Name: Mary Queen of Scots
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 40 ml Scotch whisky; 20 ml Chartreuse Green; 20 ml Honey herbal liqueur

Mary Queen of Scots
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Glass:

Photographed in an UB 1910 Old Fashioned 10.5oz

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₃ fl oz	Blended Scotch whisky
²⁄₃ fl oz	Green Chartreuse (or alternative herbal liqueur)
²⁄₃ fl oz	Honey herbal liqueur (e.g. Drambuie)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

How to make:

STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass.

Garnish:

EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Slightly sweet herbal influenced riff on the Rusty Nail.

View readers' comments

AKA: Le Rusty Nail

History:

Adapted from a shaken and straight-up cocktail served in a sugar-rimmed glass with a cherry discovered in 2006 on Kyle Branch's Cocktail Hotel blog.

Mary Stuart, Mary Queen of Scots, was born 8th December 1542 at Linlithgow Place in West Lothian. On February 8th 1587, she was executed in the Great Hall of Fotheringhay.

Nutrition:

One serving of Mary Queen of Scots contains 222 calories

Alcohol content:

2 standard drinks
34.45% alc./vol. (68.9° proof)
27.6 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Mookie

22nd May at 00:27

this was only okay, though I did substitute faccia brutto centerbe for the chartreuse. but I may just not be a fan of drambuie

Peter M

4th May 2025 at 06:46

While it's been a bit since I've had this one, based on my notes, I wanna say the Carthusian Nail has a better ratio of the same ingredients.

Peter M

28th February 2025 at 18:42

Fairly sweet, but there's a nice bitterness from the Chartreuse to help balance it on the back-end. Interesting, complex flavor.

Jeffrey Moore

6th September 2024 at 17:28

I had to up the whisky to a full 2 oz to counter the sweet & stand up to the GC.

Jay Gates

17th July 2022 at 01:50

Really nice variation on the Rusty Nail; the Chartreuse brings both an herbal quality and a bite that cuts through some of the sweetness--and it is very sweet. I modified the measurements in line with my preferences for a 4:1 ratio in a Rusty Nail: 2 blended scotch (I used Monkey Shoulder), 1/2 Drambuie, 2 bar spoons Chartreuse. Serving on the rocks is a must.