Moments in Cocktails - Armistice

   Over a year ago, I found myself pondering how to get around the requirement of paying the price of a London cocktail in order to enjoy a cocktail whilst living in London. The answer is weirdly simple: acquire a cocktail sensei and obsessive tendencies. Adjust to taste

   Mixologists, practicing or otherwise, naturally develop signature peccadilloes and mine tend towards the sour, like my opinion of metropolitan humanity on a Thursday night, and the dry, like my humour. The Armistice cocktail, in a near-totemic manner, embodies the latter

   It's not intended to (sweetly) charm and the already endearing result is all the more so for it. It is calibrated for one who is content to drink alone, or in rare company - the sort that only offers trenchant remarks and observations, once every so often.  Despite the vaguely esoteric combination - Last Word/Final Ward stalwarts Green Chartreuse and Maraschino plus the latter's Brooklyn bedfellows, dry vermouth and rye - it is not fancy, but rather a base-heavy aromatic that produces pensive pleasantry through its mixture of herbals (no recipe puts the ever-distinctive Green Chartreuse in the corner) anchored by the rye (alright, a little fancy - quietly so). With this one, it's all in the aftertaste

• Created by Erik Hakkinen, Zig Zag Café, Seattle
• 1 1⁄2 oz Rye (Rittenhouse100) 
• 1⁄2 oz Dry vermouth (Noilly Prat, 'officially;' Cocchi Torino, in my case)
• 1⁄4 oz Green Chartreuse 
• 1⁄4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
• 2 ds Bitters, Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged

   Stir it with ice, strain it, drink it. And ponder