Time for a Drink: San Martin
Let's start the weekend right--with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
Who knows for certain where or when this drink originated. Regardless, it's certainly made the rounds over the past century.
The San Martin first cropped up in bar manuals in 1922, when a slim volume called Cocktails: How to Mix Them listed it as "a well-known South American drink." While it appeared under a slightly altered name in the 1930s, it popped up again in 1951 in Charles H. Baker's South American Gentleman's Companion. After sleeping for much of the rest of the century, the San Martin eventually wandered into some of today's craft-cocktail bars, where it continues to hang out as a B-string classic cocktail.
It's not surprising that the San Martin made its reappearance as part of the cocktail revival—it's tasty enough and simple enough to satisfy most any classic-cocktail enthusiast. The question is why it hasn't played a bigger role.
Eclipsed by close cousins like the Bijou or the Martinez, the San Martin features a delicate botanical interplay between its three ingredients. When the mood for a crisp yet complex cocktail comes upon you, the San Martin will satisfy the craving.
San Martin
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces dry gin
1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth
1 teaspoon yellow Chartreuse
Procedure
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir well for at least 20 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist a piece of lemon peel over the drink and use as garnish.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
View other entries from Cocktail Concoctions.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
3 Comments:
would green Chartreuse make this wrong? or called somethiing different?
Ive never seen yellow
hungrychristel at 5:46PM on 10/16/09
Green Chartreuse would work -- some versions call for that, but yellow is a bit gentler and doesn't take over the drink as much. But if all you have is green, then go for it.
Paul Clarke at 7:32PM on 10/16/09
... no... more... Chartreuse.
Ok, it's my own fault. I'll give it a try next weeken... later in the wee... Sunday.
Maybe tomorrow.
Rich
JerseyRED at 1:54AM on 10/17/09