Bijou

1 oz Gin

1 oz Sweet vermouth

1 oz Herbal liqueur, Green Chartreuse

1 ds Orange bitters

1 Maraschino cherry (or olive listed as option)

1 twst Lemon peel

Instructions

Stir, strain, straight up, cocktail glass, express lemon peel, garnish.

Notes

This is the original, historic recipe, which many find too sweet today. See Bijou (dry)

History

Name means jewel in French, named after precious stones: diamond (gin), ruby (vermouth), emerald (chartreuse).

Cocktail summary

Created by

Harry Johnson's Bartender's Manual, 1900

Year

1900

Is an

authentic recipe

Reference

https://web.archive.org/web/20101128063446/https://www.smallscreennetwo…

Curator

Not yet rated

User rating

3.5 stars

(40 ratings)

Cocktail Book

From other users

Try with dry vermouth if too sweet.
D&C calls it a Tailspin and uses 1.5 oz gin and rinses glass with campari. Too strong for me, also a bit too sweet
Sweet. I use only 3/4 Chartreuse..
I like all the pieces but the whole is sweet, unbalanced, and surprisingly unappealing.
Sweet and earthy.
1.5 oz This 2 oz That
Added 1/2 lemon, which transformed the drink, balancing the sweet. — ★★★

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Comments

yarm commented on 9/19/2022:

Original is from Harry Johnson 1882 before Jack's Manual.

Cara A commented on 2/16/2025:

Nice with a lemon twist, oils expressed over the top of the drink, instead of a cherry

Shawn C commented on 2/17/2025:

I don't think the Bijou is in the 1882 or 1888 versions of Harry Johnson--I couldn't locate it in either. However it is in the 1900 version. I don't know why Ezra Star has been listed as creator. I have removed that for now, and changed the year to 1900. I also replaced the defunct link with an Internet archive link to it. Expressed lemon twist was in the 1900 recipe, so I have included it in ingredients and instructions. Interestingly, an olive is also a garnish option in place of the cherry--I might add that as a note later.

yarm commented on 2/17/2025:

I think the Ezra attribution was due to an apprentice bartender at Drink in Boston screwing around with Wikipedia. The ones that truly gained traction were John D. Gertsen (founder of Drink) being linked to the Sazerac to the point that folks dressed up like him in recreations, and Sam "Suck It" Treadway as the creator of the Sidecar that made it into a few articles. Some of the misinformation even made it as far as the Tales of the Cocktail site.

While you're at it, you can fix the misattribution on the Bijou (Dry) entry.

Shawn C commented on 2/17/2025:

Ok, updated the "dry" version to remove the various vandalized Wikipedia referenced bits. Also removed the Wiki suggestion here that the original was floated rather than stirred--missed that on the first pass. (IIRC some have suggested that was an alternate way some made it, but it is not in the original published recipe.)

Bijou

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