Tipperary
Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse, stirred — a herbal Manhattan relative.
- Difficulty
- easy
- Prep time
- 3 min
- Strength
- 28.6% ABV
- Glassware
- Coupe glass
- Base
- whisky
- Serves
- 1
Ingredients
- Irish whiskey45ml
- Sweet vermouth25ml
- Green Chartreuse10ml
- Angostura bitters2 dashes
Garnish: Orange twist
Method
- Chill a coupe glass.
- Add the whiskey, sweet vermouth, Chartreuse and bitters to a mixing glass filled with ice.
- Stir for about 30 seconds, until very cold.
- Strain into the chilled coupe and express an orange twist over the top.
Compared with the IBA specification
The International Bartenders Association lists this drink among its New Era. Its specification is a standard for training and competition — one reference, not the only right way to make the drink.
CocktailHQ
- 45ml irish whiskey
- 25ml sweet vermouth
- 10ml green chartreuse
- 2 dashes angostura bitters
IBA
- 50 ml Irish Whiskey
- 25 ml Sweet Red Vermouth
- 15 ml Green Chartreuse
- 2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
IBA ingredients as published at iba-world.com, retrieved 29 October 2026.
Allergen information
Contains an ingredient commonly associated with:
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites — usually (sweet vermouth)
Products vary, and this describes ingredients rather than the bottles you use — check every label. It is not a guarantee that a drink is suitable for anyone with an allergy. How this is worked out
Your version
— private notes, kept on this device
Change a measure, note what you changed and why. It stays in this browser — it is not sent to CocktailHQ, not counted by analytics, and not shown to anyone.
Equipment
Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.
Mixing glass
Household swap: A sturdy pint glass.
Glass and ice
No ice in the glass
Served up, the drink was chilled and diluted in the shaker or mixing glass and goes into a chilled glass without ice.
Over a large cube it stays cold longer, but keeps diluting — it becomes a different, slowly lengthening drink.
About 109ml once mixed
The recipe's coupe glass is typically 150–250ml.
- Workable:
- nick & nora glass, martini glass, champagne flute, rocks glass
- Oversized but acceptable:
- wine glass
- Unsuitable:
- highball glass
Needs a glass of about 115–121ml brimful.
How this is worked out
- A drink with no ice needs a little of the glass left empty — about a tenth — so it can be carried without spilling and has room for aroma.
- Filled to the top with cubes or packed crushed ice, roughly half to three-fifths of a glass is left for the drink.
- A drink built in the glass dilutes from the ice already there, so its melt water is not added on top.
- One large cube takes up roughly 65–125ml, from a sphere to a 5cm cube.
- Glass capacities are brimful and vary by maker — your own glass, measured with water, is the figure to trust.
Missing an ingredient?
Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.
Instead of Green Chartreuse
Best substitute: Yellow Chartreuse
This is the modifier in this drink.
Quantity: Use 15ml
Flavour impact: Sweeter and softer, with honey and saffron rather than sharp herbs.
What changes
Yellow Chartreuse moves the drink a long way — more sweetness, less bitterness, less intensity and less strength. This is worth making deliberately rather than as a stand-in.
- Sweetness ↑
- The drink will land sweeter, which also makes it read as less sharp and slightly heavier even though nothing else changed.
- Bitterness ↓
- Losing bitterness makes the drink rounder and more approachable, and takes away the structure that stopped it tasting like squash.
- Intensity ↓
- A milder ingredient gets buried by whatever else is in the glass, and the drink loses the thing it was named for.
- Strength ↓
- Yellow Chartreuse is 40% ABV against 55%. A weaker bottle makes a softer drink — genuinely pleasant, but a different drink from the one written down.
- Character
- Both are herbal, and you lose vegetal, intense and medicinal-sweet, and you gain honeyed, saffron and gently sweet. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
To correct for it
- Cut the syrup or sugar back — start by halving it and taste before adding any back.
