Breakfast Martini
Stir; Shake ∙ 4 min ∙ 27.3% ABV ∙
The Breakfast Martini is a gin sour shaken with orange marmalade, triple sec and lemon juice, fine-strained and served up in a chilled martini glass. Marmalade's bittersweet citrus opens first, gin sharpens the middle, and a clean lemon snap dries out the finish — a bright, wake-up pour despite the name.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- in the base of the shaker, stir: Orange marmalade 1 bspLondon dry gin 50 ml until the marmalade dissolves
- Add the remaining ingredients: Triple sec 15 mlLemon juice 15 ml
- Shake with ice
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Express an orange twist over the cocktail and discard
- Garnish with a slice of toast on the rim
Tips
- Stir the marmalade into the gin in the base of the shaker until it fully dissolves, before the triple sec and lemon go in — that is what keeps sticky lumps out of the final strain.
- Shake hard with plenty of ice for a full 12-15 seconds since the marmalade needs vigorous agitation to emulsify and chill properly.
- Fine-strain through a tea strainer as well as the shaker's built-in strainer to catch stray orange peel shreds from the marmalade before serving.
- Cut a fresh orange twist and express the oils over the drink's surface right before garnishing to reinforce the citrus-marmalade aroma.
History
The Breakfast Martini was created by Italian-born bartender Salvatore Calabrese in 1996 at the Library Bar of the Lanesborough Hotel in London. According to the story he has told, the idea came to him one morning over marmalade on toast, prompting him to bring a jar of orange marmalade to work and stir it into a gin sour built with orange liqueur and lemon juice in place of vermouth. The drink belongs to the broader trend of naming any spirit served up in a stemmed glass a "martini," following earlier fruit-and-liqueur riffs on the format such as the saketini, despite containing no vermouth or classic martini structure.
