Name: Edison's Medicine cocktail
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 6 fresh Basil leaves; 45 ml Cachaça; 15 ml Chartreuse Yellow; 22.5 ml Lime juice; 15 ml Agave syrup; 10 ml Chilled water

Edison's Medicine cocktail
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Glass:

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
6 fresh	Basil leaves
1 ¹⁄₂ fl oz	Cachaça
¹⁄₂ fl oz	Yellow Chartreuse (or génépy liqueur)
³⁄₄ fl oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₂ fl oz	Agave syrup (agave nectar)
¹⁄₃ fl oz	Chilled water omit if using wet ice

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of basil leaf.

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish:

Garnish with basil leaf boat floated on cocktail.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Cachaça leads with basil and Chartreuse herbal notes, zesty lime and agave richness.

View readers' comments

History:

Adapted from a 2011 recipe created by Pete Gugni at The Bedford in Chicago, Illinois.

Alcohol content:

We don't have enough information to calculate the alc./vol., but based on known ingredients, this recipe contains at least:

19.3 grams of pure alcohol

More After dinner/digestif cocktails
More Herbal cocktails

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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Showing 10 of 15 comments for Edison's Medicine cocktail.
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Justin Aniello

8th February at 18:47

Lovely, fruity from the cachaca with light herbal notes from the chartreuse. Sweet lime and basil in the aftertaste. Liked it at full lime juice which is unusual for me, I generally half lime/lemon though guess the large amount of agave helps offset.

Christopher Jameson

13th June 2025 at 18:27

Didn't have any Cachaca, so used Resperado tequila. Very nice indeed similar to a naked and famous, the basil works so well. Delicious 😋

Simon Sedgley

14th September 2025 at 13:14

We prefer this with Tequila which, for us, in a dance with Yellow Chartreuse is a match made in heaven.

Caspian Berggren

21st November 2024 at 15:58

Honestly, a fantastic cocktail. I like to serve my cocktails dumped, rather than served up, and the extra infusion of basil was really nice.

Kelvin Liu

17th November 2024 at 04:37

Would an absinthe rinse or replacing with green chartreuse work well?

Simon Difford

17th November 2024 at 07:20

A little absinthe influence could work well, but I'd stick to Yellow Chartreuse.

Juan Simon

19th July 2024 at 00:16

This is great! I agree that your choice of Cachaça will impact the end result. I used Paranubes, and honestly it imparts an aged Cachaça vibe with strong cane aroma, albeit with a higher ABV. Great drink!

Florian Ruf

10th June 2024 at 13:58

I am not overall convinced. I think the quality of the drink depends more on the Cachaça used than the relations.

Brian H

7th November 2023 at 02:27

This is another of my all time favorites. I quite enjoy it with 1/2 oz of the cachaça being barrel aged. I also tried a variation with tequila which was not good.

Ben Hall

6th October 2023 at 18:29

I tend to agree with others. I had it tonight, and thought it was lovely. But I think I will try upping the cachaca and lowering the agave syrup next time - I would say not by too much though. I definitely wouldn't add bitters.

John Hinojos

12th June 2023 at 23:53

Really like the herbal nature of this cocktail. Did read the reviews and upped the cachaca to 1 3/4 oz and halved the agave syrup. Still found it a bit sweet for us, so we added 4 drops of Difford's Daiquiri Bitters. Still had a nice sweet touch, but the herbal notes came out stronger. Delightlful.

Charl Engela

6th November 2022 at 21:52

It’s nice but not great. A bit like an undercooked Last Word/Final Argument. But I could drink two or three of these, unlike the others ???

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