- A dash of bitters restores some of the backbone without changing anything else.
- Increase the measure, or accept a gentler drink and reduce the components competing with it.
- Pour a fraction more, or shorten the dilution slightly, to keep the shape of the original.
Moderate confidenceMakes a different drink
Make it better
- Measure the Chartreuse precisely. At 55% and intensely herbal, 5ml either way changes the drink.
- A pot-still Irish whiskey has more body and spice to stand up to the Chartreuse than a light blend.
- The earliest printed version was equal parts of all three, which is much sweeter and more herbal.
- Chill the glass in the freezer for a few minutes beforehand — a warm glass takes the edge off a well-made drink fast.
- Stir, don't shake — stirring keeps a spirit-forward drink clear and silky instead of cloudy with air bubbles.
- Express the citrus peel by pinching it, skin-side down, over the drink before dropping it in — this releases aromatic oils across the surface.
- Adjust sweetness gradually and taste as you go — it's easy to add more syrup, impossible to take it out.
Rescue this drink
- All Chartreuse
- Cut it to 7.5ml, or use a fuller-bodied Irish whiskey.
- Cloying
- Fresh vermouth, and 5ml less of it.
- So cold you cannot taste itgeneral guidance
- Spirit-forward drinks served up have a window: too warm and the alcohol burns, too cold and the aromatics stop volatilising and the drink reads as flat and numb. If it arrives correct and improves over the first few minutes, you have over-chilled it — shorten the stir slightly rather than skipping the freezer glass, because a warm glass ruins more drinks than a cold one.
Make ahead & storage
Batches well
Everything in this can be mixed days ahead and kept cold. It is one of the drinks to build a party menu around.
Add about 22% water to the batch to replace what the ice would otherwise contribute, or it will pour noticeably harsher than a fresh one.
Make it lighter
As written, about 2.8 UK units at roughly 28.6% ABV once diluted. 4 of six ways to lighten it work for this recipe. Units are an estimate of what is in the glass, not advice about drinking.
A smaller serveSupportedabout 1.9 units, 28.6% ABV
Every measure at two-thirds. The balance is untouched because the proportions are; the only trade-off is a smaller drink — use a smaller glass so it doesn't look stingy.
- 30ml Irish Whiskey
- 17ml Sweet Vermouth
- 7ml Green Chartreuse
- 1ml Angostura Bitters
Reverse the ratioSupportedabout 2.3 units, 23.5% ABV
Two parts sweet vermouth to one of irish whiskey. Reversed Martinis and Manhattans are long-standing variations: softer and more aromatic, and the sweet vermouth needs to be fresh.
- 23ml Irish Whiskey
- 45ml Sweet Vermouth
- 10ml Green Chartreuse
- 2ml Angostura Bitters
Split the base with a lower-strength modifierSupportedabout 2.6 units, 26.2% ABV
Equal parts irish whiskey and sweet vermouth: the "fifty-fifty" treatment, at the same volume, for a rounder and softer drink.
- 35ml Irish Whiskey
- 35ml Sweet Vermouth
- 10ml Green Chartreuse
- 2ml Angostura Bitters
Replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottlePossible, with a trade-offabout 2.6 units, 26.6% ABV
Half the sweet vermouth with alcohol-free vermouth. Only a modifier has an alcohol-free counterpart here, so the saving is modest. Some alcohol-free bottles carry a trace of alcohol — check the label if that matters to you.
- 45ml Irish Whiskey
- 13ml Sweet Vermouth
- 13ml Alcohol-Free Vermouth
- 10ml Green Chartreuse
- 2ml Angostura Bitters
Not recommended for this drink: a longer serve; give it the spritz treatment
- A longer serve. A stirred, spirit-and-vermouth drink is about concentration and texture. Soda turns it into something thin and confused. Note: the same alcohol in more liquid — weaker per sip, not fewer units.
