The Cocktails Must Flow

The classic Martinez cocktail is widely regarded as a direct precursor to the Martini.

Jump to the cocktail recipe

The true origin of the Martinez cocktail is unclear. Two early stories attribute the making of a cocktail named the Martinez to bartender Jerry Thomas at the Occidental Hotel or by a bartender by the name of Richelieue who worked at a saloon in Martinez, California. Both stories are difficult to verify because records of drinks at the time are missing or incomplete, but the 1887 edition of Thomas’ The Bar-Tender’s Guide includes a recipe for the Martinez. It calls for a pony of Old Tom gin, a glass of vermouth, two dashes of Maraschino, and a dash of Boker’s Bitters with ice, garnished with a slice of lemon.

A 1884 drink guide by O.H. Byron released just a few years earlier also listed a recipe for a cocktail called the Martinez by saying only: “Same as Manhattan, only you substitute gin for whisky.” The book contained two recipes for a Manhattan, one of which called for 2 dashes of curaçao, 2 dashes of Angostura bitters, 1/2 a wine-glass whisky and 1/2 a wine-glass of Italian vermouth.

A later 1888 guide by Harry Johnson, the New and Improved Illustrated Bartender’s Manual, listed a drink that may have been incorrectly spelled as the “martine”, without the letter “z”. Over time the alcoholic drinks further evolved regarding both their ingredient construction and names to become what were eventually considered as two different cocktails, the Martinez and the Martini.

Martinez (cocktail) – from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Another story I’ve seen online says the miner ws in Martinez and asked for a celebratory drink to be made as their was no champagne; when he travelled to San Francisco he visited the Occidental Hotel and asked for the drink to be replicated.
There are a number of recipes available for the Martinez, but I am going with the IBA (International Bartenders Association) official version (this is the recipe included in the for use in the annual World Cocktail Competition (WCC).

I’m thinking the #FridayNightCocktails on the 25^th February will be martinis unless someone would like to suggest something else?

The 6th cocktail of the Friday Night Cocktail is the Tennessee Highball, a very popular cocktail pre-Prohibition which showed off the quality of Tennessee Whiskey. Made using the Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee whiskey, this cocktail is best described as a cross between a highball and a sour.

The fifth cocktail of the Friday Night Cocktails on the 18th February is the Tennessee Honey Snakebite Shot which uses the Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey Whiskey Liqueur.

The fourth cocktail of Friday Night Cocktails is the Gentleman & Ginger which uses the Gentleman Jack Tennessee Whiskey from Jack Daniel’s. The Gentleman Jack is filtered through sweet maple charcoal both before and after being casked instead of just after like the Old No. 7 resulting in a smoother flavour.

This is the third cocktail of the Friday Night Cocktails on the 18th February and, like the last, uses the Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey along with white Sambuca to make a simple shooter.

The Sambuca will dominate this shooter with the whiskey mainly found as a subtle taste.

The second of out cocktails uses the Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey in a Spiced Apple Jack.

The first of our cocktails on the 18th February 2022 is the Tennessee Rye Manhattan, which is a Tennessee twist on a traditional Manhattan.

The #FridayNightCocktails on 18^th February will use Tennessee whiskey as the main ingredient.

Jack Daniel’s is the best known Tennessee whiskey, but is not the only one. We will be using both the Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 (the standard one with the black and white label) and Gentleman Jack (same spirit but double mellowed; i.e. filtered through maple charcoal both before being barreled (the Lincoln County process) and bottled, whereas the Old No. 7 is only filtered through charcoal before being bottled).

Tennessee whiskey is quite interesting; while all Tennessee whiskey is made in Tennessee, not all whiskey made in Tennessee is Tennessee whiskey.

All of the cocktails from #FridayNightCocktails on Twitter, and more, are found in our recipe archive.