Golden Retriever

Difford’s Guide
Discerning Drinkers (112 ratings)

Serve in a Nick & Nora glass

Ingredients:
1 oz Light gold rum (1-3 year old molasses column)
13 oz Green Chartreuse (or alternative herbal liqueur)
12 oz Licor 43 Original liqueur
13 oz Chilled water omit if using wet ice
× 1 1 serving
Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol
Medium
Boozy
Strength 9/10
Sweet
Medium
Dry/sour
Sweet to sour 5/10
Cocktail of the day:

14th January 2025 is Dress Up Your Pet Day

Review:

This powerful, straw yellow cocktail offers a myriad of flavours. Benefitting from the dilution of a long stir and/or the addition of a dash of water.

View readers' comments

History:

Adapted from a recipe created by Dick Bradsell at Alfred's, London, England. Dick's original recipe was equal parts without the water and was served straight-up in a Martini glass.

Nutrition:

One serving of Golden Retriever contains 136 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.2 standard drinks
  • 26.83% alc./vol. (26.83° proof)
  • 17.4 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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Showing 10 of 14 comments for Golden Retriever.
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25th January at 17:19
Color in the picture was not what I got. Very light yellow/green hue. I dialed down the Licor 43 and upped the rum and Chartreuse. Stilll vanilla-forward.

It needs the extra dilution. It's a dessert style cocktail.
Bill and Audrey Kopp’s Avatar Bill and Audrey Kopp
23rd January at 22:46
Very nice drink. We used Faccia Brutto in place of the green chartreuse, and were satisfied with the results. Tasty and complex. It's nice to find a rum cocktail that does not call for sugar syrup.
Caspian Berggren’s Avatar Caspian Berggren
7th January at 21:51
This is one of those cocktails that can benefit from being served on the rocks. It really has a fascinating evolution in the glass. The Licor 43 and Chartreuse take turns dominating the cocktail but as it gets more diluted they find their places - Chartreuse dominates in the front and mid of the palate whereas the 43 dominates on the nose and in the finish. The rum is disappointing though, it's completely run over by the liqueurs. Use something more assertive than Havana 3...
Simon Sedgley’s Avatar Simon Sedgley
7th January at 13:16
We agree with other commenters here that a couple of dashes of bitters elevates this cocktail. We went with grapefruit bitters. This one really does need to be paired with a Roquefort cheese to allow its voice to be part of a heavenly chorus.
Ian Lessels’ Avatar Ian Lessels
5th December 2024 at 18:30
Can you tell me how you "express" orange zest? I really don't know what that means.
Simon Difford’s Avatar Simon Difford
6th December 2024 at 16:07
Please click "EXPRESS" in the 'How to make' for an explanation.
Peter McCarthy’s Avatar Peter McCarthy
11th September 2024 at 23:27
As others mentioned, you'll really need to make sure you get the dilution right for your own taste, but the result is a smooth, tasty mildly vanilla herbal rum drink. Yum.
10th May 2024 at 04:20
As with others, my first impression was that the strength, wild, delicious, lacked an acid to provide balance. I added a few squeezes of lime juice, which improved it, but next time I think I might use something more potent like grapefruit bitters. I also felt like the chartreuse overpowered the flavor of the Licor 43. They are two of my favorite Lecure’s, but next time I think I might increase the Licor 43 to 3/4 oz and decrease the chartreuse to 1/4 oz.
STEVEN JEPSON’s Avatar STEVEN JEPSON
5th January 2024 at 22:19
First taste was a bit sweet - so gave it a bit longer on the stir and added two dashes of Scrappys Lime Bitters.
Just gave it that edge back and very nice too.
Matt B’s Avatar Matt B
20th December 2023 at 23:16
I made this by mistake with 1/3rd oz of Licor 43 and even then it seemed to be a bit too prominent for my taste.
19th August 2023 at 02:46
I really enjoyed this even if a bit sweet. If old books, well tanned leather, and sweet tobacco were a flavor….this would be it.