to drink. What's this taste like? Yeah, what the hell is that taste like? I brought it. One of them I like, the other one I didn't dislike either. I thought one of them was just too Anis forward or something, but it also goes to show you that your palate can be really affected by what else you're tasting. So that day, I think we were tasting a bunch of other weird stuff. Yeah, well, I brought a couple cases full of weird stuff. That was the day we had that salty licorice thing from- Again, my favorite, Fisherman's Friend. I almost brought it today when I was like, oh wait, we already tasted that one, damn. That is an oddball for sure. Do we have time to tag on a Swampwater? Yeah. God, I hope so. That's the only cocktail I actually wanted to drink today. So again, getting to the point that there was a time when they couldn't give Chartreuse away, the ad, what do you always say? The suits in the corner, the ad suits? Marketing suits in the corner. Yeah, so they decided they had to figure out a way to move Chartreuse in the US. So the solution was creating a cocktail called Swampwater with these branded mason jars with an alligator drinking. It's got like two straws hanging out of its mouth. Can we see that advertisement? Yeah, I'm going to pass it around. People Google this Swampwater Chartreuse ad. It says Supercharge. I feel like this must have been market tested in like Gainesville. Yeah, this is absolutely a product of Florida. So I'm going to read the copy. I can't believe you hadn't heard of this, Roger. It's like the only, whenever I look up Chartreuse online, this is one of the first cocktails that comes up. It rang a bell. I think when I initially heard it, I'm like, what a silly waste of Chartreuse, because you'll hear the proportions in a minute. I figured it would just be the name Swampwater. You just scrolling on by. Right. So Swampwater is an exciting new potion, supercharged with 110 proof green Chartreuse. Parentheses, it's legal in all 50 states. Take that, Absinthe. Ask your bartender to mix you some. If he asks you, what the beep is that? Tell him, to one and a half ounces of green Chartreuse, add six ounces of pineapple juice, a quarter lime and ice, and then stir it up. Oh, this is dumb. Oh, nothing. I love a good advertisement that makes me work. That's great. How many people walked in bars and just spit out the formula for it? Does it actually say Bleep? Yeah, it has an ampersand, money symbol. So, put it in fruit juice. And then to just fully- Do you guys know that Roger doesn't know what a dollar sign is and he calls it money symbol? Dollar sign, sorry. That boy don't got no songs. Money symbol. All right. Save the smack talk for a while, Roger. Maybe it was a euro sign. Roger, did you bring pineapple juice? There is a cent sign, so it's one of the two money signs. I think it was a swear word spelled out entirely in euro symbols and cents. So, I also like the note at the bottom. Note, for party givers, one bottle of green Chartreuse makes one gallon of swamp water. Yes. So, they're definitely here, pass this around. What? Encouraging you. One bottle of Chartreuse makes a gallon of swamp water? We are making a gallon of swamp water. We are making a gallon of swamp water. B2BBBQ. I guess Roger used some amount of that bottle of Chartreuse we have here. Look at the green flame going behind the Chartreuse. All right. Roger made us some swamp water, supercharged swamp water, green fire. It even literally says green fire. It needs more Chartreuse. It's Chartreuse and pineapple juice. I think they put them together because they rhyme. It's pretty good. Truce and juice, that's how I'm going to order at the bar. Truce and juice. If only Snoop was on board with this. Typical Roger Cocktail has got a bottle of Phalaenum over there. I don't know what he's doing with that. We have the supercharged swamp water cocktail, which is pineapple juice with some Chartreuse in it. It needs more Chartreuse. Yeah, too much. The proportion is out of whack. Somewhat less than supercharged. Roger, are you sure you did the math right? Take that, 1970s marketing executive. You're saying the reason that you remember this is because it came up on Google? It's about as valid as anything else these days. I might have been reading an article about Chartreuse on one of the industry rag websites. I don't know. Maybe it was on there. I feel like I got my vitamin C for the day anyway. It's a little spicy. Some of the herbs, the pineapple juice is so sweet, the herbal qualities come through. It's a pimento dram floater. It needs gin, dude. It needs pimento dram floater. It made the pineapple juice taste better. I don't taste anything else, but it dialed down the sweetness in the pineapple juice, so I like it more. I have another little tidbit about the swamp water real quick. They have another ad that I didn't have in good enough resolution to print it out, but I thought you'd appreciate how it starts. Do you dare ask a date to your swamp water party? By all means, many a match has been made while nipping our naughty nectar. I'm sorry, did people used to actually read ad copy? Who has time for that? Just do it. That's how much time I have. So anyway, we're sneaking that in the Whiskey Hotline email next week. Nip our naughty nectar. Nip our naughty nectar. So here's the Chartreuse Swizzle came out in 2003. It was introduced at Harry Denton's Starlight Room in San Francisco