Research in the library of Brian Rea had led to the following updates and qualifications of my history of the drink (M,SU, 79ff.).

References are to Pre-1910 Bartender's Manuals and Other Books Containing Cocktail Recipes: A Bibliography.

The earliest reference to the drink (Martinez) from outside the U.S. is now Paul 1887 (London).  The recipe calls for Old Tom gin and the drink would have been sweet.  But the sweet - dry opposition is already implicit in the instruction: "if required sweet, add two dashes gum syrup."

The olive appeared as early as Johnson 1888.  He said: an olive or a maraschino cherry!

The recipe was flexible by 1889 or earlier.  Anon. 1889 has four Martini recipes, varying as to gin (Old Tom or Plymouth) and vermouth (French or Italian).  Anon., however, calls for a piece of lemon peel.  He also has the "Old-Fashioned Martini Cocktail": half and half Old Tom gin and Italian vermouth; orange bitters.  This old-fashioned kind reappears in Miller 1895, who adds "3 dashes gum syrup."

Dryness is a tendency in Anon. 1902.  He omits "nearly all the syrup."  As for garnishes: "Squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top and serve with a cocktail olive or cherry."

The earliest foreign-language recipe is in Fouquet 1902, whose remark shows that the Martini (he uses this name) was well-known in Paris: "Le plus apprécié des Cocktails."  The recipe has a French accent: 2 dashes absinthe.  The other ingredients: 4 dashes orange bitters;3 dashes curaçao; equal parts gin and Turin vermouth; zest of lemon.  In other words, it is not the most up-to-date Martini possible in 1902.  In the U.S., the avant garde were drinking dry (at least according to their standards) Martinis.

For the Martini in the first decade of the twentieth century, see also The Martini as a Thing of the Past.

Absinthe appears in George R. Washburne and Stanley Bronner, Beverages de Luxe (Louisville, KY, 1911), which is not in my bibliography, because it lies just outside the upper chronological limit.  The authors link the Martini to two other gin cocktails, the Gin Rickey and the Gin Fizz, and refer to them as "justly famous American mixed drinks."  Their recipe is conservative: half and half Tom Gin and Italian vermouth with gum syrup.

Absinthe (1 dash) again in the Marguerite (= dry Martini) recipe in Groshuko 1908.  The other ingredients are "branded": Plymouth Gin, Chappaz French Vermouth, and Field's orange bitters.  Likewise, his Martini recipe calls for Gordon Gin and Martini Russie (sic) Vermouth.

© 2001, Lowell Edmunds