Underhill-Lounge

Bijou Cocktail

1/3 Plymouth Gin. (3/4 oz Plymouth Gin)
1 Dash Orange Bitters. (Dash Fee’s Orange Bitters, Dash Regan’s Orange Bitters)
1/3 Green Chartreuse. (3/4 oz Green Chartreuse)
1/3 Gancia Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Carpano Antica Vermouth)

Mix well with a spoon in a large bar glass; strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry or an olive, squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top and serve.

The Bijou had been on my list of cocktails to try for a while. It’s always exciting to get to a Savoy cocktail I actually want to make!

Paul Clarke, who is a much more thorough researcher and far better writer than I, recently wrote a blog article about the Bijou:

The Emerald Bijou

So I won’t bore you by repeating his conclusions, just check out the article.

I do kind of go back and forth on the ratios for this cocktail. The equal parts version above is pretty sweet and rich. Sometimes I just don’t quite feel like that much Green Chartreuse and Sweet Vermouth, so I’ll up the gin a bit and dial those two back. Changing the recipe to something like an ounce and a half of gin and 1/2 ounce each of Sweet Vermouth and Green Chartreuse can transform this into more of an aperitif rather than digestiv cocktail.

Anyway, whichever way you slice it, the Bijou Cocktail is a true classic.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.