- Give it the spritz treatment. Sparkling wine for the base spirit leaves a fizzy vermouth, not a lighter version of the drink. Add the fizz last, at the glass.
What it tastes like
The taste, and what drives it
sweet, soft, light — a spirit and modifier drink served straight up, no ice.
Sweet
Dry → Sweet
Openly sweet, and balanced by something else rather than hidden.
What drives it: Sweet vermouth — carries the most sugar into the glass.
Gently bitter
Gentle → Bitter
Bitterness as structure — it stops the drink tasting like squash without being the point.
What drives it: Angostura bitters — provides the bitterness.
Light
Light → Rich
Light-bodied. It refreshes rather than satisfies, which is usually the intention.
What drives it: Irish whiskey — adds most of the weight.
Very bold
Delicate → Bold
Very bold — concentrated, and served small for that reason.
What drives it: Irish whiskey — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.
What you smell first
- Citrus peelLeadsBefore the first sip
From Orange twist
- Fresh herbLeads
From Sweet vermouth, Green Chartreuse
- Oak
From Irish whiskey
- Vanilla
From Irish whiskey
- Anise
From Green Chartreuse
Aromas marked as sitting above the drink reach you before the first sip — skipping that garnish changes the drink more than its size suggests.
How it was worked out
Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.
How balance actually works →If it isn't right
What goes wrong with this drink, and why
Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — open one for the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.
This drink is only as good as the vermouth in it
Degrades itVermouth is wine and oxidises within weeks of opening. A stale bottle is the single most common reason a stirred drink tastes dull rather than complex.
How to handle it: Refrigerate it after opening, buy the small bottle, and replace it more often than feels reasonable.
It's too sweet
- Likely cause
- Sweet vermouth is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
- What to change
- Cut sweet vermouth by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a little more of the base spirit or a dash of bitters will pull it back faster than starting again.
- What that does
- It will taste drier, and the base and any bitter or herbal notes come forward from behind the sugar.
- The trade-off
- Sugar carries body as well as sweetness, so you lose a little weight along with it.
It's too bitter
- Likely cause
- Angostura bitters is doing this deliberately, but bitterness also builds across a drink rather than announcing itself — the last mouthful is more bitter than the first even though nothing changed.
- What to change
- Lengthen it slightly, or add a small amount of sweetener. Do not add more of anything sour; acid sharpens bitterness rather than covering it.
- What that does
- The bitterness softens and the drink gets longer or rounder.
- The trade-off
- If you were hoping to keep it short and strong, this is the trade you are making — and sugar added to a bitter drink can make it taste cloying rather than balanced.
It's too strong
- Likely cause
- Irish whiskey dominates by design here — this is a drink built to be sipped, and the proportion of spirit to everything else is the point of it.
- What to change
- Stir a little longer, or add a measured 5–10ml of water. For a lasting change, pour a smaller measure of the base and keep the rest of the spec the same.
- What that does
- Alcohol presence drops and the aromatics open up — a slightly diluted spirit-forward drink usually smells better, not worse.
- The trade-off
- Go too far and it stops being the drink it was: spirit-forward drinks lose their character faster than long drinks do when watered.
It tastes harsh or hot
- Likely cause
- Almost always under-dilution. Stirring is how this drink gets its water — around 25% of the finished drink — and stopping early leaves alcohol heat that dilution would have rounded off.
- What to change
- Stir for longer — taste a drop off the spoon, and stop when the burn has receded rather than at a fixed count.
- What that does
- The heat recedes, the drink tastes rounder, and flavours that were masked by alcohol come forward.
- The trade-off
- Dilution is a target, not a direction: past it the drink goes watery and loses concentration, which is harder to undo than harshness.
It's watery
- Likely cause
- Stirring adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
- What to change
- Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
- What that does
- More flavour concentration at the same temperature.
- The trade-off
- Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — the aim is the right amount of water, not the least.
It isn't cold enough
- Likely cause
- Served without ice, this drink is at its coldest the moment it leaves the mixing glass and warms from the first sip. A room-temperature glass takes a surprising amount of that cold straight back out.
