How the Dirty Martini Paved the Way for Savory Gin

In spring, the woods surrounding the Isolation Proof distillery, located in New York’s Catskill Mountains, teem with ramps. These wild spring alliums inspired Jake Sherry, who founded the distillery in 2020, to bottle a limited-edition Ramp Gin, a whey-derived spirit distilled with juniper, ramp leaves, tarragon, watercress, and other seasonal flavorings. 

Sherry is aware of the ramp's reputation as “the catnip of the culinary community,” but he never could have imagined such an enthusiastic response. He’s had to increase production yearly to meet the surging demand from cocktail bars, reaching a new high of 300 cases this year.

Small-batch niche bottlings like Ramp Gin are providing tailwinds for an industry that’s already flying high. According to Market Data Forecast, global gin sales hit a record high of $17.35 billion in 2023. Once dominated by legacy brands like Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire, the market has broadened in recent years to include a wealth of products that lean savory, like Spain’s Gin Mare and France’s Citadelle Vive Le Cornichon Gin. Sherry credits the enduring popularity of the Dirty Martini for helping savory gins find an audience in craft cocktail bars.

A decade ago, beverage directors might’ve ignored these boutique spirits because they were prohibitively expensive or lacked versatility. But today’s bartenders are finding creative ways to incorporate savory notes into their Martinis, experimenting with new recipes to bring out unique flavor profiles. 

At Valerie in New York City, the Savory Martini is one of the bar’s biggest sellers. A base of Australian Four Pillars Olive Leaf Gin is prepared with caper-infused dry vermouth and Castelvetrano olives. In addition to botanicals like rosemary and bay leaf, Olive Leaf Gin is distilled with three different types of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil and olive leaf tea, adding viscosity and buttery mouthfeel to the spirit. 

At New York City’s Tusk Bar, savory Martinis are a natural complement to oysters and caviar. The Oceanside Vesper is made with  Rhode Island’s Seaflow Gin from ISCO Spirits, distilled with local oysters and sea lettuce, which imparts a distinctive minerality to the gin. Beverage director Tristan Brunel batches the cocktail with nori-infused Ketel 1 Vodka and Lillet, then chills the Martini and garnishes it with a nasturtium leaf. Brunel had experimented with traditional gins but credits Seaflow for animating the briny flavors of the cocktail.

“More so than other spirits I tried, the oyster notes in the gin unlocked all the underlying flavors that typically are very difficult to bring out in a cocktail that takes inspiration from the ocean,” he says.

Savory gin Martinis are also popping up at bars and restaurants beyond New York City. Bisous in Chicago has a designated menu called “In Celebration of the Martini” including a play on the classic Tuxedo No. 2 that uses Citadelle Vive Le Cornichon Gin, Dolin Blanc vermouth, and maraschino liqueur in an absinthe-rinsed glass. The San Junipero at San Francisco’s Foreign Cinema features Junipero’s Smoked Rosemary Gin as the base for an olive oil-infused Martini with blackened lemon bitters.

“Even for the vodka drinker that ‘doesn’t like gin,’ you may be able to get them over to the gin side by offering these styles of savory gin in their dirty Martini,” says Marshall Minaya, beverage director for Valerie. 

In the past, bartenders would achieve savory flavors by infusing neutral spirits with seasonal ingredients, which can be both time-consuming and labor-intensive. Now, they can build recipes around new gins that have savory flavors baked into the distillation process. 

Fred Beebe, the owner of Post Haste in Philadelphia, recently introduced a summer cocktail with Ramp Gin called The Last Straw, made with smoked strawberry puree, celery root liqueur, parsley-infused vodka, and kumquat juice. 

“I often come across products that I know I can make myself in a way that will be both easy and less expensive,” says Beebe, “but, occasionally, I find a product that has a whole different depth of flavor and is so perfectly made on its own that I don't even want to attempt to recreate it.”

With so many new varieties of savory gin, bartenders are emboldened to experiment with more playful recipes beyond Martini variations. At Gin Joint in Charleston, South Carolina, the Sweet Victory takes inspiration from the BLT sandwich, using a milk punch made with Moletto Tomato Gin washed with bacon fat, rye bread, and Duke’s mayonnaise then garnished with grated frozen tomato and arugula oil.  

Savory gins are also being used as proxies for whiskey in classic recipes. PDT, the pioneering cocktail bar in New York City’s East Village, offers a variation on the Elder Fashioned made with Mushroom Reserve Gin from Amass Botanicals in California. The original recipe, an Old-Fashioned riff created by bartender Phil Ward in 2007, calls for bourbon and St-Germain elderflower liqueur. 

But Sam Brooks, PDT’s general manager, notes that Amass’ Mushroom Gin, which is oak-aged and infused with shitake mushrooms, cacao, and bergamot, is a capable understudy for American whiskey. To amplify the cocktail’s savory appeal, the St-Germain is also blended with white miso.

“We wanted to appeal to whiskey drinkers and convince them that a gin Old-Fashioned could win them over,” says Brooks.

 With modern bartenders finding inspiration in these new savory gins, distillers see a bright future ahead. “I’m so excited to see how bars like Post Haste are using our products,” says Sherry. “Anyone can make a Gibson with our Ramp Gin, but what else can you do?” 

For dirty Martini drinkers, the future looks bright, and dirtier than ever.