Recently I’m a bit in love with Chartreuse, not the colour or the monks, but the liqueur made out of 130 botanical ingredients from a mystery recipe that just appeared in 1605.

What’s not to like about Chartreuse, the taste is unique (and lovely), the colour is beautiful (and natural), the packaging is nice, and the history is amazing.

This green loveliness is great just served neat over ice, but there are also a lot of other things that you can do with it. The official chartreuse website gives some cocktail suggestions, but very strangely it doesn’t list one of the most classic, and one of my favourites.

It’s called the Tipperary and, if you follow the traditional recipe, then it is a simple mixture of Irish whiskey and Chartreuse, with a splash of maraschino liqueur. We are just going to add one additional ingredient and a garnish to the traditional recipe, just because I think they improve on the traditional recipe.

Notes on ingredients

Chartreuse comes in two varieties, green and yellow. The yellow is lighter and milder in taste with a lower alcohol content. This recipe calls for green Chartreuse. I expect that if you use yellow then you will also get something very tasty, but it won’t be a Tipperary, and you would probably want to reduce the amount of whisky in relation to Chartreuse so that you don’t completely overpower the taste.

Despite the fact that Scottish whiskies get a lot more exposure, there are a wide range of really good Irish whiskies out there as well. You could use whatever takes your fancy really, but I like Tullamore Dew in this drink.

Just like in an old fashioned, dilution is quite important in this drink. For that reason, you should make sure that your ice is as clean and pure as possible. If you are using tap water then filter it, if you are using bottled mineral water then pick one with the lowest levels of mineralisation that you can find.

It’s not a long way to Tipperary

1. Stick a big chunk of ice in a cocktail glass to chill it while you are mixing the drink.

2. Pour the whiskey and chartreuse into a mixing glass.

3. Add a splash of maraschino liqueur and a dash of orange bitters.

4. Add some big chunks of ice, and stir for a minute.

5. Add more ice and stir well again, so that the drink gets well chilled and some dilution takes place.

6. Remove the ice from the cocktail glass and strain the drink through a fine strainer into the glass.

7. Garnish by floating a twist of lemon peel.