Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Alaska Experiment

Happy Friday, and NHL trade deadline day to those who celebrate! I’ll be glued to TSN all day waiting to see the underwhelming returns Chris Drury gets for the New York Rangers. I think I’m gonna need a drink after the deadline passes. Of which, I did a little experimenting this week when it comes to drinks. I found someone who made a riff on an Alaska cocktail by swapping out yellow chartreuse for green. Only having green on hand, and needing an excuse to break it out once again, I thought I’d give this variant a go and see how it works.

Alaska

2 oz. Hayman’s Old Tom gin or Beefeater London Dry gin

1/2 oz. Yellow chartreuse

2 dashes Orange bitters

Add all ingredients to mixing glass. Add ice and stir for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel

The aroma is very herbaceous. I wonder if the yellow would be a little more subtle. I’m thinking I may have made a mistake in this substitution…

Oh this has a lot of strong flavors. You immediately get hit with intense bitter chartreuse flavors up front, and maybe some gin? It’s hard to tell because the chartreuse is so intense. Which honestly, I kind of find off putting. Clearly the choice of chartreuse matters in this application. The bitter, pungent flavors added by the green variety easily take over and don’t permit any other flavors from really shining. A not easy feat considering there are 1 and 1/2 ounces more gin than chartreuse here. Speaking of flavors I cant taste, I don’t get any orange the bitters bring in. Though I think the chartreuse enhances the bitter portion of the orange bitters. The lemon does next to nothing either. Unlike the last few drinks I’ve written about recently. The citrus oils are no match for the liqueur.

Not only does the chartreuse overpower, but it lingers. The liqueur coats your palate and you are left with a slightly rough and bitter aftertaste that takes a while to dissipate, which compounds my distaste for this application. I’m just kinda trying to get through this so I don’t waste it.

Despite everything written above, I want to try this again, but the proper way. The green was the wrong choice, but this makes me want to try the yellow variant.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)