Gibson (Cocktail)

[+ Avalon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_(cocktail)

 

Anyone drink this? I was watching an episode of "Burns & Allen" and George was talking about olives and onions in a drink. I don't remember onions.

[BigK]

I do...preferably with Bombay Sapphire Gin

[+ Avalon]

I do...preferably with Bombay Sapphire Gin

 

Not familiar with it

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Sapphire

[liubit]

I didn’t know it was called that way, @Avalon, I simply knew it as a martini with an onion

[body2body]

My Father always said that the Gibson Cocktail originated with Hugh Gibson, a handsome career diplomat, who held positions as US Ambassador to Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Brazil, and Switzerland. He was also a leading figure in disarmament talks between the wars. Ambassador Gibson, wanted to keep a clear head at diplomatic cocktail parties and receptions. Martinis had become popular and Gibson instructed his staff that they were to put only water in a cocktail glass and garnish it with an onion so he could identify his drink. Gibson was good looking and charming and soon it was noted that he drank dry martinis with his special garnish, and people started to emulate him, and the “Gibson” became a popular Martini variant. It also blew the Ambassador’s ruse. I know this is probably apocryphal but it was a good story, and I used to tell it to customers on slow nights when I was tending bar in College.

[Moondance]

The Gibson, a cocktail with movie-star status

By M. Carrie Allan, Food Columnist, The Washington Post, February 25, 2014

 

When it’s made with a fresh pickled onion, I prefer a Gibson to the standard martini with its olive or lemon twist. A Gibson hinges on its garnish: Crunching into a flavorful allium at the beginning of the drink brings out new flavors in the gin and vermouth, adding a salty-sour note that transforms the martini into a cold, delicate onion soup, at once both aperitif and appetizer.

 

… it’s a drink with a Hollywood pedigree, including cameos in two of the American Film Institute’s top 100 American films.

 

One of those appearances bugs me. Plenty of drinking happens in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 classic “North by Northwest,” not all of it consensual. Early in the film, protagonist Roger O. Thornhill — played with that droll elegance so particular to Cary Grant — is hauled away at gunpoint from a martini-enhanced business meeting. Later, the same thugs pour bourbon down his throat and force him to drive, assuming he’ll end up dead.

 

… But it’s not the bibulous “Mad Men”-style meeting or the forced imbourbonation that bothers me. It’s his flirtation with Eva Marie Saint in the dining car of that cross-country train, when Thornhill orders a Gibson. Really, Roger?

 

… You’re traveling with a cool, seductive Hitchcock blonde. She’s bantering with you as racily as the Motion Picture Production Code of the time will allow. She has told you where to find her sleeping berth. She has told you, as you peruse the menu, that she never makes love on an empty stomach. (You could read her lips, even though the censors insisted the line be redubbed with the less blatant “I never discuss love on an empty stomach.”)

 

Would you order a cocktail guaranteed to give you onion breath?

 

The drink makes far more sense in its other movie cameo, the famously tense party scene in “All About Eve” (1950), when Bette Davis tells her guests, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” It’s all air kisses at that little shindig; the Gibsons passed around among the theater sophisticates are perfect for people who secretly hate one another’s guts...

[Bearofdistinction]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_(cocktail)

 

Anyone drink this? I was watching an episode of "Burns & Allen" and George was talking about olives and onions in a drink. I don't remember onions.

 

Gibson = Gin Martini with Pearl Onion instead of Olive - Not popular since the 80s even with the "Older Crowd"

[+ VictorPowers]

@ArVaGuy Somebody said Gin!

[+ poolboy48220]

I love gin, but I often smile when I think of the line in Heinlein's novella "The Door Into Summer", when the protagonist runs into his now-old ex: "She was already pouring it-straight gin, the lonely girl's friend."

[+ poolboy48220]

A Gibson hinges on its garnish: Crunching into a flavorful allium at the beginning of the drink brings out new flavors in the gin and vermouth, adding a salty-sour note that transforms the martini into a cold, delicate onion soup, at once both aperitif and appetizer.

Hmmm. I always save the olive (or the onion) for the very end, after it's been infused from the alcohol. Have I been doing it wrong? I'll have to try that the next time I have a martini...or a Gibson.

[TruthBTold]

Hmmm. I always save the olive (or the onion) for the very end, after it's been infused from the alcohol. Have I been doing it wrong? I'll have to try that the next time I have a martini...or a Gibson.

 

If I am drinking martinis (which is most of the time) I will have two olives. I eat one half way through and then the other near the end of the drink. And I only like a mist of vermouth. Any more steals too much room from the gin.

[cal]

My Father always said that the Gibson Cocktail originated with Hugh Gibson, a handsome career diplomat, who held positions as US Ambassador to Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Brazil, and Switzerland. He was also a leading figure in disarmament talks between the wars. Ambassador Gibson, wanted to keep a clear head at diplomatic cocktail parties and receptions. Martinis had become popular and Gibson instructed his staff that they were to put only water in a cocktail glass and garnish it with an onion so he could identify his drink. Gibson was good looking and charming and soon it was noted that he drank dry martinis with his special garnish, and people started to emulate him, and the “Gibson” became a popular Martini variant. It also blew the Ambassador’s ruse. I know this is probably apocryphal but it was a good story, and I used to tell it to customers on slow nights when I was tending bar in College.

