Gone Girl: The Last Word

I came across this recipe while cleaning out my old copies of Bon Apetit magazine. This one was originally featured in their November 2011 issue. The name of the drink really sold me on using it for Gone Girl. I mean how perfect is "the last word" for a book that ends with a character taking exactly that?

Ingredients
1/4 cup gin
2 Tbsp Chartreuse
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp maraschino liquer
2 lime twists

Directions
Pour gin, Chartreuse, lime juice and maraschino liquer into a shaker. Add ice, cover and shake vigourously. Garnish with the lime twists.

If you're looking at the picture with the ingredients on the left, you'll notice two things I did differently. I didn't use maraschino liquer- I couldn't find it. Apparently my fancy liquor store isn't quite fancy enough. I did however find some black cherry liquer, so I substituted it. It was a bit more bitter than I expect the maraschino liquer would be so I went with sweetened lime juice instead of fresh for balance. I also added a splash of lemon juice.

It's worth noting that the Big Guy, who is in general not a gin drinker really liked this cocktail. There's a really nice blend between all of the flavors in the glass and it's pretty smooth.

If you've never had it before, Chartreuse is a French liquer with a strong herbal flavor. I like it and thought it paired really well with the gin in this case.

The original recipe calls for serving this drink in a coupe glass, which I love but don't actually have. I used our martini glasses instead.