Vancouver
A Vancouver is 45ml of gin, 22.5ml of sweet vermouth, 7.5ml of Bénédictine and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and served up in a chilled Nick & Nora under a twist of lemon. About 2.5 UK units. It is named for the city and linked by tradition to the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay, which opened in 1913 as an apartment block and, by the hotel’s own history page, opened Vancouver’s first cocktail lounge on 2 July 1954. The link is local tradition: Scout Magazine, an opinion piece, reports an undated Vancouver booklet, About Town, from between 1928 and 1942 that lists the drink with French vermouth, and no recipe we have read fixes when or where it was first mixed. Structurally it is a Hanky Panky with Bénédictine where the Fernet-Branca would be: the same gin and sweet vermouth, seasoned with honey and herbs instead of menthol and bitterness. A barspoon is enough, and the drink is gentler and rounder for it.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Lemon twist
Ingredients
45ml
A London Dry at around 40% ABV. The vermouth is rich and the Bénédictine honeyed, and the juniper is what keeps the drink from going soft.
22.5ml
A rich Italian style at about 16% ABV. We keep it cold after opening and use it within four weeks or so, because a tired bottle tastes of stewed fruit.
7.5ml
A barspoon, at 40% ABV: honey, warm spice and herbs that thread between the gin and the vermouth. Double it and the drink turns sweet.
2 dashes
Two dashes, orange rather than aromatic. Angostura’s clove would sit on top of the Bénédictine’s spice; orange keeps a rich drink lifted.
Instructions
Chill a Nick & Nora glass in the freezer.
Add the gin, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 to 30 seconds.
Strain into the chilled glass.
Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in.
Our version
Scout Magazine reports an undated early recipe that uses French vermouth, and no printed recipe we have read settles one. We pour 45ml of gin, 22.5ml of sweet vermouth, 7.5ml of Bénédictine and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred and served up.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Measure the Bénédictine. At 7.5ml, a barspoon, it seasons the vermouth; at 15ml it sweetens the whole drink, and the aperitif becomes a dessert. We keep sweet vermouth in the fridge and use it within about four weeks. At 22.5ml it is close to a third of the glass, and an oxidised bottle tastes of stewed fruit, which the Bénédictine’s honey only makes worse. Use orange bitters, not Angostura. Angostura’s clove lands on top of the warm spice the Bénédictine already carries; orange lifts the finish instead.
Behind the Vancouver
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Vancouver is tied by tradition to the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay. The hotel’s own history page says it opened on 3 May 1913 as a 70-unit apartment block, then the tallest building in Vancouver, and that the Tilting Room, opened there on 2 July 1954, was Vancouver’s first cocktail lounge.
The drink’s own history is thinner than the hotel’s. Scout Magazine, an opinion piece, reports an undated Vancouver booklet, About Town, from between 1928 and 1942, that lists the drink with French vermouth, and no recipe we have read confirms when or where it was first mixed, so it is best treated as a city’s house drink with a likely home rather than a dated invention.
The Hanky Panky Comparison
Both drinks are gin and sweet vermouth seasoned with a small measure of something herbal, and side by side they show what a seasoning does.
The Hanky Panky uses Fernet-Branca: bitter roots and menthol that most people can name blind. The Vancouver uses Bénédictine, which disappears into the drink and shows up as roundness and a little warm spice.
Bénédictine as a Modifier
It is sweet without tasting sugary: honey first, then warm spice, then a faint bitterness that stops it cloying. That last note is why a barspoon can sit in a sweet drink without tipping it over, and why more than a barspoon does.
What Each Part Does
The Vancouver, part by part; the units are our calculation, with gin and Bénédictine at 40% (gin at our working figure, Bénédictine on its maker’s product page) and sweet vermouth at our working figure of 16%
Gin
- Measure
- 45ml
- Job
- Juniper and structure
- UK units
- 1.8
Sweet vermouth
- Measure
- 22.5ml
- Job
- Body and dried fruit
- UK units
- 0.36
Bénédictine
- Measure
- 7.5ml
- Job
- Honey and warm spice
- UK units
- 0.3
Orange bitters
- Measure
- Two dashes
- Job
- Lifts the finish
- UK units
- A trace
The glass
- Measure
- A chilled Nick & Nora
- Job
- About 75ml before stirring
- UK units
- About 2.5 in all
| Part | Measure | Job | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gin | 45ml | Juniper and structure | 1.8 |
| Sweet vermouth | 22.5ml | Body and dried fruit | 0.36 |
| Bénédictine | 7.5ml | Honey and warm spice | 0.3 |
| Orange bitters | Two dashes | Lifts the finish | A trace |
| The glass | A chilled Nick & Nora | About 75ml before stirring | About 2.5 in all |
For Fernet-Branca in place of the Bénédictine, see the Hanky Panky; for Scotch with the same Bénédictine, the Bobby Burns.
