Words are a class of cocktails full of variety. A simple search for cocktail names containing “Word” returns forty-one drinks on Kindred Cocktails. Word cocktails generally feature four ingredients: a high alcohol spirit, most commonly gin, a sweet cordial, most commonly Luxardo Maraschino liquor, a herbaceous or bitter liquor and a fruit juice, most commonly lime juice. Words are pleasant, full of variety and surprising. They are also great for thinking about substitutions since any Word cocktails are one substitution away from each other, but those changes make dramatically different drinks.
The Last Word cocktail, the most famous of the Word cocktails, combines equal parts gin, Luxardo Maraschino, lime juice and Green Chartreuse (the word “chartreuse” originates with this monastic liquor, not vice versa). The bright, spicy result finds Luxardo Maraschino, Green Chartreuse and lime juice most noticeable on the palate, making it very approachable and a good place to start exploring Words. I find that the dominant flavor of the Last Word rotates among these three ingredients over the course of the drink, keeping the cocktail interesting. Luxardo Maraschino and Green Chartreuse are sweet liquors. Luxardo Maraschino is less alcoholic and has a slightly bitter flavor more reminiscent of the cherry tree rather than the fruit. Green Chartreuse is very alcoholic and has a sharp herbal flavor. Many cocktails use Luxardo Maraschino and Green Chartreuse, and these cordials are staples for even modest bars. As usual, Difford’s Guide has a nice history of the Last Word.
The Wordsmith, brought to my attention by Marc Sidwell, is one simple substitution away from the Last Word, with rum replacing the gin. Rums are typically more delicate than gins so the substitution works best with an overproof rum, but the Wordsmith still pleases with a white rum like Bacardi Superior. If you have a rum but no gin, this is a great way to experience a Word cocktail.
The Final Word is two simple substitutions away from the Last Word, with the gin replaced by rye and the lime juice by lemon juice. Not surprisingly, the taste is quite different, with the sourness of the lemon more prominent than the lime. I find that citrus acidity, particularly lemon juice acidity, varies more than one might think. I try to purchase only organic citrus because I use the peels for zest and don’t want pesticides trapped under the fruit wax. Perhaps organic citrus has more variation? Regardless, I recommend tasting the citrus juice which likely will be the first ingredient you add to your shaker (the rule of thumb is to add the ingredients from lowest to highest percentage of alcohol). When I think citrus juice is unusually sour or mild, I will add less or more accordingly. I do not know how to be more scientific without resorting to a pH meter, but cocktails are not chemistry.
The Bad Word is a very different tasting drink, one substitution away from the Last Word. The Bad Word replaces Green Chartreuse with Gran Classico, a complex, moderately bitter amaro (amaro is Italian for bitter, but I use it more broadly to describe any bitter liquor). The result is a slightly more subdued, bitter cocktail. I very much enjoy Gran Classico, but it is a niche ingredient compared to Luxardo Maraschino or Green Chartreuse. If you do not have it in your cocktail bar, you can make several substitutions to approximate the taste of a Bad Word.
Gran Classico contains many ingredients including rhubarb, gentian, orange peel and vanilla, so any substitution will probably produce a slightly different flavor, but using the Taylor Series expansion concept from The Manhattan, we can focus on the gentian flavor that dominates the mid-taste of Gran Classico. The orange peel is the second term appearing in the after-taste. The mid strength alcohol (28%) is the third term. The sweet rhubarb flavor at the front is the fourth term, and I am going to ignore it. These criteria lead me to substitute Suze (a Pernod-Ricard product) because its gentian flavor and 20% alcohol approximate the first and third terms. Suze lacks the complexity of Gran Classico, and that pushes the bitter more to the after-taste. To counter this effect, I would add a small amount (20% of the Suze volume) of a herbaceous liquor such as Green Chartreuse or Yellow Chartreuse or Benedictine both of which are more mild—the Yellow Chartreuse is a bit sweeter than Green Chartreuse, while Benedictine is comparable or less sweet.
Other gentian based liquors, such as Bonal Gentian (created by a monk who spent time at Chartreuse Monastery) or Genepy des Alpes, are more bitter; Genepy is also higher alcohol. If you must use one of these, I would halve the portion and replace the volume with a water dilution. In both cases, I would add the same small portion of herbaceous liquor. Approximations like these, if pleasant, probably encourage some iteration. Starting with a half recipe to gauge the palatableness of your creation is not a bad idea even if you are the only consumer.
L’Ultima Parola is similar to the Bad Word, replacing the Gran Classico with Strega, which is similar to Yellow Chartreuse (recall that the Gran Classico replaced Green Chartreuse in the Bad Word). Strega is sweeter and more mild than Green Chartreuse, with what bitterness it does have coming from saffron, and also has a distinct mint flavor. The L’Ultima Parola integrates the sweetness of the Strega by increasing the amount of gin, significantly lowering the amount of Luxardo to reduce the sweetness of the fore taste and slightly lowering the amount of lime juice to reduce the sourness of the cocktail. These modifications expose more of Strega botanical flavors. The L’Ultima Parola is a gentle introduction to a cocktail containing an amaro.
Loose Talk is modified Final Word. The Green Chartreuse is replaced by a combination of 1/2 part Suze, 1/2 part elderflower liquor (I used St. Germain, but I find them all comparable for cocktails) and 1/5 part Benedictine, quite close to the Gran Classico replacement recipe for the Bad Word. The Loose Talk also replaces half the lemon with lime, adding a bit of bitter flavor and reducing the drink’s sourness. Making the Loose Talk with and without the Benedictine reveals that it plays a role in integrating the flavors, not unlike the popular 1/4 part bourbon substitution in place of rye in the Holiday Manhattan Test. In particular, it takes away some of the sweetness from the elderflower liquor and Luxardo that is so prominent from the fore taste into the mid taste, while also pushing the bitter from the Suze back so that it does not take over the latter half of the mid taste. With the Benedictine present, by the time you notice the Suze, the alcohol inflation is gone so the after taste is bitter, but not sharply so.
The Ultima Palabra is another Last Word variant, replacing the gin with Mezcal and adding an equal portion of pineapple juice. When shaken pineapple juice adds foam to the surface of cocktails, which is visually appealing and adds a pleasurable texture to the first four or so sips. The sharpness of the pineapple helps integrate the Mezcal’s strong, smoky flavor. The Ultima Palabra is more challenging than the Last Word, Final Word or Wordsmith.
The Word cocktails discussed here use three amaros or bitter liquors. There are a lot of these liquors available, determining which ones to add to your home bar can be tough if you have constraints. Constraints come in lots of forms, I was placed on an amaro moratorium for a while because I had “too many” (as if!). If you do have constraints and you want to play with these Word variations, I recommend choosing Suze because it features in about twice as many cocktails on Kindred Cocktails as either Bonal, Gran Classico or Strega, and probably five times more than Genepy. Suze is perhaps the most bitter of these, but that’s good for a limited bar because it provides more range. I wish that more amaro producers would adopt 375ml bottles, because the price and space savings would make it easier to own more of them. Some of these amaros pass through our house fairly quickly, but others linger. A smaller bottle would also mean less time spent with a version of the amaro with less alcohol because of the inevitable evaporation.
Exploring the world of Word cocktails shows how you can create a wide variety of flavors from a relatively small bar. Using my visual model of how you experience a cocktail to avoid imbalances and the Taylor Series expansion trick to isolate the most important features, you can make successful substitutions when your bar cannot supply every ingredient in a cocktail recipe. If you can approximate the ingredients, you don’t have to pass on making appealing cocktails.
I love these insights into the thought processes of an intelligent cocktail-lover