Martinez Cocktail — The Cocktail Ontologist

Family

Variants (10)

The Police Gazette Bartenders Guide by Richard K. Fox (1888, p.21) — 1888

0.25 slice	lemon — lemon	acid
	Boker's bitters — One dash.	base
1 pony	Old Tom gin	base
	Maraschino liqueur — maraschino	modifier
1 wine-glass	vermouth — vermouth	modifier
2 small lump	ice — ice	other
	gum syrup — gum syrup	sweetener

Shake the bitters, maraschino, Old Tom gin, vermouth, and ice thoroughly.
Strain into a large cocktail glass, put a quarter-slice of lemon in the glass, and serve.

Garnish: Lemon slice

Ice: 2 small lumps

Summary: An important early gin-vermouth-maraschino aromatic preserving the sweet pre-dry Martini horizon in clear form.

This is one of the project's key bridge drinks because it helps explain how later Martini-family drinks emerge from a sweeter, more liqueur-touched field.

The use of Old Tom and maraschino is central to the historical profile and should not be normalized away.

Compared with Manhattan, this shifts the same aromatic logic toward gin and maraschino rather than whiskey and curacoa.

Mixed Drinks by Herbert W. Green (1895, p.65)

0.5 jigger	Old Tom gin	base
1 small bar-spoonful	simple syrup — syrup	base
2 dash	Aromatic bitters — Caroni or Angostura bitters	bitter
0.5 jigger	vermouth — Vermouth	modifier

Fill a mixing glass two-thirds full of fine ice and add the ingredients.
Stir well, strain into a cooled cocktail glass, squeeze lemon oil on top, and add fruit if desired.

Garnish: Expressed lemon peel oil; optional fruit.

Ice: Fine ice

This is a useful 1895 Martinez checkpoint because Green gives it the same balanced split structure he uses in Manhattan.

The drink remains a compact stirred aromatic with expressed citrus oil rather than juice.

The Mixicologist by C. F. Lawlor (1895, p.20) — C. F. Lawlor 1895

1.5 oz	Old Tom gin — Three quarters of a jigger.	base
2 dash	orange bitters — orange bitters	base
1 whole	Cherry — imported cherry	garnish
1.5 oz	sweet vermouth — vermouth	modifier
1 dash	Simple syrup (1:1) — syrup	sweetener

Add the orange bitters, syrup, Old Tom gin, and vermouth to a medium-size glass with ice.
Stir well.
Strain into a cocktail glass.
Add one imported cherry.

Garnish: Imported cherry

Nose: Sweet gin botanicals and vermouth herbs rise over orange bitters.
Palate: It is rounder and more liqueur-like than a later dry Martini, with Old Tom and sweet vermouth keeping the drink lush.
Finish: The finish is herbal, sweet, and gently bittered.
Summary: A crucial bridge cocktail linking the improved aromatic tradition to the later Martini line.

The Martinez is historically central because it stands between the Manhattan model and the later Martini family. Lawlor's version helps show that the path runs through sweetened gin-and-vermouth elegance rather than directly to dryness.

The stir should keep the drink cool and silky, not watery. The cherry garnish reinforces its more opulent pre-dry-Martini character.

Compared with the Manhattan, the Martinez swaps whiskey for Old Tom gin but keeps the vermouth-centred logic. That substitution produces not just a new drink, but a new branch of later cocktail history.

156 Recettes de Boissons Americaines by Niels Larsen (1899, p.5) — Larsen 1899, cocktails section

0.33 Madeira glass	gin	base
2 teaspoon	simple syrup — sirop de sucre	base
6 drop	Angostura bitters — angostura	bitter
0.5 Madeira glass	Noilly Prat vermouth — vermouth Noilly	modifier

Stir with crushed ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve with small straws.

Ice: Crushed ice

Drinks as They Are Mixed by Paul E. Lowe (1904, p.25) — Lowe 1904

1 piece	lemon peel — lemon peel	acid
1.5 jigger	Old Tom gin — gin	base
0.5 barspoon	Simple syrup (1:1) — syrup	base
1 dash	Angostura bitters — By reference to the Manhattan formula above.	bitter
0.5 jigger	sweet vermouth — vermouth	modifier

Prepare as for Lowe's Manhattan Cocktail, substituting gin for whiskey.
Stir with ice, strain into a cool cocktail glass, and twist lemon peel over the top.

Garnish: Twisted lemon peel

Nose: Sweet vermouth, lemon oil, and soft gin botanicals dominate the nose.
Palate: The value here is conceptual: by 1904 Lowe can define the Martinez as a direct Manhattan substitution, which tells us how tightly those families had converged in working practice.
Finish: The finish is aromatic, rounded, and gently spicy.
Summary: A template-defined Martinez from the converged Manhattan-gin branch.

The Buffet Blue Book by John H. Considine (1912, p.40) — Blue Book 1912

1 piece	lemon peel	acid
0.5 jigger	gin — Substituted for whiskey.	base
0.5 mixing glass	ice	base
1 dash	Abbott's Bitters	bitter
1 dash	orange bitters	bitter
0.5 jigger	vermouth	modifier
1 dash	syrup	sweetener

Prepare the drink in the same manner as Manhattan Cocktail, substituting gin for whiskey.
Strain into a cocktail glass and serve.

Garnish: Lemon peel

Ice: Ice

This entry is explicitly substitution-based in the source.

Bartenders' Manual by Bartenders Association of America (1913, p.33)

	gin — Gin	base
	Italian vermouth — Prepared same as Manhattan using Italian vermouth.	base
	orange bitters — Orange bitters	bitter
1 whole	Olive — Olive	garnish

Prepare the same as a Manhattan, using Italian vermouth, orange bitters, and gin.
Omit syrup when ordered dry and serve with an olive.

Garnish: Olive

Le Barman by Olivier Mayor (1921) — Olivier Mayor 1921, Cocktails Short Drinks section

15 drop	angostura bitter	base
2 spoonful	London dry gin — old tom gin	base
2 spoonful	Maraschino	modifier
3 spoonful	vermouth	modifier
1 spoonful	crushed ice	other

Shake in a shaker.

Ice: Crushed ice

El Bar Americano en España by Pedro Chicote (1927, p.63)

0.5 copita	dry gin — Source omits the repeated unit and uses dash shorthand.	base
	ice — 3 ó 4 pedacitos de hielo	base
2 drops	orange bitters — Orange bitters	bitter
3 copita	marrasquino — Source omits the repeated unit and uses dash shorthand.	modifier
0.5 copita	vermut Noilly Prats	modifier

Agítese muy bien y sírvase en copa de cocktail, añadiéndole una guinda.

Garnish: guinda

Ice: Ice

Cocktails by Pedro Chicote (1928, p.182) — Noilly Prat branch

0.5 copita	dry gin	base
2 drops	orange bitters	base
0.5 copita	French vermouth — Vermut Noilly Prats	modifier
3 drops	Maraschino — Marrasquino	modifier

Shake very well and serve in a cocktail glass, adding a cherry.

Garnish: Cherry

Ice: 3 to 4 pieces ice

This matters because it gives Chicote a clean late-1920s Martinez checkpoint with Noilly Prat explicitly named.

Related recipes

Manhattan Cocktail variation
Tom Gin Cocktail same-family (of this)

See also: Martini Cocktail, Marconi Cocktail

Derivative recipe in source; quantities are inherited from the Manhattan template rather than restated.