Cocktail recipe
Bijou
A jewel-box of gin, herbal Chartreuse and sweet vermouth, luminous and intense.
Ingredients
- 45 ml (1½ oz) London dry gin
- 30 ml (1 oz) sweet red vermouth
- 22.5 ml (¾ oz) green Chartreuse
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- Garnish: 1 cocktail cherry
Preparation
Stir gin, vermouth, Chartreuse and bitters with dense ice until cold and satiny. Strain into a small chilled stemmed glass and add a single cherry. Resist shaking: the drink needs transparent, polished texture.
Glassware
Chilled Nick & Nora glass
History
The name *Bijou* means jewel. C. F. Lawlor printed a 1895 Bijou using Grand Marnier, vermouth and gin; Harry Johnson's 1900 *Bartender's Manual* documented the now-famous **green Chartreuse, Italian vermouth and Plymouth gin** equal-parts composition with orange bitters. This matters: Johnson's recipe is an early influential version, but not the earliest cocktail published under the name. The emerald, ruby and diamond colour metaphor is a familiar explanation for the later formula, not a proven naming statement from Johnson himself. Modern recipes commonly make it gin-forward to temper the sweetness.
Mixology View
Our 45:30:22.5 build is explicitly modern; Johnson's 1:1:1 is the important historical comparator. Chartreuse should shine without turning the cocktail into herbal syrup.