World Gin Day approaches, people, so put out your juniper, prepare a liquid lunch and raise a glass (or three, or four should you wish). The date is Saturday the 8th of June, though, and most of you will be tending bar that night. So perhaps you’d best limit your celebratory drinks to one (okay, two).
And when it comes to choosing that particular drink, if you want one gin drink that fills the brief, well — is there anything finer than a Martini? Which other drink can – to quote the New York Times’ Frank Bruni – “blunt the day and polish the night,” so well?
Sure, a Gin & Tonic in the afternoon or a Southside can be refreshing and if you’re feeling like a Daiquiri and there’s only gin at hand, well, that’s a good time too. But a dry Martini, served cold — bracingly so — it does tick the boxes.
People will disagree with its place in the armoury of ardent cocktails, some will say that the only Martini that ought to be drunk will made on sweet vermouth. But for this job, to celebrate and to get in a certain mood? Writer Sir Kingsley Amis once described the Martini as “the most famous and the best cocktail in the world.” Being the prodigious boozer — and lover of whisky — that he was, he should know.
But should you be on shift on World Gin Day, you shan’t wish to overdo it — as Amis knew well. “I personally find that after half a dozen large Dry Martinis and a proper lunch my customary skill with the commas and semicolons becomes a little eroded,” he wrote.
Nor we would we want your customary skill with the tins and jiggers to desert you.
Orbium Martini
- 60 ml Hendrick’s Orbium
- 3 ml dry vermouth
- Stir all ingredients over ice.
- Strain into a cocktail glass.
- Zest a lemon twist over the glass and discard.
Presented by Sutari Martinez at Champagne Bar, Sofitel Darling Harbour.
In Association with Hendrick’s Orbium.
What’s in the drink?
Hendrick’s Orbium
Unsurprisingly, this release from Hendrick’s is a little unusual. It’s a gin, yes, but one that is ‘quininated’, and includes extracts of quinine, wormwood, and blue lotus blossom.
William Grant & Sons
Notes on ingredients
- Orbium is a reimagining of Hendrick’s Gin by Master Distiller, Lesley Gracie.
- Instilled with additional extracts of quinine, wormwood and blue lotus blossom, the result is an oddly exquisite gin that is round on the palate.
- Orbium derives from the word ‘orb’, the plural of Orbis and the Latin for circle. It is inspired by Gracie’s description of the spherical round taste that she sees as the Hendrick’s house style.