Eel Bar's Marianito Recipe
A vermouth-led aperitif: sweet red vermouth braced with a little grassy rhum agricole, Cointreau and Angostura, served over ice with an olive.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Old fashioned glass
- ABV: 20%
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- Sweet red vermouth60 ml (2 oz)
- White rhum agricole15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Cointreau15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Angostura bitters3 dash
How to Make It
- Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice.
- Stir until well chilled.
- Strain into an old fashioned glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish with a green olive and an orange twist.
Garnish
Green olive and orange twist
What it tastes like
It has a bitter backbone and it has a green, botanical backdrop.
The technique
Stirring. All-spirit drinks are stirred — shaking whips air into them and ruins both the clarity and the texture. Thirty to forty seconds in a mixing glass, the spoon tracing the wall. You are after the same ~20% dilution, just slower and under control.
Glass and ice
A heavy-bottomed, wide old fashioned glass. Wide enough for one large cube, which is the point: a big cube has less surface area, so the drink gets cold without getting watery.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Sweet red vermouth
- Once opened it lives IN THE FRIDGE and should be finished within a month; a bottle left at room temperature oxidises in a few weeks and sours the drink.
- Cointreau
- The French orange liqueur, 40% alcohol. It is the dry, strong end of triple sec; swap in a cheap triple sec and the drink gets sweeter and loses its backbone.
- Angostura bitters
- The salt of the cocktail world. Measured in dashes, not millilitres: a few of them cut the sweetness and add spice. One bottle lasts years.
The Story
The Marianito is the Basque Country's bar-counter vermouth cocktail; this version comes from Eel Bar, a Basque-inspired bar in New York.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Eel Bar's Marianito mixed?
- It is stirred and served in an old fashioned glass.
- How strong is a Eel Bar's Marianito?
- Roughly 20% ABV as served — in fortified-wine territory — plan it as a single drink.
- Can a Eel Bar's Marianito be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Eel Bar's Marianito hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.