Aviation
45 ml Gin, 15 ml Maraschino liqueur, 15 ml Lemon juice, 7.5 ml Crème de violette, 1 Maraschino cherry
Photo: Last Word cocktail, Baton Rouge 2025 by Paul Lowry · CC BY 4.0 · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 300 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 300 ml line. Gin
- 300 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 300 ml line. Green Chartreuse
- 300 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 300 ml line. Maraschino liqueur
- 300 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 300 ml line. Lime juice
- 12 wheels Lime (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Shake equal parts of everything with ice and strain into a coupe.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 1.2 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Chill a coupe.
- Put the gin, Chartreuse, maraschino and lime juice in a shaker with ice and shake hard for 12 seconds.
- Double strain into the coupe - the maraschino can leave a haze behind.
- Float a thin wheel of lime on top.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Last Word
Invented at the Detroit Athletic Club just after the First World War, this drink then went missing for roughly fifty years. It was rescued by a Seattle bartender called Murray Stenson in 2004 and has been on every serious cocktail list since, which makes it one of very few drinks to have had two separate careers.
Getting it right
Equal parts is the joy of it and also the danger: Chartreuse is 130-odd herbs at 55% and it does not take prisoners. If this is your first one, pour slightly short on the Chartreuse and slightly long on the lime. It is also an enormous drink for a small glass, so pace yourself - it is a last word for a reason.
Tasting notes
Herbal and green up front, then a long aniseed tail from the Chartreuse with the maraschino flicking cherry stones at you from the side. There is nothing else quite like it.
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Bramble
50 ml Gin, 25 ml Lemon juice, 12.5 ml Simple syrup, 15 ml Crème de mûre, 2 berries Blackberry