Vancouver

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.

• Difford's Guide, Vancouver
• Scout Magazine, We've Been Making the Vancouver Cocktail Wrong

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