25 Aug Martini Week: The Finnocchietto Martini Cocktail Recipe

Posted at 07:00h in Blog, Cocktail Recipes, Cocktail Recipes: R&J Original by Roberts & June

Martini Week: The Finnocchietto Martini

We mentioned yesterday that there are two primary ways to experiment with a drink:

adjust the proportions;
substitute an ingredient.

Having played with the proportions yesterday, we thought we’d swap an ingredient today. It’s a simple change, but a bold one. We’re taking the gin out of our martini! And replacing it with a liqueur! Using a liqueur in the place of a base spirit isn’t something we’d normally do; but this is an exception.

Chalk it up to our love for Don Ciccio & Figli. We love every one of their lovingly designed, handmade, all natural, small batch liqueurs. We love their Finnocchietto the best. It’s their herbal liqueur, made with a mix of fresh fennel and dill–trust us, it really works. It’s reminiscent of other herbals like Chartreuse, Galliano, or Genepy, but it’s less intense; it’s clean and fresh. We enjoy it so much that it’s sent us on a gradual trajectory toward simply drinking it straight. Our current waypoint: a martini, without the gin.

We feel like our pure passion for Finnochietto puts us in good company, while simultaneously taking us as far away as possible from that exact same company. There’s a rich history of martini purists; it’s just that most of them were singlemindedly crazy about the gin. Check out this mental floss article:

Richard Nixon liked his martinis in a 7 gin: 1 vermouth ratio (the standard is 4:1);
Hemingway double down on Nixon, mixing his at 15:1;
Hitchcock liked his vermouth to stay across the room from him;
Churchill drank straight gin while bowing in the direction of France (the home of dry vermouth).

For this drink, we want the gin to be the bottle that stays on the other side of the room. We have nothing against gin. We love the stuff; we currently have 6 different gins on our shelves.

It’s just that sometimes we love Finnochietto more.