Monarch Martini Recipe
Monarch Martini Ingredients
7 fresh mint leaves, plus a sprig for garnish
0.5 oz / 15 ml Liber & Co. Japanese Yuzu Syrup
2 oz / 60 ml McQueen and the Violet Fog Gin
0.5 oz / 15 ml St-Germain elderflower liqueur
0.5 oz / 15 ml fresh lemon juice
3 droppers Scruffy City Bitters peach bitters
How to make a Monarch Martini
Gently muddle the mint leaves with the yuzu syrup in the base of a shaker, just enough to bruise them.
Add the gin, St-Germain, lemon juice, and peach bitters, then shake with ice and fine strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with a mint sprig.
The monarch martini is a modern classic created in 2003 by Douglas Ankrah at Townhouse bar in London. The original spec is gin, elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup, muddled mint, and a couple dashes of peach bitters. We put a few spins on it: Liber & Co.'s Japanese yuzu syrup in place of the simple syrup, a heavier hand with the bitters, and McQueen and the Violet Fog, a Brazilian gin with lemongrass and other tropical botanicals that drinks sweeter and fruitier than the London dry you would normally reach for here.
The peach bitters are from Scruffy City Bitters, the same new Knoxville company whose cherry vanilla bitters went into our root beer old fashioned. This batch is made with peaches, gentian root, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger, and the baking spice ties the yuzu and St-Germain together so well the whole drink leans almost tropical. If you like this one, those bitters deserve a spot in your tiki experiments too.
