Swamp Thing Swizzle

We came up with the name Swamp Thing Swizzle and knew that it was perfect for a Halloween drink. We don’t usually start with the drink name and reverse-engineer its contents, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. We wanted a green drink and started with an old standby – the chartreuse swizzle – as a base. Green chartreuse is a tricky liquor to work with because it has such an intense flavor and can easily overpower other ingredients. A classic swizzle is a great way to showcase it, but the original recipe just didn’t have the funk we were looking for in a Halloween drink that is named after a swamp, so we set out to improve it a bit.

Our solution was to add a dash of rhum agricole to the mix. Rhum agricole – we recommend Clement and  Rhum JM white rums for this drink, or St George, if you are feeling a little ballsy – has a rich, funky vegetal flavor that actually blends very well with the herbacious green chartreuse. It gives the drink a lot more complexity and punches up the alcohol a bit, as well. The drink also includes pineapple juice, lime juice and Velvet Falernum, all of which combine to give the drink just the right amount of sweet and bright elements to balance out the rum and the chartreuse. Swizzle this with a lot of crushed ice because the base mixture is quite thick, but takes on the perfect consistency after it is well-swizzled and chilled.

Swamp Thing Swizzle
1 1/4 ounce green Chartreuse
1/2 oz rhum agricole (rec. Rhum JM)
1 ounce pineapple juice
3/4 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce Velvet Falernum

Stir all ingredients together in a mixing glass, then pour into a tall collins glass filled with crushed ice. Swizzle until very well chilled, topping the glass off with additional crushed ice, if necessary.

Serves 1.