Make the perfect martini

is a brand of marmalade, and I have just made a breakfast martini with Frank Cooper’s Vintage which is without a doubt the best. So perhaps it’s time to treat everyone to the song that’s going in the Snowleopard10 musical when it eventually gets produced:

Make mine a martini!
Make mine a sour!
Make mine a Lambrini..
(chorus: Euw!)
For it’s the cocktail hour!

Clearly I am somewhat drunk so will go away now. Prepare for hangover tomorrow.

I discovered this last year and have been making them on and off ever since. I’ve even converted a couple of martini-purist mates. The rather decadent name doesn’t come from the meal you drink it with (although I can think of worse ways to start the day) but rather the magic ingredient: marmalade! It was invented by Salvatore Calabrese who used to run the Library Bar at the Lanesborough Hotel in London. His version includes Cointreau but I think that makes it a bit sweet so I leave it out, although sometimes I add some apricot brandy instead. Usually I just bung a couple of measures of gin and a dessert spoon of orange marmalade (ideally Frank Coopers) into the shaker with loads of ice, shake, and pour into a martini glass – that’s it! So it’s really very simple and can be made in about 30 seconds, which is my kind of cocktail after a hard day at work.