- What to change
- Chill the coupe glass first — ten minutes in the freezer, or filled with ice and water while you mix — and strain the moment you stop stirring.
- What that does
- The drink stays in its best range for longer, and the first sip tastes the way it was balanced.
- The trade-off
- Very cold drinks smell of less, because aroma needs some warmth to leave the glass. A smaller serve that is finished cold beats a bigger one that is finished warm.
It doesn't smell of anything
- Likely cause
- The aroma you are missing is probably citrus peel, which sits above the drink rather than in it — skipping or under-expressing the garnish removes it entirely.
- What to change
- Express the peel over the surface with the skin facing the drink, then drop it in. Herbs go in the glass, not on the side.
- What that does
- Aroma arrives before flavour does, so the whole drink reads as more intense without a single measure changing.
- The trade-off
- The oil does land in the drink, though — an over-expressed peel adds a faint bitterness to the first mouthful.
It tastes one-dimensional
- Likely cause
- With 4 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a drink this simple is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
- What to change
- Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
- What that does
- More going on at the same strength and sweetness.
- The trade-off
- Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one — and a better bottle costs more.
It's cloudy when it should be clear
- Likely cause
- It was shaken, or stirred so hard it was churned. Both whip air and tiny ice shards into a drink made only of clear ingredients, and that is what you are seeing.
- What to change
- Stir smoothly with the back of the spoon against the glass, using fresh, clean ice, and strain through a fine strainer if your ice is chipped.
- What that does
- A clear drink with the dense, silky texture a stirred drink is meant to have.
- The trade-off
- Stirring takes longer than shaking to reach the same temperature, and the drink will be a little less cold for the same effort.
My batch tastes worse than the first glass
- Likely cause
- sweet vermouth is the part of this drink that changes on standing — citrus loses its brightness, opened wine-based ingredients oxidise, and fizz escapes. The spirits are not the problem.
- What to change
- Store it cold, in a bottle filled close to the top, and keep anything wine-based refrigerated. Decant into smaller bottles as it goes down.
- What that does
- The last glass from the batch tastes like the first.
- The trade-off
- Adding components at service brings some of the work back to the moment you were trying to free up — measure them out in advance to keep it quick.
The garnish is all I can taste
- Likely cause
- The orange twist sits right under your nose, so it arrives before the drink does. Expressed peel oil is intense, and a peel left in keeps releasing it.
- What to change
- Express the peel over the drink, then discard it rather than dropping it in.
- What that does
- The garnish frames the drink rather than replacing it.
- The trade-off
- Too little and the drink loses its first impression — the garnish is doing a real aromatic job here, so ease off rather than leave it out.
Each drink comes out different
- Likely cause
- With 4 measured components, a few millilitres' drift in each adds up, and a mixing glass loaded for four chills and dilutes differently from one made for one.
- What to change
- Measure every pour with a jigger, and stir no more than two at a time. Pre-mix Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, green Chartreuse, Angostura bitters in a bottle beforehand so each round starts from the same base.
- What that does
- The fifth drink of the evening tastes like the first, at the same strength and balance.
- The trade-off
- Smaller batches mean more rounds of shaking or stirring; pre-mixing saves time but only for what keeps.
It tastes flat, dull or like old wine
- Likely cause
- Sweet vermouth is wine, and once a bottle is opened it starts to oxidise: the fresh, herbal top notes go first and a flat, nutty or sour edge comes in. Nothing else in the drink can put them back.
- What to change
- Taste sweet vermouth on its own. If it is dull, open a fresh bottle — and keep the next one in the fridge with the cap on, or buy a smaller size.
- What that does
- The drink regains its aroma and tastes brighter, without any change to the spec.
- The trade-off
- A fresh bottle for one drink is a cost; small bottles cost more per millilitre but waste less.
Something else wrong? Open this drink in the Recipe Doctor.