in what was then called the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Now, it's called the Beacon Grand. The bartender was Marco Vado Dianosos and he has worked at several really well-known reputable cocktail lounges including Smuggler's Cove. He brought the Chartreuse Swizzle to Smuggler's Cove. Now, you have my attention. Here's the recipe for this. So this again won the Chartreuse competition in 2003. One and a half ounces of green Chartreuse, one ounce of pineapple juice. So right off the bat, it's the same amount of Chartreuse and one-sixth the amount of pineapple juice of Swampwater. Three-quarters ounce of lime juice, so he kicked that up by... Massively. Yeah. A half an ounce. Oh, half of. From a quarter ounce. Yeah. Then he added a half an ounce of velvet filernum, which is that Caribbean, Barbadian liqueur that's a mixture of rum, sweet spices like pimento and clove, and lime. So he put all this in a shaker, shake it up, serve it on the rocks, and if you want to be fancy, garnish with mint and nutmeg. Why do you shake a swizzle? Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of, I think for ease. That should be swizzled, not shake it. You need to crank out a bajillion of them. You often shake anything with fruit juices, Pat. So even though it's called a swizzle, it's called a swizzle because of a whole coctillion thing, rabbit hole, you won't go down because of the proportions of the ingredients. But you're always going to get some nice froth when you shake up pineapple juice. Oh, yeah, I know that. All right. Can we just talk about how burying the lead, this whole episode, this is the best thing. I was going to say, this is way better than whatever, what was this one again? Swamp water. Yeah. It's way better than a last word ever could imagine being. This is awesome. Dude, the baking spice pops on top of here. Oh my God. I think this guy really nailed the proportions because you taste everything. It's a very good cocktail. It's wonderful. It's minty, it's limey, it's all kinds of Christmas spices. Yeah, nutmeg, all spices. It's super refreshing at the same time. It's a lightly sweet, very good cocktail. You always serve it on the racks like this, just like it. At least in Smuggler's Cove, these are that pebble ice. So you go to Sonic, but you could- That good ice. How tall is it? How big is a standard serving? Also typical of all swizzles to be served at that. I would want a shaker pint of this. Right. They'd serve in a tall glass, which these proportions, it would barely fill that when you see it served. You're like, I don't know if it would really fill that big of a glass. But yeah, usually you see it in this big, beautiful Collins glass with pineapple fronds. Right. But think about how much of that space is taken up by that pebble ice. It's all pebble ice. There's really not much liquid in this thing. Since we're not going to buy new podcast gear, can we get a pebble ice machine for the office instead? Jim, call this episode, just seriously skip to the last three minutes because this is the best part. So yeah, there's a lot of riffs on the last word too, because I think plenty of other bartenders have realized that it's a bizarre cocktail. I mixed plenty of stuff today, but there are some other Chartreuse cocktails, like a Widow's Kiss is a really interesting one that uses Calvados, which you don't see that too often in cocktails. What a disgusting cocktail that's got to be. Calvados and Chartreuse? And Benedictine, they double down on Calvados. Benedictine tastes like a bit mushroomy. What in the world? It's a weird cocktail. Seriously, we got to get rid of some of these dusty bottles. So just put them all in a bucket. It's a weird one. But yeah, then there's like the Bijou cocktail. Both of you guys, I think, would really like that because that's kind of like a old time martini with like equal parts gin and sweet vermouth, and then you add Chartreuse to it. Yeah. So it's kind of a neat drink. Interesting. An orange bitters. Interesting. So there's more than the last word to Chartreuse, and you can use some awesome alternatives. There's that saying that nothing compares to Chartreuse is false. Boomsma. Boomsma. Boomsma. Boomsma. Boomsma. Fear. Sinterba, apparently. We tried them all so you don't have to. So like Pat said, all these are available minus Chartreuse. So. All right. Roger, thank you for doing the footwork on this one. You put a lot of thought into this and it shows, and the table around me is a little sticky now. Yeah. I would say nothing compares to Chartreuse. But Sinead O'Connor just died. I was about to make a Sinead O'Connor. I don't get it. Is that a... Nothing compares. I think Prince wrote that. Yeah, Prince did. RIP both of them. I can't do it. Jenna's going to stab me. Chris Cornell recorded that too. Sinead O'Connor's song, Nothing Compares to You. It's a great song. Yeah, Prince wrote it. Yeah. Roger, thanks everybody else. Thank you guys. Thank you for listening to this episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. If you enjoyed it, leave us a review on iTunes. Back in your feed next week with something a little less green. Until then, I'm Greg. It ain't easy being green. I'm Pat. I'm Jenna. Are you going to say your name or are we just going to go? Yeah, we're just going to **** around. I'm Kermit. I'm Roger. Keep tasting. Boomsma Claire Campster Clusterbitter. Ask for it by name.