Martinis
43 recipes, page 1 of 2
This Field Manual holds 43 recipes in the martini family. A martini is a spirit and an aromatised wine, stirred with ice and served without any. Everything else about it is contested.
The ratio moved across a century and never settled. Early specifications were close to equal parts gin and vermouth; the dry martini of the 1950s cut the vermouth to a rinse. Both are on this page. Gin and vodka behave differently in it: gin leaves botanicals to argue with the vermouth, vodka leaves texture and temperature to carry the drink. A dirty martini adds olive brine, which makes it a three-ingredient drink whatever the menu calls it.
Base Spirit
Difficulty Level
Adonis
The Adonis was created at the Hoffman House bar in New York in 1884 to celebrate the extraordinary run of the Broadway musical of the same name, which became one of the
Alaska
The Alaska is a two-ingredient stirred cocktail of considerable elegance and considerable potency. Gin and yellow Chartreuse in a ratio that has been debated since the drink first
Alexander
The Alexander is the cream family’s founding document, and it surprises most drinkers: the original is gin. Gin, white crème de cacao and cream in equal thirds, out of the
Angel Face
The Angel Face is the equal-parts gamble of the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book: gin, apricot brandy and calvados, and nothing else. No citrus, no bitters, no safety net. Its name and
Appletini
The Appletini has a precise birthplace: Lola’s in West Hollywood, 1996, where it debuted as the Adam’s Apple Martini and turned luminous green within a year of conquering Los
Bamboo
The Bamboo was created by Louis Eppinger at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama around 1890, making it one of the earliest documented low-ABV cocktails and one of the first drinks of note
Bijou
The Bijou was created by Harry Johnson and published in his 1900 Bartenders' Manual, the name taken from the French word for jewel. The three base ingredients each represent a
Bradford
The Bradford is a shaken martini with nineteenth-century paperwork. Harry Johnson's Bartenders' Manual and its contemporaries record the Bradford à la Martini: the same gin,
Brandy Alexander
The Brandy Alexander is equal parts cognac, dark crème de cacao and cream, shaken hard and served up under a heavy grating of nutmeg. It is the definitive dessert cocktail of the
Breakfast Martini
The Breakfast Martini began, by its creator’s cheerful account, with a domestic scene: Salvatore Calabrese’s wife insisting he eat something before work, one spoon of orange
Bronx
The Bronx was once the third cocktail in America, behind only the Martini and the Manhattan in the pre-Prohibition order of things. It is credited to Johnnie Solon of the
Champs-Élysées
The Champs-Élysées first appeared in print in the 1927 cocktail book Here’s How, attributed to the anonymous “Barflies and Cocktails” collection published in Paris. The name
Chocolate Martini
The Chocolate Martini is the 1990s in a conical glass: vodka, chocolate liqueur and a measure of single cream shaken cold and finished with dark shavings, dessert and digestif
Chrysanthemum
The Chrysanthemum appeared in Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 “Recipes for Mixed Drinks”, one of the last significant American cocktail guides published before Prohibition. A three-ingredient
Coronation No. 1
The Coronation No. 1 is two fortified wines in equal measure, seasoned with a barspoon of maraschino and a couple of dashes of orange bitters. There is no spirit in it at all,
Cosmopolitan
The Cosmopolitan is the most famous cocktail of the 1990s and better than its fame: a pink drink with a sour’s bones, whose modern spec was settled by Toby Cecchini at Manhattan’s
East India No. 2
The East India No. 2 is fino sherry and dry vermouth in equal measure, bridged by orange bitters with a single dash of Angostura underneath. There is no spirit in it, which puts
Espresso Martini
Dick Bradsell created the Espresso Martini in 1983 at the Soho Brasserie in London, reportedly at the request of a young model who asked for something that would "wake me up and
Ford Cocktail
The Ford is the 1890s martini at its most courteous: Old Tom gin and dry vermouth at equal strength, seasoned with a barspoon of Bénédictine and orange bitters, from George
French Martini
The French Martini is a New York drink with a French accent: it emerged in the late 1980s from Keith McNally’s downtown restaurants, Balthazar’s bar making it famous, and it led
Gibson
The Gibson is a Martini with one substitution: a cocktail onion in place of the lemon twist or olive. That substitution is the entire definition of the drink, and the source of a
Gin & It
The Gin & It is the martini’s English aunt: gin and Italian sweet vermouth, the It of the name, poured together with ceremony and, in the classic London reading, no ice at all. It
Golden Cadillac
The Golden Cadillac is a Grasshopper with Galliano where the crème de menthe should be, and the swap turns a cold after-dinner mint into something closer to crème brûlée.
Grasshopper
The Grasshopper is New Orleans’ green dessert: born by the standard account at Tujague’s in the French Quarter around 1918, second prize in a New York competition and first prize