Taste profile
- Sweetness
- 3/5
- Sourness
- 0/5
- Bitterness
- 2/5
- Strength
- 4/5
- Fruitiness
- 1/5
- Freshness
- 1/5
- Creaminess
- 0/5
- Smokiness
- 0/5
Nutrition & alcohol
Estimate only- Calories
- 180 kcal
- Sugar
- 6 g
- Carbohydrates
- 7 g
- Alcohol units (UK)
- 2.79
- US standard drinks
- 1.61
- ABV
- 28.6%
- Serving size
- 100 ml
Show calculation assumptions
Source: Calculated from standard measures
Calorie breakdown: ~158 kcal from alcohol, ~22 kcal from sugar and mixers.
Likely range: 135–225 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.
Assumes Irish whiskey at 40% ABV, sweet vermouth at 16%, green Chartreuse at 55% and about 22% dilution from stirring.
These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.
Variations
Equal parts
Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth and green Chartreuse in equal measure, as first printed.
What kind of drink this is
The structure behind the recipe
A stirred build: a spirit and modifier whisky-based drink, served straight up, no ice — silky and dense in the mouth.
Spirit and modifier
Spirit combined with an aromatised or flavoured modifier and little else — concentrated, and served small for exactly that reason.
Base
Irish whiskey
Modifier
Sweet vermouth
Green Chartreuse
Bitter element
Angostura bitters
Drinks built this way are collected as the Manhattan family.
Technique
stirred
The liquid is moved around the ice rather than against it, so it chills and dilutes with almost no air incorporated and almost no ice broken up.
A heavy, silky, completely clear drink. Alcohol reads more sharply than in the same drink shaken, because nothing has softened it.
What it ruins: Nothing outright, but it will not combine egg, dairy or thick syrup — those need force.
Everything about stirring →How the technique works →Dilution
During mixing, then strained
Water from ice typically makes up around 25% of the finished drink for a stirred build (commonly 20–30%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.
Why dilution is an ingredient →Served
Straight up, no ice
Coupe glass · 100ml
Chilled during mixing and then strained away from the ice, so it arrives at its coldest and most concentrated and warms from the first sip — which is why 100ml is the right size for it.
Texture and aroma
Stirred without aeration, the drink stays heavy and slightly viscous in the mouth.
Aroma arrives before flavour does. A citrus twist is expressed over the surface so its oils sit on top of the drink — skipping it changes the drink more than its size suggests.
Where to go from here
Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.
Drinking this with food: a digestif, properly
On its recorded taste scores this drink meets the test for a digestif, properly — the page explains the principle behind it rather than simply asserting the pairing.
Making good drinks at home
A good drink to learn on. The beginner path covers the four things that actually make a home cocktail disappointing.
Where it comes from
Origin and family
Origin of the Tipperary
Printed by Hugo Ensslin in Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916) as equal parts Irish whiskey, green Chartreuse and Italian vermouth.
Ensslin's 1916 recipe is equal parts. The IBA uses 50ml whiskey, 25ml sweet vermouth, 15ml green Chartreuse and two dashes of bitters; this uses a little less whiskey and Chartreuse.
Family
Manhattan2 parts aged spirit · 1 part sweet vermouth · 2 dashes bitters — stirred, served up or over a large cube.
On drinks history
Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.
History and culture →Try this next
- MartinezMartinez
You may like this because it shares a strong-forward profile with the Tipperary, but uses gin instead of whisky.
Mezcal NegroniYou may like this because it shares a strong-forward profile with the Tipperary, but uses tequila instead of whisky.
- Remember the MaineRemember the Maine
You may like this because it shares a strong taste profile with the Tipperary.
Use up your ingredients
Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.
Related tools
Scale this for a party
Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.
How far a bottle goes
Drinks per bottle, which bottle runs out first, batching — and the cost, at your own prices.
Recipe confidence
The 1916 printed source is documented; the modern spec is a drier rebalancing.