A bracing, spirit-forward sipper, the Diamondback sets rye's peppery backbone over the orchard depth of apple brandy and the honeyed, herbal lift of yellow Chartreuse. Stirred cold and served up, the three potent spirits melt into a single glowing whole — deceptively simple and unapologetically strong.
Stirred · Coupe · Up
add
Combine the rye whiskey, apple brandy, and yellow Chartreuse in a mixing glass with ice.
stir
Stir until well chilled, about 20-30 seconds.
strain
Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.
The drink traces to the Diamondback Lounge inside Baltimore's Lord Baltimore Hotel around 1950, though the bartender who first mixed it has gone unrecorded. Ted Saucier set the recipe down in his 1951 book "Bottoms Up," and the name salutes Maryland's diamondback terrapin rather than the snake. Early versions were shaken where modern bartenders stir it, and around 2005 Murray Stenson of the Zig Zag Cafe built a variation that swaps green Chartreuse in for the yellow.