Gin, stirred
Martini
Barline 2,1,1,cl
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 2 oz Gin
- 1 oz Dry vermouth
- 1 dash Orange bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe, lemon twist.
Taste
Two ounces of gin to one of dry vermouth, so the wine is a third of the drink. One dash of orange bitters is peel in the glass. Stirred, coupe, lemon twist. It drinks wet and cold: juniper, then the vermouth's wormwood and grape, then a thin orange film.
History
The first gin-and-vermouth drinks print in 1883 newspaper copy from Cleveland and Chicago, still called Manhattans, then as Martinez in O.H. Byron's 1884 The Modern Bartender's Guide and as Martini in Harry Johnson's 1888 Bartenders' Manual: Old Tom, sweet vermouth, curaçao, gum, and bitters. The Dry Martini, French vermouth and a drier gin, is named in New York by 1896 and is the dominant version by 1900. Two-to-one gin to vermouth appears in the late 1890s and is standard by the 1910s; orange bitters stay until the 1940s, then drop as the ratio marches past five-to-one. This menu keeps the wet 2:1, one dash of orange bitters, coupe, lemon.
Same shape, other bottles
The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.
- Manhattanbourbon and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Racquet Clubwith crème de cacao
- Rob Royscotch and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Saratogarye, cognac, and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Olivettewith elderflower liqueur
- Dry Orange Martiniwith orange liqueur
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.