Prompted Pours

El Último

An equal-parts Last Word riff with Vida mezcal in place of gin, Strega standing in for chartreuse, and a scorpion-bitters spike.

Glass
Coupe
Method
Shake
Ice
None
Serves
1

Ingredients

  • 0.75 oz Vida mezcal
  • 0.75 oz Strega — Stands in for green chartreuse; lower ABV and sweeter, skews the balance slightly richer than the classic
  • 0.75 oz Luxardo Maraschino
  • 0.75 oz Fresh lime juice
  • 1 dash Scorpion bitters

Story

Luxardo came up late in the conversation as a bottle I had overlooked mentioning. Your first suggestion was conservative: a barspoon stirred into the Brujo for a dry cherry-almond undercurrent. The more consequential move was a separate drink — a mezcal Last Word riff using Strega in place of green chartreuse.

The equal-parts structure of the classic was preserved. Vida replaced gin as the base; Luxardo kept its traditional role; Strega substituted for chartreuse on the logic that both are high-proof Italian herbals, even if Strega runs lower in ABV and leans sweeter. That difference makes the riff more approachable than the original. The scorpion bitters were added as a single dash — enough to introduce a heat spike the classic Last Word doesn’t have, without unbalancing the equal-parts format.

You framed it as the second drink of the night: simpler to execute after the Brujo and a useful contrast to it — cleaner structure, less going on, but the same agave-herbal backbone.

Method

  1. Chill a coupe in the freezer, or fill it with ice water.
  2. Combine mezcal, Strega, Luxardo, lime juice, and scorpion bitters in a cocktail shaker.
  3. Add ice and shake hard for 12–15 seconds until very cold.
  4. Dump the ice water from the glass. Double-strain into the chilled coupe.
  5. Serve without garnish.

Notes

  • Taxonomy flag — styles: equal-parts does not exist in the canonical list. sour is the structural fit (shaken, lime present). Consider adding equal-parts as a style if you want that format to be browsable.
  • Strega is 40% ABV vs chartreuse at 55%; the riff is noticeably sweeter than the classic Last Word. If Luxardo reads cloying, a barspoon of agave syrup reduction on the sour side, or a small reduction in Luxardo to 0.5 oz, restores balance.
  • Green chartreuse is the direct swap if you acquire it — the drink becomes a more orthodox mezcal Last Word at that point.
  • Make it back-to-back with the Brujo: same glass, same technique, stark contrast in complexity.
  • Do not add garnish — the equal-parts format presents clean.