Bijou Blanc Recipe
A pale Bijou: navy-strength gin and Green Chartreuse with dry and bianco vermouth and a touch of gentian liqueur — potent, herbal and bracingly dry.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Old fashioned glass
- ABV: 33%
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- Navy strength gin30 ml (1 oz)
- Green Chartreuse30 ml (1 oz)
- Dry vermouth15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Vermouth bianco15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Gentian liqueur7.5 ml (0.3 oz)
How to Make It
- Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice.
- Stir until well chilled.
- Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube.
- Express a lemon peel over the drink and drop it in.
Garnish
Lemon peel
What it tastes like
It has a bitter backbone, it has a green, botanical backdrop and the spirit is right out front.
The technique
Stirring. All-spirit drinks are stirred — shaking whips air into them and ruins both the clarity and the texture. Thirty to forty seconds in a mixing glass, the spoon tracing the wall. You are after the same ~20% dilution, just slower and under control.
Glass and ice
A heavy-bottomed, wide old fashioned glass. Wide enough for one large cube, which is the point: a big cube has less surface area, so the drink gets cold without getting watery.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Green Chartreuse
- The 55% liqueur French monks make from 130 plants. Nothing really tastes like it and nothing really replaces it; yellow Chartreuse is sweeter and 40%.
- Dry vermouth
- Dry white vermouth. Same rule as the sweet one: fridge, one month. When someone asks how dry a martini should be, this is the ingredient they are talking about.
- Vermouth bianco
- White but sweet vermouth — not to be confused with the dry one. It carries vanilla and chamomile, and can replace sweet red vermouth, though the drink stays pale.
- Gentian liqueur
- A liqueur made from gentian root (Suze, Salers). Its bitterness is drier and earthier than Campari's, and it adds no red colour — so the drink looks different too.
The Story
A modern "white" take on the Bijou, the gin, Chartreuse and sweet vermouth drink recorded by Harry Johnson around 1900; the red vermouth gives way to pale ones and a gentian bitter.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Bijou Blanc mixed?
- It is stirred and served in an old fashioned glass.
- How strong is a Bijou Blanc?
- Roughly 33% ABV as served — a spirit-strength drink — sipped slowly, and it wants a glass of water beside it.
- Can a Bijou Blanc be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Bijou Blanc hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.