Sharkbaits Cocktail of the Week: Pickled Gin

Happy Friday! House Sharkbait is full on preparing for this weekend’s snopocalypse that’s supposed to hit us on Sunday. Pardon me if you’ve heard that one before, but it’s true…to an extent. Another winter storm is heading our way, but thankfully it appears as of now to be moving more and more out to sea so our area seems to be dodging a bullet. Which is good because we have about 20 inches of snow leftover from last weekend. Super fun!

Anyway this week I wanted to keep on the martini trend, because they are delicious and I’m always looking out for a new variant. What I’m trying this week is the Pickled Martini from my Martini cocktail book. It features cornichon garnish as well as use of the brine. That immediately intrigued me because I can see how that would go very well together, and create kind of an alternative dirty martini for me, since I do not like olives. However I have a slight problem. I only have sweet gherkins on hand. I know essentially all cornichons are gherkins, but not all gherkins are cornichons, but I’m slightly concerned the sweeter brine wont play as well. Though I figured it was still worth attempting to make with these, so I can rate how they compare to the real ones I’ll plan on making eventually.

Pickled Martini

3 oz. London dry gin

.75 oz. dry vermouth

1 bar spoon (about 1 tsp) cornichon brine

Cornichons for garnish

Combine the gin, vermouth, and brine into a cocktail shaker or mixing glass filled with ice. Shake or stir as desired (I stirred), then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with the cornichons.  

The aroma is all gherkin brine. The slightly sweet, pickle-y notes are very pronounced.

Oh this is quite nice. Any concerns I had about the sweeter flavor of the gherkins is totally gone. It takes the edge off the gin a little bit, and the vermouth helps pronounce the flavor a little more I think. I can definitely see where a more sour/tart flavor would shine even more in this drink, but even this is more than acceptable. The more I sip this, the more I think the bring really works well with the vermouth, bringing those flavors out to the forefront as the drink progresses. It finishes with a slightly sweet, dry flavor with the gin still coming through, which is a pleasant surprise. I would have thought it would be overshadowed, but it isn’t. I approve of this.

I would absolutely do this again if I wanted something a little different in the martini game. Even though the gherkins are sweet and not sour/briny, the idea still works, but I really wonder how much better this can be with the proper brine and garnish.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)