I heard that version also and was able to make deals that were favorable to him since he was sober.

[+ Avalon]

My Father always said that the Gibson Cocktail originated with Hugh Gibson, a handsome career diplomat, who held positions as US Ambassador to Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Brazil, and Switzerland. He was also a leading figure in disarmament talks between the wars. Ambassador Gibson, wanted to keep a clear head at diplomatic cocktail parties and receptions. Martinis had become popular and Gibson instructed his staff that they were to put only water in a cocktail glass and garnish it with an onion so he could identify his drink. Gibson was good looking and charming and soon it was noted that he drank dry martinis with his special garnish, and people started to emulate him, and the “Gibson” became a popular Martini variant. It also blew the Ambassador’s ruse. I know this is probably apocryphal but it was a good story, and I used to tell it to customers on slow nights when I was tending bar in College.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_S._Gibson

[gallahadesquire]

If I am drinking martinis (which is most of the time) I will have two olives. I eat one half way through and then the other near the end of the drink. And I only like a mist of vermouth. Any more steals too much room from the gin.

 

At My Introduction to Martinis, I demanded that I like them dry. Very dry.

I got the first one. "No, this isn't right, it's too wet." I finished it off, of course, not wanting to waste ...

I got the second one. It was worse than the first. "No, this isn't right, I like them dry, we're headed in the wrong direction."

I got the third one. It was worse than the first two. "I told you, I like them dry. This is definitely wrong."

"Sir, that's straight gin. It doesn't get any drier than that."

 

Turns out, I like them wet. 3:1 is perfect. I used to like Bombay Sapphire, but I've switched to Hendricks. And four olives, to munch on until something more appealing comes.

 

Story of the Evening:

 

Anna Russell, comedienne and performer, would tour with her Accompaniest. They would always go to the hotel bar, and ask for Dry Martinis. What they received were always interesting, but usually dreadful.

 

They were at the Grand Hotel in Melbourne, Australia [don't ask me the State] They ordered martinis, and were overwhelmed! They were the best Martinis either of them had ever had!

 

They asked the bartender where he'd learned to make them.

 

"Oh, the Queen Mum [ER II's mum] was on tour, and I had to learn to make them for her. She likes them rather dry ..."

"12:1."

 

Of which, the Queen Mum got a little loose in the tongue when she became older, and was kept from the public for that very reason. One wonders what reaction the recent Nuptials would have provoked. At any rate, she was a tad unsteady on her feet, and as a precaution, usually had a pair of Good Looking and Well Build Males, on on each side. [One assumes they were gay, if for no other reason than being Good Looking and Hunky.]

 

One day, she started to get up, and they came to her side. She looked at them, and pronounced:

 

"Well, I don't know about YOU TWO, but THIS Queen needs a drink!"

I miss the old girl.

[TruthBTold]

I will definitely have to try Hendricks.

[+ ArVaGuy]

@ArVaGuy Somebody said Gin!

 

 

@VictorPowers I’ll drink to that!! Cheers!!

 

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c262/cpapa8162/image_zpsctqfjo7u.jpeg

[YOUNG_LA_DOM]

Been with several guys who order this

[Bearofdistinction]

At My Introduction to Martinis, I demanded that I like them dry. Very dry.

I got the first one. "No, this isn't right, it's too wet." I finished it off, of course, not wanting to waste ...

I got the second one. It was worse than the first. "No, this isn't right, I like them dry, we're headed in the wrong direction."

I got the third one. It was worse than the first two. "I told you, I like them dry. This is definitely wrong."

"Sir, that's straight gin. It doesn't get any drier than that."

 

Turns out, I like them wet. 3:1 is perfect. I used to like Bombay Sapphire, but I've switched to Hendricks. And four olives, to munch on until something more appealing comes.

 

Story of the Evening:

 

Anna Russell, comedienne and performer, would tour with her Accompaniest. They would always go to the hotel bar, and ask for Dry Martinis. What they received were always interesting, but usually dreadful.

 

They were at the Grand Hotel in Melbourne, Australia [don't ask me the State] They ordered martinis, and were overwhelmed! They were the best Martinis either of them had ever had!

 

They asked the bartender where he'd learned to make them.

 

"Oh, the Queen Mum [ER II's mum] was on tour, and I had to learn to make them for her. She likes them rather dry ..."

"12:1."

 

Of which, the Queen Mum got a little loose in the tongue when she became older, and was kept from the public for that very reason. One wonders what reaction the recent Nuptials would have provoked. At any rate, she was a tad unsteady on her feet, and as a precaution, usually had a pair of Good Looking and Well Build Males, on on each side. [One assumes they were gay, if for no other reason than being Good Looking and Hunky.]

 

One day, she started to get up, and they came to her side. She looked at them, and pronounced:

 

"Well, I don't know about YOU TWO, but THIS Queen needs a drink!"

I miss the old girl.

 

There is also the popular story - where the Queen Mum has come back from a rare appearance and rings - but no one answers == She goes the top of the stairs and hollers down at a group of servants "Would one of you Old Queens - Bring this Old Queen a Gin and Tonic NOW!!!"