Crunk Like a Monk, a Bartender’s Handshake

Your cocktail calendar entry for: May

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World Charteuse Day is a double header this year at The Drunkard’s Almanac, where we present not only the Brandy Fix as Drink of the Day but also the Crunk Like a Monk. It’s a Bartender’s Handshake, a topic we first discussed on Enzo Ferrari’s birthday when introducing the Ferrari as a drink.

To refresh your memory, a bartender’s handshake is not a secret signal, decoder ring or method of grasping hands. It’s really just a long-standing hospitality industry tradition between bartenders: a complementary drink like an amuse bouche, an insider’s wink, an acknowledgment that the recipient will enjoy something many clients wouldn’t care for.

This one is definitely a Los Angeles invention, and despite our Chief Protocol Officer sending out the Bat Signal nobody can seem to remember who created it. After all, there was liquor involved.

Crunk Like a Monk

Earthy and Herbal, the Crunk Like a Monk is a member of the Bartender's Handshake family emerging from Los Angeles sometime in the last decade. And since mixing it is as easy as putting the two ingredients in a glass it's about as simple as a recipe can get. A relatively obscure drink, we find it appropriate on World Chartreuse Day or, for that matter, any day you please.