Green Swizzle
A refreshing and herbal rum cocktail ∙ Swizzle ∙ 3 min ∙ 21.4% ABV ∙
The Green Swizzle is a Caribbean rum swizzle of two rums, falernum and lime, with small measures of absinthe and green crème de menthe, over crushed ice.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Pour all ingredients into the chilled glass: White rum 45 mlWhite overproof rum 10 mlAbsinthe 5 mlFalernum liqueur 25 mlCrème de Menthe green 5 mlLime juice 15 ml
- Fill the glass 2/3 full with crushed ice
- Swizzle and then fill the glass with more crushed ice
- Garnish with aromatic bitters drops over the drink’s ice cap and finish with a lime wedge and mint sprigs
Tips
- There's only 5 ml each of absinthe and crème de menthe; pour either one heavy and the drink tastes of anise or mint, not rum.
History
The Green Swizzle is a Caribbean cocktail of the sour family first documented in the early 1900s, with the earliest written evidence appearing in E.M. Lickfold's 1907 Handbook of Trinidad Cookery as a "Green Cocktail" made with falernum and wormwood bitters, swizzled and finished with Angostura bitters. It is generally thought to have originated around 1900, with two rival hubs for it: the Bridgetown Club in Barbados, considered its probable birthplace, and the Queen's Park Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Angostura's own Carypton, a rum-based mixed drink the company was producing by 1912, shared several ingredients with the Green Swizzle and was at times treated as equivalent to it.
The drink gained wider fame in the English-speaking world through P.G. Wodehouse's 1924 short story "The Rummy Affair of Old Biffy," in which Bertie Wooster praises the Green Swizzles he drinks at the West Indian stand of the 1924 British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, London, though the story gives no recipe. For decades afterward its exact original formula was contested, with some believing it apocryphal.
The Green Swizzle faded from fashion by the late 1920s and was effectively lost after the wormwood-bitters original became impractical once absinthe-type spirits fell out of favor; a falernum-free version using green crème de menthe surfaced at Havana's Floridita bar. Later bartenders and writers, including Victor Bergeron in his 1972 Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide and cocktail historian David Wondrich in a 2007 Esquire recipe, assumed the drink's green color required crème de menthe, an assumption now considered a misreading of the original, since period sources show the color actually came from wormwood bitters. Wondrich corrected this in 2015 after locating a 1908 New York Herald recipe confirming falernum and wormwood bitters as the true ingredients, and in 2011 spirits writer Darcy O'Neil had already reconstructed an approximation of the original using period accounts. Despite this correction, crème de menthe versions remain the common modern interpretation of the Green Swizzle.
FAQ
What's in a Green Swizzle?
45 ml filtered white rum, 10 ml funky overproof white rum, 25 ml falernum, 15 ml fresh lime juice, and 5 ml each of absinthe and green crème de menthe.
What makes a swizzle a swizzle?
The method, not the ingredients. The drink is packed with crushed ice and churned with a swizzle stick spun fast between the palms until the glass frosts. That chills it hard with little dilution and leaves a cap of ice on top.
How do you make a swizzle?
Pour both rums, the falernum, lime juice, absinthe and crème de menthe into a chilled Collins glass. Fill it two-thirds with crushed ice and swizzle until the glass frosts. Top with more crushed ice, dot aromatic bitters on the ice cap, and garnish with a lime wedge and mint. Keep the absinthe and crème de menthe to 5 ml each, or they drown out the rum.
