New Orleans-Style Wet Martini Recipe

Beyond the colorful lights of Bourbon Street and the strings of beads thrown during Mardi Gras, New Orleans is also known for a unique opulence characterized by ornate French architecture and the smooth sounds of jazz. This softer side of the city reveals itself through its most famous cocktails, namely those like the French 75, the Vieux Carré, and the Sazerac. What these cocktails do best is balance the sharp, rich flavors of cognac and rye with soft flavors like lemon and anise, found in Absinthe and Peychaud's.

With such a rich culture, a New Orleans-style martini could refer to many things, but in this case, we are paying homage to those famous cocktails scented with French-Cajun influence. Modeled after another, lesser-known New Orleans favorite, The Obituary, this martini is made up of dry vermouth, London dry gin, and, of course, absinthe. Unlike a true Obituary, which uses the absinthe in place of bitters, developer Michelle McGlinn mimics the spirit of a Sazerac and rinses the glass with the wormwood liquor instead, topping it off with a drop of Peychaud's. The resulting martini is bright, surprisingly citrusy, and laced with licorice aroma, the perfect sipper for a warm and sunny afternoon in the French Quarter.

Like a classic martini, you'll start with London dry gin and dry vermouth. From there, you'll need to grab some absinthe to rinse the glass with. If you aren't able to find absinthe, you can use Pernod instead, which is a similarly anise-flavored liquor that is handy to keep around for cooking soups, stews, and sauces (such as Bouillabaisse). If you can't find anise-flavored liquor, you can simply omit the rinse and add a few extra drops of Peychaud's, which you'll need to top the drink with. Lastly, you'll just need a lemon peel to garnish the drink with (and add a touch of brightness).

Fill a martini glass with ice and set aside.

Fill a mixing glass with ice.

Add the gin and vermouth.

Gently stir the liquors to combine, about 10 seconds.

Remove the ice from the martini glass and add the absinthe. Swirl the absinthe around the glass, then pour the excess out.

Strain the gin mixture into the glass.

Add a dash of bitters and the lemon peel, squeezing the peel gently. Serve.

The key characteristic of a London dry gin is the prominent juniper flavor, which complements dry vermouth, making London dry a popular choice for classic martinis. Because many London dry gins also have a bright citrus flavor, the lemon peel in a classic gin martini enhances further the gin's strongest qualities. This New Orleans-style martini is heavy on vermouth, absinthe, and Peychaud's, which all have anise flavors that work well with juniper-heavy London dry. Because of the high anise ratio, you'll want to choose a high-quality gin as the drink's base.

There are many great options for gin, even within the London dry category. You can get a straightforward and budget-friendly gin like we did, Beefeater, which has a clean, citrusy, juniper-forward flavor. Two others you may recognize are Bombay Dry and Tanquerey, notably even more pine-forward and the latter a little peppery. You can get a little more complex with gins like sweet Plymouth, or add a little earthiness with something like Ford's.

A martini can be either dry or wet, and the difference has less to do with the gin and more to do with the vermouth. Further, it's actually not a matter of dry versus sweet vermouth, either, that makes a martini either wet or dry. Actually, it's the ratio of vermouth to gin. A dry martini, which is considered the more classic, has a higher ratio of gin to vermouth, emphasizing the dryness of the gin rather than the sweetness of the vermouth; which is still considered sweet, even when it's dry. Still following?

Therefore, a wet martini will have a higher ratio of vermouth (without being higher than the base). So while a dry martini might be 5 parts gin to 1 part vermouth, a wet will be closer to 3:1. With this New Orleans-style martini, you could also take into account the absinthe rinse and dash of Peychaud's, which contribute to its sweetness. Still, the amounts of each are so scarce that the martini is considered wet, not perfect — an even ratio of sweet and dry — so while the name implies that the drink isn't dry, it still isn't for the faint of heart.