St Moritz – Recipe from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

Dry Manhattan with 1 dash orange bitters and 2 or 3 dashes Chartreuse to each drink. Stir. At the St. Moritz Hotel this drink is served in Old-Fashioned glasses. Some recipes call for equal parts of Chartreuse and French vermouth.

There are literally hundreds of St Moritz hotels dotted all over the world, from Cornwall to New Zealand. The one I suspect Embury is talking about is a 365 ft high monster in New York, his main stomping ground. The hotel, built in 1930 has changed notable hands many times, passing from Trump to Schrager and now sits in the Ritz-Carlton group of hotels.

I decided to up the chartreuse, right up to equal parts, because, why not. It works beautifully, the sweetness from the Chartreuse replaces the sweetness you’d normally get from a red vermouth and then adds its wonderful herbal piquancy to the mix. The final result, because of the Chartreuse is a long way from a Manhattan, but well worth a try. I suspect if you reduced the Chartreuse and played around with the vermouth you would end up with one of those drinks this book is peppered with, like the Green Briar for example, only with Chartreuse carrying more punch this would make it a much worthier try.

Worth trying, in equal parts, maybe not how the St Moritz used to serve it, but in a way that gives full deserved respect to that wonderful liqueur.