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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz Earl Grey-infused gin, 1/2 oz sweet vermouth, dash of lemon juice. Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
I decided to use the leftover Early Grey gin to make a more a traditional martini than the original recipe. It worked really well! It wasn’t too tannin-y and the flavor of the tea and vermouth really worked well together.
Ingredients: 2 oz gin, 3 oz ginger ale, splash lime juice, dash of nutmeg. Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Source: Skinnytinis by Teresa Marie Howes
I had major issues with this cocktail. First of all, who shakes carbonated beverages? That makes no sense. Second of all, it was gross. I think this might be the most foul cocktail I’ve ever made. The gin and ginger ale combo… ew. The smell of the nutmeg helped a little, but it would have made more sense to sprinkle it on top of the cocktail rather than shaking it with the other ingredients. Do not recommend.
Ingredients: Equal parts dry vermouth, white rum, and gin. Stir in a glass with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Source: classicmixology.com
Classic Mixology is my new favorite website! This cocktail sounds like a strange combination of ingredients, but it actually tasted very good. Like a strange combination between a martini and a manhattan. You should try it! It’s super olde-timey and dates from 1916.
Ingredients: 2 oz gin, 1 oz absinthe, 1 teaspoon grenadine. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Source: The Cocktail Bible
This seems to be an atypical recipe for a maiden’s blush—it usually includes tripe-sec and orange juice, not absinthe. The flavor of absinthe was a little overwhelming in this one, honestly, especially against the gin. Maybe with a more neutral-tasting gin like Hendrick’s it would work better.
Ingredients: A dash of absinthe (or Pernod), 1 oz dry vermouth, 4 oz gin. Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Source: The Cocktail Bible
This might be my new favorite martini recipe! I usually favor a sweeter martini, but the addition of absinthe in this one balances out the gin nicely. I love the hint of licorice taste from the absinthe, too. Definitely recommend this one, especially if you like absinthe!
Ingredients: 1 oz dry vermouth, 1 oz gin, and 1/2 oz lime juice. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Source: The Cocktail Bible ed. Sarah Ford
You know I had to try a cocktail named “vampire,” right? I was really looking forward to this one—mainly because of the name—but it was missing something. It was too dry and too tart. I had trouble finishing it, honestly.
Obituary cocktail
Ingredients: 2 oz gin, 1/4 dry vermouth, 1/4 oz absinthe. Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass.
Source: The website of an absinthe distillery that I’ve since lost. However, you can also find the cocktail recipe on cocktails.about.com.
Whoa puppies. This cocktail isn’t for light drinkers; it really packs a punch, both flavor-wise and alcohol-wise. You have to be a big fan of both gin and absinthe to enjoy this one. Admittedly, I like both, but this cocktail was a little… much. Maybe in the summer it would be better.
Gibson
Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz gin, 1 1/2 oz dry vermouth. Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass; garnish with a silverskin onion.
Source: William Boothby’s 1908 gibson recipe, which you can find on wikipedia.
A gibson is basically a martini, but garnished with an onion. Do garnishes create new cocktails now? If so, you can call my martini with capers “the Tasha B.”
Anywhosie, I’m not generally a fan of onions, and the flavor/smell in this cocktail was a little difficult for me to take. I wound up just tossing the onion because I couldn’t face noshing on it. But if you like onions, go for it.
Earl Grey marTEAni
Ingredients: 2 oz Earl Grey-infused gin (recipe below), 1 oz simple syrup, 3/4 oz lemon juice. If you want to make your life more difficult, you can also add one egg white. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass rimmed with sugar.
Source: Adapted from NYMag.com
A marTEAni, get it? Get it? I know. I don’t come up with these names, I just report them.
This “marteani” is actually closer to a daiquiri than a martini, but it tastes AWESOME! You guys should definitely try it, especially if you’re an Earl Grey fan. The Earl Grey gin infusion is one of the easiest and fastest infusions I’ve ever made: just combine one Earl Grey tea bag with one cup gin in a bottle, shake, and let sit for two hours. Done. I never would have thought Earl Grey and gin would go together, but they do; and it really does smell and taste just like a cup of Earl Grey when you’re done.
I usually err on the side of tart when making cocktails, but in this case you need the sugar to balance out the tanins in the tea. The sugared rim definitely helps.
Marcus Sakey cocktail (?)
Ingredients: 2 oz Benedictine, 1 oz gin, 10 dashes Angostura bitters, a dash of honey, 1 egg. Shake together 20-30 seconds, then add ice and shake for another 15-20 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass and top with a pinch of nutmeg.
Source: www.facebook.com/MarcusSakey
I know I swore I would never make another cocktail with an egg in it, but I saw this on Marcus Sakey’s FaceBook page and HAD to try it. It was super-tasty and I loved the addition of the bitters. Great holiday cocktail!
