Letti Penguin

As a chartreuse lover this is the 3rd chartreuse daiquiri on my favourites list (with nuclear daiquiri and daiquiri elixir) and I think it’s my favourite. It might even beat my all time favourite Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. Each ingredient adds its own subtle magic.

I’ve been making this regularly with vodka as I don’t have bison grass vodka but today I used Rhum clement blanc and O Purist tsipuoro to try and substitute for the grassy, peppery flavours. Definite improvement on straight vodka and a good use of some of my more unusual acquisitions. I always omit the sugar syrup is its plenty sweet enough for us without it.

One for the Fernet and chartreuse lovers, so right up my street. Wonderfully herby and sour. Similar to a chef’s kiss but I think I like this more with green chartreuse.

I couldn’t decide between this and the bourbon based Dandy cocktail, so went with half rye half bourbon. Very nice. Might try the similar De la Louisiana no. 3 for m6 next Dubonnet exploration.

Really enjoyed this lovely rum based light negroni style cocktail. Made with Havana club 3yo, Dubonnet, Lillet and an excellent homemade seville orange marmalade. The rum flavour comes through nicely and works well with the 2 ‘wines’ and the orange.

Based on Asher’s suggestion I tried this with mezcal and I like it! Adds a nice Smokey dimension. 22.5ml each Campari, lime juice, green chartreuse and mezcal, 5ml sugar (we like things sharp and bitter), pinch of salt. Perhaps ‘Amor y asesinato del puebla’ as I used Del Maguey Puebla?

Excellent drink. My instinct tells me to add mezcal which I realised is only marginally different to a Naked & Famous

I like that idea - did you try it?

This and the well oiled mai tai are my go to mai tai recipes, though I prefer them both served without the crushed ice. I like my cocktails strong and tasty and not too diluted. I’m also too lazy to make the crushed ice and the welsh weather rarely requires it!

As ‘love and murder’ is on my favourite list I was fairly sure we’d like this, and we did! Similar to my comments for that, this has the last word gin, lime and chartreuse with a lovely balancing dose of bitter. Being a mezcal fan we also took Simon’s advice and after tasting added some mezcal for an extra dimension of flavour.

Made with Madeiran Branca rum agricola, the gentian goes nicely with the slightly grassy rum. Nicely sour and bitter.

I think this maybe my all time favourite. Everyone I make it for loves it and wants the recipe. I do drop the sugar slightly or it’s just too drinkable! Worth buying the bitters for this alone.

I love a japanese slipper but it is quite sweet and sherbety. This is much more subtle, the melon is just coming through the tequila and mezcal. We did wonder if a little more melon or citrus might be needed but perhaps that would loose the subtle exotic interest.

Might have to have one green and one yellow for plaid cymru

Made this with madeiran Branca rum agricola (aguardente de cana), Havana club 3yo, and peychauds bitters which gave it a nice slight pink hue. Really enjoyed it, I do like a bit of agicultural rum and I love italicus.

Really liked this, the mezcal and yellow chartreuse go really well together. Made this with absinthe rather than anis as that’s what I had

We had this at New Year and I tasted it before adding the champagne and it was lovely, so I’ve also made this without the champagne as a slightly bitter beautifully pink lemon daiquiri. A winner either way!

Made with green creme de menthe this came out the most beautiful olive green! And it tasted as good as it looked.

I made this with Branca aguadente from Madeira rather than cachaca, Gomeron liquer from La Gomera in place of sugar syrup, subbed a little of the cynar for vecchio amaro del capo and added 5ml italicus. Great use of holiday booze, dark and caramel, orange and herby. And I got to practice my very poor portuguese trying to translate the instructions! A winner all round

I always make this when I have a little bit of lemon and lime juice left over. Tastes like refreshers (the fizzy fruit sweets) in alcoholic liquid form. A firm house favourite.

I love suze and montenegro together, and rye based recipes, but was a bit disappointed with this. The suze is a little over dominant (and I do like suze bitterness), pehaps the proportions need a tweak for my taste to uptne amaro and drop the suze

Made this at 2/3 volume as its quite generous. Really nice, hints of last word but sweeter and more floral. Definite summer garden vibe. Could possibly drop the elderflower down to the same volume as the lime and chartreuse if you prefer less sweetness.