Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. So. This week. Um, yeah. How about we try day drinking? This cocktail is better than a mimosa in every possible way. It’s tastier, more nuanced, and much stronger. Have it for brunch, or try it whenever you’d like a ray of sunshine in your life. Wake up to a Breakfast Martini. Here’s the recipe:
1 ½ oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
2 heaping bar spoons orange marmalade
1 oz Stirrings Triple Sec
1 oz Meyer lemon juice
1 dash orange bitters
Cara Cara orange (garnish)
Add gin and marmalade to a cocktail shaker. Stir the marmalade until it dissolves into the gin. Add remaining ingredients and ice. Shake until the cocktail shaker is cold to the touch, 20-45 seconds. Double strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a fresh Cara Cara orange wedge.
Salvatore Cabrese created the Breakfast Martini at The Library Bar at Lanesborough in 1994. According to legend, Salvatore was inspired by the toast and marmalade his English wife offered to go with his usual breakfast of espresso. This cocktail is a nice counterpoint to the now-ubiquitous Espresso Martini; it’s certainly got a more wholesome origin. I’m reminded of the Cosmonaut, another “jam cocktail” crafted as a response to the classic Cosmopolitan.
This is easily the best orange cocktail I’ve ever tasted. Orange juice has fallen out of favor as a mixer behind the bar. It’s not quite acidic enough to serve as an acid when balancing a cocktail; it’s not quite sweet enough to serve as a sugar. And the flavor can overwhelm every other ingredient in the glass. It is used sparingly, if at all, in most quality bars. The Blood and Sand, an orange juice and Scotch cocktail, is notoriously hard to make palatable. Most bartenders throw up their hands and proclaim it a bad recipe from the get-go.
Mimosas are the exception to the rule; I serve a lot of them for Sunday brunches, and they’re always crowd pleasers. But I’ve noticed that when I start to switch things up and offer peach or passionfruit bellinis around ten o’clock, the classic mimosa loses popularity quickly. Fruit puree and champagne is a great combination. Orange juice and champagne, not quite so much.
Using orange marmalade in this cocktail makes for a much better citrus drink than orange juice itself. The marmalade brings intense orange flavor while serving the role of sweetener in the drink. It also gives remarkable body to the cocktail. Orange juice often tastes thin, but this cocktail looks like nectar when you pour it into an ice-cold martini glass. Meyer lemon juice leans slightly toward orange in its flavor profile, making it a natural in this drink. I love orange bitters, so tossing in a dash to keep all the flavors pointed in the right direction seemed like a natural to me. Overall, a great way to start your morning. Or evening. Or lost weekend.
Let’s talk ingredients:
Bombay Sapphire Gin: I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for this gin as the foundation for any “martini,” even this one. The juniper isn’t discernible as “pine” in this drink, but it does provide a crispness that the orange marmalade needs to stay on point. A citrus-forward gin, like Citadelle or Watershed Four Peel, would be great here. Use vodka only in dire circumstances. This isn’t a Screwdriver.
Orange marmalade: Don’t skimp. This is the heart of the drink. You’ll need to be thorough when straining the cocktail; orange marmalade has a lot of solids you don’t want in the glass.
Meyer lemon juice: Okay, it’s sort of a flex, but Meyer lemons do stand out here if you can get one. Regular lemon juice is fine. As always, use fresh; plastic lemons produce plastic juice.
Stirrings Triple Sec: Cointreau is the standard, but it’s pricey. I love this all-natural triple sec as a less expensive alternative.
Orange bitters: These bitters have saved many an unbalanced cocktail for me. Here, they keep the gin from going off the rails, just in case. And also because I love orange bitters.
Garnish: Difford’s guide suggests a toast point for the garnish. My wife suggested an Eggo Mini. Salvatore uses thin strands of orange zest. I decided to use a wedge of Cara Cara orange, because they’re in season and beautiful. Use what you like. It’s your drink, make it fun.
In summary and conclusion, drink well, drink often, and tip your bartender — donate to Wonkette at the link below!
We aren’t linking to Amazon anymore, because fuck Bezos. Go read Squeezed by Alissa Hamilton instead. This expose on the real deal with OJ will make it painfully clear why orange juice is a bad cocktail ingredient … unless it’s freshly squeezed at the bar.
You can find me on Bluesky at @samuraigrog!
OPEN THREAD! DRINK!
