The Breakfast Martini

is a cocktail combining gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and orange marmalade. Though the gin is the only ingredient the cocktail shares with the classic Martini, it is so named because it is served in a Martini glass. The Breakfast Martini was created in 1996 at the Lanesborough hotel in London by noted bartender Salvatore Calabrese and rapidly joined the pantheon of modern classics, spreading to bars and bartenders all over the world. Because of its light flavor and the inclusion of orange marmalade, the Breakfast Martini is a popular brunch and lunchtime drink.

The Breakfast Martini’s recipe is also fairly similar to the Marmalade Cocktail, which appeared in Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930. See Craddock, Harry Lawson.

*Recipe: Add 50 ml gin, 15 ml Cointreau, 15 ml fresh lemon juice, and 1 barspoon of thin-cut orange marmalade to a shaker and stir to dissolve the marmalade. Fill with ice, shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with shredded orange peel.

See also Calabrese, Salvatore;, Martini.

Calabrese, Salvatore. Classic Cocktails. London: Prion, 1997.

Craddock, Harry. The Savoy Cocktail Book*. London: Constable, 1930.

By: Jason Horn