Martinez

The Origin

Jerry Thomas included the Martinez in the 1887 edition of his bar guide, making it one of the earliest documented recipes for a stirred gin cocktail. Thomas was the most influential American bartender of the nineteenth century and his bar guides provided the documentary foundation for much of what is understood about the cocktail canon of that era. The Martinez appeared alongside a range of other drinks in the updated edition, and its presence in that publication gave it a permanence that drinks documented only in later sources do not have.

The relationship between the Martinez and the town of Martinez in California, which claims the drink as a local invention created for a gold miner passing through, is disputed and unverifiable. The oral history is specific enough to be appealing but is not supported by documentary evidence that predates Thomas's 1887 publication. The more likely origin is the broader Manhattan and Martini tradition that was developing in New York and other American cities during the 1870s and 1880s, of which the Martinez was an early and particularly well-constructed example.

The Martinez and the Martini

The precise point at which the Martinez became the Martini is not documented in a single recipe or a single bartender's decision. It was a gradual evolution across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in which the sweet vermouth was progressively replaced by dry, the maraschino was removed, the ratio shifted, and the resulting drink took on a cleaner, more austere character that suited the tastes of the era it emerged into. By the time the Martini was established as the defining cocktail of the twentieth century, the Martinez had largely disappeared from bar menus.

The revival of interest in pre-Prohibition cocktail culture from the late 1990s onward brought the Martinez back into bars that were willing to work with Old Tom gin and sweet vermouth in the original proportions. The drink rewards that attention. Understanding the Martinez is one of the most direct routes available to understanding the Martini, because the relationship between them makes explicit what the Martini chose to keep, what it chose to remove, and what was gained and lost in that process.

Old Tom Gin

Old Tom gin is a style that predates London Dry and that was the dominant form of gin in Britain during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is typically slightly sweeter than London Dry, less aggressively juniper-forward, and softer in its overall botanical profile, though the style has no legal definition and production methods vary between distillers. The sweetness in Old Tom was historically added after distillation to mask the roughness of lower-quality base spirit. Contemporary Old Tom gins are generally produced with higher quality base spirit and achieve their characteristic softness through botanical selection rather than post-distillation sweetening.

In the Martinez, the softer character of Old Tom integrates with the sweet vermouth and maraschino without the juniper competing for dominance over the other ingredients. The result is a more harmonious build than the same recipe with London Dry produces. London Dry is not wrong in this drink. It produces a more assertive, juniper-forward version that some bartenders and drinkers prefer. The Old Tom version is closer to what the original recipe was designed around and is worth trying first.

The Maraschino Balance

Luxardo Maraschino is present in the Martinez at a deliberately restrained volume. The 7.5ml measure is small enough to function as a seasoning rather than a primary modifier, contributing dry cherry, almond, and a faint bitterness from the marasca cherry pit without pulling the drink toward sweetness or fruit-forward character. The gin and sweet vermouth are the structural elements. The maraschino and bitters are the finish.

Increasing the maraschino measure is a common error, driven by the instinct to bring it into balance with the other ingredients. The Martinez does not require that balance. It requires the maraschino at the volume where it contributes without dominating, which is a smaller measure than feels intuitive. The Bijou and the Last Word, both documented in the Field Manual, use maraschino in similar supporting roles. All three drinks make the same argument: the measure is deliberate and should not be increased.

How to Serve It

Stirred, strained, and served cold in a coupe with expressed lemon peel over the surface. A Luxardo cherry dropped into the glass is an alternative that reinforces the maraschino note and provides a clean, sweet finish on the last sip. Either garnish is correct. The lemon peel suits the drink's more aromatic, gin-forward character. The cherry suits drinkers who want the fruit note to be present throughout. This is an evening drink in weight and character, suited to the period after a meal or as a considered pre-dinner pour for those who want something richer and more complex than the Martini it inspired.