{"id":29409,"date":"2023-01-30T07:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=29409"},"modified":"2023-01-26T21:17:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T02:17:50","slug":"last-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/01\/30\/last-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Last Word was first served at the Detroit Athletic Club, circa 1915. Created just before the start of Prohibition, likely by a bartender named Frank Fogarty, it\u2019s one of the cocktail canon\u2019s most successful Prohibition-era drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Composed of gin, green Chartreuse<\/a>, maraschino liqueur and fresh lime juice, the Last Word showed some staying power and appeared in Ted Saucier\u2019s 1951 book, \u201cBottoms Up.\u201d But by then, it had mostly fallen out of favor, and after World War Two, it retreated to the dusty corners of cocktails past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After decades of being lost to history, the Last Word was one of the first pre-Prohibition drinks to lead the cocktail revival of the early aughts. Murray Stenson, then working at Seattle\u2019s Zig Zag Caf\u00e9, unearthed the equal-parts classic, finding it in Saucier\u2019s book. He shook up the drink for his customers, and the Last Word\u2019s presence proliferated from there. Before long, the Last Word was a staple in cocktail bars across the country, revered for its heady balance of sweet, sour and herbal flavors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Last Word is about as close to perfect as cocktails can be. But like with many classics, creative bartenders\u2014both of the professional and at-home variety\u2014have found ways to create variations on the Last Word. The Paper Plane<\/a>, invented by NYC barkeep Sam Ross in 2008, is a liberal take on the original that features bourbon. Other variations hew more closely to the classic recipe, but sub gin for another base spirit. Mezcal makes an earthy, savory version, while rhum agricole produces a fresh and grassy drink. Of course, the first versions were supposedly made with bathtub gin specific to the Detroit Athletic Club, so even London Dry or Old Tom gins technically stray from the original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you stick to the classic recipe or stake out on your own, this much is certain: The Last Word will leave you, um, speechless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingredients<\/p>\n\n\n\n