by Will on January 30, 2012

This is a drink that always pleases, albeit at the cost of some precious, precious Chartreuse.
1 1/2 oz. gin
1/4 oz. Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters
Stir on ice, serve straight up
You can use either green or yellow Chartreuse. I generally go with green, which is available at more stores.
Do you know who got the state up north to be called “Alaska” in the first place? It was allegedly General Henry Halleck, the great military author and blunderer. You didn’t see that coming, did you?
I am unable to locate a fascinating story relating when and where this drink was first mixed, and by what manner of people, but no doubt one exists, or could at least be fabricated.
Cheers!
by Jen on February 12, 2011
I posted the Perfect Martini recipe the other week. It’s still my favorite drink, though I’ve since started enjoying the Pink Gin.
Fan of our blog, Marsha, commented that she had been unable to locate orange bitters, for which the recipe calls, and instead substituted the easier to locate Angostura bitters.
We just had to compare what we normally drink to what Marsha made. Our friends Nicole and Anthony–perfect martini newbies–came along for the ride.
We made two almost matching perfect martinis with each type of bitters and passed them around. We used our favorite orange bitters, Regans #5 Orange.

Will noted that he didn’t taste the presence of the Angostura as strongly as he tastes the orange bitters, and that he thought the Angostura made the gin taste more crisp.
I noted that the Angostura version was not as bad as I had feared it would be, but noticed that the orange bitters better rounded out the flavors of the sweet vermouth and gin.
Nicole noticed the juniper aroma of the drinks and could not recall having smelled a plant in acocktail before. She thought that the orange bitters version had a sweet, earthy note not enjoyed in the Angostura version.
Anthony didn’t find the martinis to his liking, instead preferring what we had next: Will’s original cocktail creation the Santa Rosa. A cocktail garnished with cilantro–the perfect apertif!

by Jen on January 11, 2011
The perfect martini is by far my favorite cocktail. I crave it around 5pm every Friday and avoid bars because I dare not try their rendition.
Vermouth lost popularity sometime in the past century (Will could tell you more about that), and the martini is a drink that has really suffered as a result. Nowadays people make it with just a wash of vermouth and rarely include bitters. You wind up with a chilled glass of gin (or vodka). That’s not a cocktail. That’s a gin (or vodka) on the rocks.
Traditional martinis, on the other hand, contain:
- 1 1/2 ounce gin
- 1/2 ounce either sweet (for a Sweet Martini) or dry (for a Dry Martini) vermouth
- 1 liberal dash of orange bitters
Stir all the ingredients over ice till chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish the sweet martini with a brandied cherry or a twist of orange and the dry martini with a cocktail onion or olive.
While I enjoy both the sweet and dry martinis, the perfect martini is my favorite. Made with both sweet and dry vermouth, the perfect martini is a little sweet but has the savory tastes of the gin and dry vermouth.
The Perfect Martini
- 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
- 1/2 ounce dry vermouth
- 1 1/2 ounces gin
- 1 liberal dash of orange bitters
Stir all the ingredients over ice till chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass. The perfect martini steals its garnish from the sweet martini so top it with a brandied cherry or a twist of orange and enjoy!
