This Chartreuse and lavender sour is the cocktail that you need to make if you love sweet and sour notes combined with beautiful fragrant herbs. When you combine Chartreuse liquor with lavender simple syrup, it makes the most amazing drink and one that everyone always enjoys.
This Chartreuse and lavender sour is my favorite lavender cocktail and a wonderful drink to make that you can sip on slowly. It is not overly strong and has a wonderful balance of citrus and floral notes.
This Chartreuse sour is also made with egg whites which really gives it body and a beautiful foam top. The combination of Chartreuse liquor, citrus, and egg whites is what makes this drink a traditional cocktail sour.
Ingredients Needed
- Green Chartreuse Liquor: This herbal liquor is the star of this cocktail.
- Lavender Simple Syrup (recipe below): The lavender really helps balance the other herbal notes.
- Egg whites: This is the foam top to this sour.
- Lemon: Lemon helps cut through the Chartreuse flavor with its acidity/
- Bitters (optional): We often have bitters on hand so we like to add some for the addition of herbal and floral notes.
How to make this lavender and Chartreuse sour
- You start by making your lavender syrup. I suggest doing this the day before so it is ready when you want to make this cocktail. In my house, we love lavender and will often have either lavender water, lavender honey lemonade, or lavender simple syrup on hand 🙂
- Gather the ingredients for the cocktail.
- Juice your lemons. I recommend juicing your lemons and separating your eggs ahead of time as well.
- Separate your eggs (we are only using the egg whites).
- Make your drink.
- Shake it well in a shaker (I'm talking shake for 5 minutes!)
- Enjoy!
If you prep all of your ingredients ahead of time then you will only have to assemble when you are ready to make your drinks. In thinking ahead, after your first drink, you may want a second and and third.
So, if you know you want more than one drink, prep ahead! You will thank me.
How to get a perfect foam top
When you are working with egg white cocktails you want to make sure you retain the beautiful egg white foam that will be produced from all of the shaking you just did with the shaker. To do this, you are going to do a dry shake first.
The dry shake is when you do not have anything but the liquids in your shaker. I added one ice cube to the dry shake process to really mix up the egg whites.
After the dry shake, you can go ahead and add ice and shake again. The first shake (the dry shake) should have produced lots of foam so the second shake just helps it out more and chills the cocktail.
Tips
- You can make this cocktail with Green Chartreuse or Yellow Chartreuse liquor. The green and yellow chartreuse are the same liqueur but vary in alcohol intensity. The type of chartreuse liquor (color) you can find will vary by store.
- Making this drink stronger or lighter: If you are not used to drinking Chartreuse, it has a bite that follows all of the herbal notes when you sip it, especially the Green Chartreuse. You can adjust the amount of alcohol depending on your taste.
More Lavender Recipes
Chartreuse and Lavender Sour
Ingredients
Lavender Simple Syrup
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried lavender buds
Lavender and Chartreuse Sour Cocktails
- 2 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice. This is about 1 ½ large lemons juiced and strained
- 1.5 ounces Chartreuse Liquor
- 1.5 ounces Lavender Simple Syrup
- 2 dashes of aromatic bitters
- 1 egg white
Instructions
Lavender Simple Syrup
- In a medium sauce pan add your water and sugar and bring to a boil.1 cup water, 1 teaspoon dried lavender buds, 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- Measure out 1 teaspoon of dried lavender buds
- Once your sugar has melted into the water add your lavender and remove from heat.
- Let the mixture come to room temperature.
- Strain your mixture to remove the lavender buds and discard them.
- Your lavender simple syrup is ready.
Making the drinks
- Juice your lemons and strain out the pulp and any seeds with a fine mesh strainer.2 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice. This is about 1 ½ large lemons juiced and strained
- Grab a cocktail shaker or mason jar and add one ice cube to the shaker, your Chartreuse, bitters, lemon, simple syrup and your egg white. This is the dry shake step.2 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice. This is about 1 ½ large lemons juiced and strained, 1.5 ounces Chartreuse Liquor, 1.5 ounces Lavender Simple Syrup, 2 dashes of aromatic bitters, 1 egg white
- Shake vigorously for 1 minute. You know when to stop when you hear the ice cube that you added, not shaking around anymore.
- After the dry shake, you can go ahead and add ice half way up the shaker and shake again. The first shake (the dry shake) should have produced lots of foam so the second shake just helps it out more and chills the cocktail.
- Pour into a martini glass and scoop out any residual egg white foam with a spoon and add to your glass.
- Garnish with a sprig of lavender or some lemon.
- Enjoy.
Nutrition
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
See full nutrition disclaimer hereTried the Recipe? We Would Love To Hear From You In The Comments Below!
Melissa says
I am so glad 🙂
Melissa says
I love hearing that!
Kelley says
You can't possibly mean 3/4 cup syrup? Is there an easier store bought option?
Melissa says
Hi Kelley. Thank you for letting me know about this typo- It has been updated! This cocktail recipe does still have a little more simple syrup than most sours to help tame the 110 proof Chartreuse liquor 🙂
If you are looking for an easier way to get lavender in the drink, you can use a shot of lavender liquor and a plain store bought simple syrup. Both can be found at liquor stores. Just reduce the amount of simple syrup by the amount of lavender liquor you are adding.
Another shortcut is you can use store bought lemonade instead of the simple syrup and lemon portion. I often just make my lavender lemonade which is made with lavender water (not syrup) and lemons with a plain simple syrup. When we are ready to make these cocktails we only need to add the eggs and Chartreuse.
I hope some of this helps!