Davis - GIN MADE ME DO IT: 60 beautifully botanical cocktails

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One of the greatest literary collaborations of the 20th century was not a book, but a cocktail. In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald both lived in Paris and, like all writers, they spent a lot of their time at the bar. At Harrys New York Bar (called that, even though it was in Paris), they found Harry MacElhone mixing drinks. Back in London, MacElhone had mixed crme de menthe, Cointreau and lemon juice together to make something like a White Lady. In Paris, with two infamous literary boozehounds making suggestions, he swapped the crme de menthe for gin. A few years later, back in London, The Savoys bartender Harry Craddock added egg white to bring the drink together. It was named after Zelda Fitzgerald, a Jazz-Age It Girl and a platinum blonde.

Ingredients

45ml (1fl oz) London dry gin

22ml (fl oz) Cointreau

22ml (fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice

15ml (fl oz) Simple Syrup (see )

15ml (fl oz) egg white

a lemon twist, to garnish

Instructions

Pour the gin, Cointreau, lemon juice and Simple Syrup into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake for 30 seconds to chill, then strain the liquid into a glass, discard the ice and add the cocktail mix back to the shaker. Pour in the egg white. Shake again for 30 seconds (this is called a reverse dry shake and ensures a fluffy finish). Strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

The drink that begat the martini. Possibly. But probably not. Weve already met Professor Jerry Thomas and his shaky claim to have invented the Martinez on . The problem with Thomass claim is that his recipe for the Martinez appeared in the 1887 edition of his Bar-Tenders Guide, which was published two years after his death. And Thomas, who modestly described himself as the Jupiter Olympus of the bar, was not one to keep quiet about his inventions, so it seems unlikely hed have kept schtum about inventing this drink. The first known Martinez recipe was published in O. H. Byrons 1884 book, The Modern Bartender, although its not much of a recipe. Just one line at the bottom of a page, saying: Same as Manhattan, only you substitute gin for whiskey. That description gives you an idea of the cocktails flavour. Its a murky mix of bitter herbs, orange zest and cherry stones thats a world away from the glacial sharpness of a dry martini and has a glamorous, grown-up appeal all of its own.

Ingredients

60ml (2fl oz) Old Tom gin

30ml (1fl oz) sweet vermouth

8ml (fl oz) curaao

8ml (fl oz) maraschino liqueur

1 dash of Angostura bitters

a lemon twist, to garnish

Instructions

Half fill a mixing glass with ice. Add all the ingredients and stir for around 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

James Bonds original drink of choice is not a cocktail for the novice drinker. In Casino Royale, Bond gives the recipe: Three measures of Gordons, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet; shake it very well until its ice cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. CIA bagman Felix Leiter is goggle-eyed at Bonds booze-heavy concoction, but James reassures Felix he can handle it, telling him: This drinks my own invention. Im going to patent it when I can think of a good name. And think of it he does when he meets the beautiful, doomed double agent Vesper Lynd. Since the 1950s Gordons has reduced its ABV to 37%, and Kina Lillet is no longer available, so to mix up something Bond wouldnt raise an eyebrow at, use a London dry gin with an ABV of at least 40% and swap in Aperitivo Cocchi Americano for the Kina Lillet. Its flavoured with cinchona, the bitter bark that gave Kina Lillet its tart quinine taste and is the closest thing on the market to the original aperitif. If you cant find it, go for Lillet Blanc.

Ingredients

60ml (2fl oz) London dry gin

22ml (fl oz) vodka

8ml (fl oz) Aperitivo Cocchi Americano or Lillet Blanc

a lemon twist, to garnish

Instructions

Pour all the ingredients into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake together until the liquid is ice cold, then double strain into a chilled martini glass double straining means straining your martini out of the shaker and through a fine mesh sieve into the glass. This helps catch any tiny chips of ice that could cloud your martini. Garnish with a lemon twist to serve.

The first Aviation recipe appeared in Hugo R. Ensslins 1917 Recipes for Mixed Drinks, just as the golden age of aviation was dawning. In essence, its a gin sour but with sweet maraschino liqueur rather than sugar syrup balancing out the lemons astringent bite. The crme de violette turns the drink a pale blue colour, tinged with lilac. With a dark red maraschino cherry sinking to the bottom of the glass like the setting sun, theres more than a hint of endless summer skies about this drink. Its why I would never double strain it the cloudy swirl of ice and the froth of the bubbles resting on top are too full of life to be fastidiously sieved away from this drink, which is all about soaring away, up, up and into the air.

Ingredients

50ml (1fl oz) Old Tom gin

15ml (fl oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice

15ml (fl oz) maraschino liqueur

8ml (fl oz) crme de violette

a maraschino cherry, to garnish

Instructions

Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice and pour in all the liquid ingredients. Shake together well and strain into a martini glass. Drop in a maraschino cherry and serve.

In the 1990s, bucking the vodka-cranberry trend, I drank gin and tonic. Everybody laughed at this because G&Ts were grandma drinks dusty, fusty, old fashioned things. In pubs there was only ever one choice of gin, and it was meanly squirted into a stubby glass with a miserly rattle of ice cubes and a thin, wizened slice of lemon. How things have changed. Bars today line up rows of gem-coloured bottles of gin and boast about their range. Bartenders tailor the garnish to the gin, and youre as likely to get your G&T in a goldfish-bowl-sized Spanish copa glass as a highball with sturdy sides and branded etchings. My years of patiently sipping G&Ts have finally been rewarded hallelujah! When it comes to making a G&T at home, use a roomy glass and pack it with ice. The more ice, the slower it melts and the less it dilutes your drink. I like a 1:2 ratio of gin to tonic, so I can feel the gins edge without falling over it too quickly. And as for garnishes: the world is your lemon. Pick something that chimes with the botanicals in your gin to bring out the flavour.