Chartreuse Swizzle Cocktail Recipe
Green Chartreuse swizzled with pineapple, lime and falernum until the glass frosts — herbal, tropical and startlingly green.
- Category: New Era Drinks
- Glass: Highball glass
- ABV: 18%
- Difficulty: Medium
- Prep time: ~3 min
Ingredients
- Green Chartreuse45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Pineapple juice30 ml (1 oz)
- Fresh lime juice20 ml (0.7 oz)
- Falernum15 ml (0.5 oz)
How to Make It
- Add all ingredients to a tall glass filled with crushed ice.
- Swizzle with a bar spoon until the outside of the glass frosts.
- Top with more crushed ice.
- Garnish with mint and grated nutmeg.
Garnish
Mint sprig and grated nutmeg
What it tastes like
It smells of lemon and lime peel, it has a green, botanical backdrop, it drinks cool and easy and it is layered, giving you something different each sip.
The technique
Built in the glass. Ice goes into the serving glass, the ingredients go on top, and you stir once if at all. Anything carbonated goes in LAST and never gets stirred; every turn of the spoon costs you bubbles. Fill the glass to the rim with ice: less ice melts faster, not slower.
Glass and ice
A tall, narrow highball. The narrowness does real work — less surface area means the carbonation lasts longer and the ice melts more slowly.
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%.
- Pineapple juice
- Pineapple juice. It foams on its own when shaken — that creamy head on a tiki drink comes from the pineapple, not from egg white.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Falernum
- A Caribbean syrup-liqueur of lime, clove, ginger and almond. It sweetens and spices at once; a non-alcoholic syrup version also exists, which lowers the drink's strength.
The Story
Created by Marcovaldo Dionysos in San Francisco in 2003, and the drink most responsible for a generation of bartenders discovering Chartreuse.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Chartreuse Swizzle mixed?
- It is built in the glass and served in a highball glass.
- How strong is a Chartreuse Swizzle?
- Roughly 18% ABV as served — in fortified-wine territory — plan it as a single drink.
- Can a Chartreuse Swizzle 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 Chartreuse Swizzle hard to make?
- Moderate. A shaker or mixing glass plus a strainer covers it.
759 recipes in your pocket
Cocktails and mocktails from 55 countries — ingredients, steps and the story behind each drink. Works offline too.
Similar recipes
Collections
Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.