My cocktail adventures continues with the Martinez. It was probably invented in the 1880s and the recipe I used was adapted from Jerry Thomas’s 1887 book The Bar-Tender’s Guide.
The drink came after the Manhattan (basically change the whiskey to gin) and is the father or so to the Dry Gin Martini.
So what about the taste? Wow… quite powerful!
Having this drink on a balmy early autumn night in London was not quite right. This cocktail reminds me of the cold of winter and more especially Christmas. Quite smooth at first but then something of a spice explosion from the gin, vermouth and bitter with the Luxardo rounding of the flavors somewhat.
Think orange, molasses, Christmas cake…
However, at the right time (coming in after a long winter walk and sitting in front of the fire) I suspect this would be a very nice cocktail indeed. I will have to wait until Christmas to try it again and see if I am right.
Ingredients for two Martini glasses:
60 ml Gin (I used Plymouth)
30 ml Martini Rosso
8 (or so) ml Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
Dashes of Angostura bitter to taste
How to make it:
Fill your Martini glasses with ice. Fill a large glass (or your shaker) with ice and add all the spirits to this glass. Stir slowly (stirring fast will “bruise” the spirits and make your cocktail cloudy) with a bar spoon for around 20 seconds. Discard the ice from the Martini glass, rub the edge of the glass with the cut end of an lemon peel then strain your Martinez into the glass.
Garnish the edge of the glass with a twisted lemon peel.
