Hello and happy Friday once again. This week, I’m finally leaning into the season and I’m making something spooky! I’m making the Green Ghost. Then again, how spooky can a drink can be when one of the ingredients is made by Carthusian Monks? I suppose isn’t very spooky now isn’t it? Well, the name is enough of a seasonal tie in for me so I’m rolling with the theme. Plus given the ingredients, I’m sure the green hue this undoubtedly will have an seasonally appropriate vibe to it.

2 oz. gin
.5 oz. Green Chartreuse
.5 oz.  fresh lime juice, from 1 lime

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add gin, Chartreuse, and lime juice. Shake until well chilled, about 15 seconds. Strain into cocktail glass and serve.

It certainly has the look of a seasonally appropriate cocktail. The picture doesn’t really do it justice. It isn’t neon green like the straight Chartreuse is, but definitely has more green colors that what comes across in my picture.

The aroma is heavy on the chartreuse. It’s very herbal and peppery, and completely overshadows anything the gin or the lime bring to the table in terms of smell.

Right off the bat, this packs a ton of flavor. Just as the scent is heavy on the chartreuse, so is the flavor. It starts out herbal and slightly bitter, and remains so basically all the way through. The gin is barely noticeable unfortunately. I think because the chartreuse has such a naturally strong herbal flavor, and gin does as well, to a certain extent at least. The lime suffers the same fate as the gin, until the end of the sip. The lime flavor works here, but in a limited capacity. It does a good job complimenting the bitter herbal flavors from the chartreuse.

This isn’t at all what I was expecting. I figured the gin would stand up more to the chartreuse and I couldnt have been more wrong there. I think the chartreuse comes off as too strong here for my taste. It can definitely take over a drink’s flavor and it comes dangerously close here. I think to counter it, I would add another quarter ounce of lime to start and see if that helps, and if not, bump the gin up to two and a half ounces, or do both.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)