Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: The Breakfast of Champions

Hello and happy Friday once again. Today’s drink isn’t what I originally had planned for this space. However a (somewhat) impromptu trip to New York to have dinner with my dad happened, and I needed to pivot. This drink is one that I’ve had on my radar for some time, but I never had the marmalade but that changed after last week’s trip to the Cape. I picked up some locally made stuff and it is excellent. Given how good it is in its usual applications, I figured it would be excellent in a drink and decided to make the Marmalade cocktail:

1.5 oz. Plymouth gin (I used London Dry)

.75 oz. Cinzano Rosso sweet vermouth

.75 oz. Noilly Pratt extra dry vermouth

1 barspoon orange marmalade

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice and shake well. Fine strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. 

Gin forward nose, sweet notes in there too. Nothing too powerful or over the top. Any of the ingredients standing out could be a bit off putting, so I’m glad they are muted here.

Tastes like a deeper medium martini from the Savoy. The gin is very prevalent, but it’s bite is definitely retrained by the twin vermouths here. The sweet slightly edges out the dry in terms of boldness of flavor, but I can pick up more of the dry at the end of the sip, with a little more lingering on the palate as well after you’ve finished. It goes away fairly quickly though, so that is nice. The rest of the sip is a nice mixture of all the flavors going on. The gin does start to come out a bit more towards the end of the drink itself, though that could be it coming back to room temperature as I’m sipping and writing about it.

The marmalade is a very nice touch. I would not have expected adding that to a cocktail and having good results. I can really taste the orange flavors it brings. I think it also ups the sweetness a little bit, making the vermouth stand out a little bit more as well. Also I think the type of marmalade I used is clutch. Granted I have very little experience with marmalade use, but a good quality marmalade like I’ve got here seems to be key in bringing out the flavors here.

This is excellent. A nice twist on a classic gin martini with the addition of the marmalade. If you’ve got some on hand, Go for it and make this. While I can neither confirm or deny it’s effectiveness as a breakfast cocktail*, it’s worth a try.

*

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)