The Last Word

The Last Word is an old, venerable cocktail created at the Detroit Athletic Club in 1915. At 35 cents, it was the most expensive cocktail on the menu and the most popular. The combination of herbal, sweet and sour flavors combined for a refreshing and satisfying drink. Bartender Frank Fogarty is credited as the inventor by author Ted Saucier in his 1921 cocktail manual Bottoms Up!

With thoroughbred racehorses, the best and fastest produce the most successful offspring. Judging by the liquid progeny of the last word, it was a triple-crown winner. This parent joined the contemporary Paper Plane and gave birth to the Naked and Famous cocktail. Likewise it deserves credit as inspiration for my Aviatrix, made with lime juice, creme de violet and marischino liqueur, but more gin forward.

The last word, paper plane and the naked and famous all use equal part components. That’s a pre-prohibition practice used for hundreds of other antique cocktails, but less common with modern recipes. Today bartenders and mixologists are more likely to use one or two primary ingredients to highlight a specific flavor. Both are important concepts and equal parts give you another option in your toolbox. They’re easy to scale up for any volume to make individual or multiple cocktails and up your bartending game.

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