Vancouver
Stir ∙ 3 min ∙ 31.6% ABV ∙
The Vancouver is a stirred gin cocktail built from London dry gin, Bénédictine, and a split of dry and sweet vermouth, finished with orange bitters. Bénédictine's honeyed spice sits over a juniper-forward gin base, with the two vermouths pulling it between dry and sweet before a bitter-orange finish.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Stir all ingredients with ice: London dry gin 50 mlBénédictine D.O.M. liqueur 20 mlDry vermouth 15 mlRosso vermouth 15 mlOrange bitters 1 dash
- Fine strain into the chilled glass
- Garnish with an orange twist or a maraschino cherry
Tips
- Pre-chill the coupe before straining — the drink is fine-strained with no ice in the glass, so it warms fast without a cold vessel.
- Measure the Bénédictine carefully — it is sweet and potent, and a heavy pour will flatten the split-vermouth balance.
- Express the orange twist over the glass before dropping it in to release the citrus oils across the surface.
History
The Vancouver cocktail is popularly said to have been created in 1954 at the Sylvia Hotel, the first establishment in the city licensed to run a cocktail lounge, and its rediscovery has its own well-told story: in 2006 an elderly patron named Josiah Bates gave Gastown bartender Steve da Cruz a napkin recipe he recalled drinking at the Sylvia in the 1950s, and da Cruz spent years reviving and promoting the drink around the city.
Research published by bartender and cocktail historian Alex Black in 2020 complicated that story. Black located About Town, an undated Vancouver recipe book generally dated to the 1920s or 1930s, containing a cocktail called the Vancouver made with dry, French vermouth, credited to no single author, alongside a near-identical drink called the Fitchett, made with sweet, Italian vermouth and named for Joseph A. Fitchett, head bar steward of the private Vancouver Club. The book's own text credits Fitchett with originating the Fitchett cocktail, not the Vancouver, indicating the Vancouver recipe predates his tenure and likely circulated among Vancouver Club bartenders serving members through Prohibition-era British Columbia. The drink later revived at the Sylvia Hotel and popularized by da Cruz actually followed the sweet-vermouth Fitchett formula, meaning the cocktail long served worldwide as "the Vancouver" was, by the earlier printed record, the Fitchett variant, while the original dry-vermouth Vancouver had fallen out of use. Bartenders and writers have since debated which vermouth belongs in the drink, with some serving it with both dry and sweet vermouth in equal parts as a compromise.
FAQ
What is a Vancouver drink?
The Vancouver is a stirred cocktail of London dry gin, Bénédictine, dry vermouth, and sweet vermouth, finished with a dash of orange bitters and strained up into a chilled coupe. It is garnished with an orange twist or a maraschino cherry and served without ice.
What is in a Vancouver cocktail?
London dry gin, Bénédictine liqueur, dry vermouth, and sweet (rosso) vermouth, with a dash of orange bitters, stirred with ice and fine-strained. It comes out to about 31.6% ABV, a fairly strong, spirit-forward drink despite the vermouth split.
