Harry Johnson's 1900 Bartender's Manual.
| 1 oz · 30 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| 1 oz · 30 ml | SWEET VERMOUTH | 16 % |
| 1 oz · 30 ml | GREEN CHARTREUSE | 55 % |
| 1 dash | ORANGE BITTERS | 25 % |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.03 oz mixed with ice, 1.12 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Stirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.45 oz of water |
| Served | 3.03 + 0.45 = 3.48 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 1.12 ÷ 3.48 = 32.1 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 1.12 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 26 g · about 183 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM GIN
The pine note in juniper berries, and the reason gin tastes like a forest. Co-distilled with the spirit during production. Found in actual pine trees, rosemary, basil, and a good London Dry. The "Christmas tree" smell of gin and the smell of a forest floor share a single molecule.
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FROM CHARTREUSE + VERMOUTH
The bitter from gentian root, used across Campari, Aperol, sweet vermouth, Angostura, and most amari. Bitter compounds activate TAS2R taste receptors that evolved to detect plant alkaloids. The same machinery that makes broccoli taste bad to children also makes a Negroni taste like an adult ordered it.
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Gin, sweet vermouth and Green Chartreuse, in equal parts. It is the Negroni's template, with Chartreuse standing in for Campari. The three 'jewels' are named by color: diamond gin, ruby vermouth and emerald Chartreuse. Hence Bijou, French for jewel.
Harry Johnson, the Prussian-born American bartender, first published the Bijou in his 1900 Bartender's Manual, though the drink is said to have been served at his bars since the 1880s. The three-color theme is the entire point: the gin stands for diamond, the vermouth for ruby and the Chartreuse for emerald. Stirring blends them into a single amber liquid; the jewels survive in the name alone.
