Martinez or San Francisco, California, ~1860s.
| 1½ oz · 45 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| 1½ oz · 45 ml | SWEET VERMOUTH | 16 % |
| ¼ oz · 8 ml | MARASCHINO LIQUEUR | 32 % |
| 2 dashes | ANGOSTURA BITTERS | 44 % |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 3.31 oz mixed with ice, 0.95 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Stirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.5 oz of water |
| Served | 3.31 + 0.5 = 3.81 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 0.95 ÷ 3.81 = 24.9 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.95 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 22 g · about 155 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM GIN
The pine note in juniper berries, and the reason gin tastes like a forest. Co-distilled with the spirit during production. Found in actual pine trees, rosemary, basil, and a good London Dry. The "Christmas tree" smell of gin and the smell of a forest floor share a single molecule.
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FROM SWEET VERMOUTH + BITTERS
The bitter from gentian root, used across Campari, Aperol, sweet vermouth, Angostura, and most amari. Bitter compounds activate TAS2R taste receptors that evolved to detect plant alkaloids. The same machinery that makes broccoli taste bad to children also makes a Negroni taste like an adult ordered it.
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Gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino and bitters. It is the Negroni's cousin and the Martini's ancestor, with a sweeter, wine-rich profile from the vermouth matching the gin ounce for ounce. Alpha-pinene peeks through the gentiopicroside, and benzaldehyde from the maraschino lifts the finish. ABV is about 24%.
The Martinez is the missing link between the Manhattan and the Martini: same gin family, sweet vermouth not dry, with bitters and a touch of cherry liqueur. Origin is disputed between the town of Martinez in California (where a plaque claims it) and San Francisco's Occidental Hotel, where Jerry Thomas tended bar (his 1887 Bartender's Guide prints it, three years after O.H. Byron's 1884 guide did). The recipe drifted drier over the next forty years, dropping the maraschino and switching to dry vermouth; the modern Martini is what was left when each of the Martinez's softer edges had been filed off.
