Gin, stirred
Vancouver
Barline 1h,Q,h,1,cO
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 1/2 oz Gin
- 3/4 oz Dry vermouth
- 1/2 oz Bénédictine
- 1 dash Orange bitters
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe, olive.
Taste
An ounce and a half of gin against three-quarters of dry vermouth, enough for the wine to come through, then a half ounce of Bénédictine, honey and herbs nearly even with the vermouth. One dash of orange bitters. Stirred, coupe, orange twist. Gin first, then the liqueur's spice on a dry wine.
History
The Vancouver prints in the About Town Cocktail Book, issued in Vancouver around 1925 by Mitchell Publishing: fifty percent gin, thirty percent French vermouth, twenty percent Bénédictine, a dash of orange bitters, olive. Joseph A. Fitchett, head bar steward of the Vancouver Club, checked the recipes. A later story, told to Steve da Cruz in 2006, put a sweet-vermouth version at the Sylvia Hotel after 1954. Alex Black, in Scout Magazine in 2020, showed that the 1925 Vancouver used dry vermouth; the sweet one in the same book is the Fitchett. This menu keeps dry vermouth: an ounce and a half of gin, three-quarters vermouth, a half ounce of Bénédictine, and one dash of orange bitters, coupe, orange.
Same shape, other bottles
The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.
- Fitchettsweet vermouth for dry vermouth
- Dry Orange Martiniorange liqueur for Bénédictine
- Racquet Clubcrème de cacao for Bénédictine
- 1910mezcal, cognac, and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Country Clublight rum and orange liqueur for gin and Bénédictine
- Journalistorange liqueur for Bénédictine
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, or read the index of every drink.