GIBSON MARTINI

A blend of gin, vermouth, and pickled onion.

Allergen | None
Vegan | No
ABV | 39.5%

As classy and attractive as a Martini can be. The Gibson Martini is definitely a classic, in the truest sense of the word.

The point of our version is to leave the bottle in the freezer. When walking into the kitchen, one can reach into the freezer, grab a glass, and have a martini in hand without breaking stride. This is not an unusual requirement in these (indeed, any) times, and this version does the job exquisitely well.

The Gibson is defined by having two pickled onions as a garnish. We wanted to incorporate this fact into our Gibson, while avoiding the need to always have silverskin onions and a pick to hand. It is hard to achieve this without the pickle flavour arriving like a piano landing on your head, as per Wile E Coyote. We've spent an undue amount of time on infusions and immersions and whatnot, and the result is crisp, present, delightful but not dominant. 

Our drink is based on an in-and-out Martini, where vermouth is stirred with ice, the excess is poured away, gin added, and strained into a glass. It ends up as roughly a 5:1 split with just the right amount of dilution, and will pour straight from the freezer. There are a limited number of gins that we believe really work in a martini - Botanist, Beefeater 24, Roku, Fortnum's, Sipsmith - and we have gone to this profile of ingredient to make this drink. 

Legends abound with regard to the name. If you like that sort of thing (I do) then I believe it comes from the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. In this version, the drink is amazingly named after two people, both called Gibson. The first, a Canadian called Walter Gibson strips down the orange bitters and very wet (heavy on the vermouth) martini popular at the time, and popularises a new very dry martini. Another member of the same club, Charles Dana Gibson, inspires the twin onion garnish, as a cheeky reference to the Gibson Girls, the pen and ink idealised American woman that was a cultural icon at the time.

Either way, enjoy. There are so many times when nothing but a martini will do.