A Hotel Bar Drink
It is the kind of drink a hotel bar keeps: easy to make well, easy to drink twice, and as good at six in the evening as at eleven at night.
Most gin and sweet vermouth drinks are either bracing or sweet. This one sits between, which is harder to build than it sounds and depends on the barspoon being a barspoon.
How to Serve It
Stirred for 20 to 30 seconds over cubed ice, strained into a chilled Nick & Nora; express a strip of lemon peel over the top and drop it in.
Lemon rather than orange, despite the bitters. The oil gives the nose something sharp before a drink that is otherwise all warmth.
Make it at home
The Spirit
GinGin is a spirit flavoured with juniper berries. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008, juniper must lead the taste, the floor is 37.5% ABV, and the route the flavour takes sets the grade: plain gin, distilled gin or London gin. Our recipes count it at 40%, and it carries the Martini, the Negroni and the Gin and Tonic.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Vancouver cocktail?
Vancouver or Hanky Panky: what is the difference?
Why only a barspoon of Bénédictine?
Is the Sylvia Hotel story true?
What glass does a Vancouver take?
How strong is a Vancouver?
Sources.
Checked between 18 October and 19 October 2026.
- Sylvia Hotel (own page), “The History of the Sylvia Hotel” (owner’s page: opened 3 May 1913 as a 70-unit apartment block, the tallest building in Vancouver; the Tilting Room opened 2 July 1954, Vancouver’s first cocktail lounge; heritage building from 1975).
- Scout Magazine, “We’ve Been Making the ‘Vancouver Cocktail’ Wrong for 15 Years…” (opinion piece by Alex Black, 2 March 2020: About Town, an undated booklet (1928 to 1942), lists a Vancouver with French vermouth; the Fitchett uses Italian).
- Bénédictine, “Bénédictine D.O.M” (producer’s product page: 40% alc/vol; “a secret recipe of 27 herbs and spices”).
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Hanky Panky
A Hanky Panky is 45ml of London Dry gin, 45ml of sweet vermouth and 7.5ml of Fernet-Branca, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist expressed over the top and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. Ada Coleman made it at the American Bar of the Savoy, where, the Oxford Companion says, she rose to head bartender before Harry Craddock displaced her in January 1926. The Companion quotes her telling The People in 1925 that she spent hours experimenting until she invented a new cocktail for the actor Charles Hawtrey, who had come in complaining of overwork. He either called it “the real hanky panky” on the spot or came in the next day asking for “that hanky panky stuff”, and the name stuck. Craddock put it in The Savoy Cocktail Book, in the Internet Archive’s scan. Equal gin and sweet vermouth make a sweet Martini. The Fernet-Branca, a bitter Italian amaro, adds menthol and dark herbs, cools the finish and keeps the vermouth from tasting syrupy.
Poet’s Dream
A Poet’s Dream is 45ml of London Dry gin, 22.5ml of dry vermouth, 22.5ml of Bénédictine and two dashes of orange bitters, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a lemon twist expressed and dropped in. About 3.2 UK units. Bénédictine usually goes into a drink by the bar spoon or a 7.5ml pour, as background. Here it matches the vermouth and supplies all of the drink’s sweetness, so its honey, spice and herbs come through clearly. Difford’s Guide, which reproduces it, says the recipe was first published in Albert Stevens Crockett’s Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Days of 1931: a third each of Bénédictine, French vermouth and dry gin, with lemon peel squeezed on top. In our view equal thirds is sweet by current taste, so ours doubles the gin against the other two and adds orange bitters.
Bobby Burns
A Bobby Burns is 45ml of Scotch, 45ml of sweet vermouth and 7.5ml of Bénédictine, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe, with a lemon twist expressed and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. In our view it is a Rob Roy with Bénédictine in place of the bitters, which makes it rounder and more honeyed; Difford’s Guide calls it a Scotch-based riff on the Manhattan with a splash of liqueur, usually Bénédictine. Difford’s Guide gives the earliest known Bobby Burns Cocktail as one in the National Police Gazette of September 1899, made with Scotch, gum, orange bitters and ginger cordial. The Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 prints the Scotch, Italian vermouth and Bénédictine version and calls it one of the very best whisky cocktails. The name may honour the poet, though Difford’s Guide notes it was perhaps not originally named after him. Albert Stevens Crockett’s Old Waldorf Bar Days of 1931 prints a Robert Burns Cocktail, a different recipe, and says it was more likely christened for a cigar salesman who drank in the bar. Difford’s Guide says the Bobby Burns is drunk on Burns Night, 25 January.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026