Name: Poet's Dream
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Gin; 22.5 ml Bénédictine D.O.M.; 30 ml Dry vermouth

Poet's Dream
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Glass:

Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 oz	Hayman's London Dry Gin
³⁄₄ oz	Bénédictine D.O.M. liqueur
1 oz	Strucchi Dry Vermouth

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.

How to make:

STIR all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish:

EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Dry vermouth - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Honeyed and herbal with an assertive dry gin backbone. I find the original equal-parts formula a little overly rich, so I cut back the liqueur to as little as 20ml (2/3oz) to 25ml (5/6oz), depending on time of night. The later, the more liqueur. I've gone middle-of-the-road for the recipe above.

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Variations/similar cocktails:

Caprice
Chrysanthemum
Ford Cocktail
Merry Widow(er)
Minnie the Moocher
Poet's Martini
Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth Wine
Rolls Royce
Tip Top
Vancouver

History:

A Prohibition-era cocktail first published in Albert Stevens Crockett's 1931 book, Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Days.

POET'S DREAM
One-third Benedictine
One-third French Vermuth
One-third dry Gin
Lemon Peel, squeezed on top
Albert Stevens Crockett, Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Days, 1931

This recipe is repeated in subsequent publications, including the 1949 edition of Esquire's Handbook for Hosts.

POET'S DREAM
1/3 Benedictine
1/3 French vermouth
1/3 Gin
Lemon peel squeezed on top
Esquire's Handbook for Hosts, 1949

Nutrition:

One serving of Poet's Dream contains 175 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
25.54% alc./vol. (51.08° proof)
21.1 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 10 of 47 comments for Poet's Dream.
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Michael Cronin

8th February at 19:56

I backed off the Benedictine by half and the Dr Vermouth by just a hair as well. Added a dash of Bennett's Exorcism Bitters.

Tuber Magnatum

8th February at 00:56

Excellent cocktail, and as noted by Difford and others, cuttIng back on the DOM produces a very balanced drink by reducing the sweet component. In my view this drink demands the lemon oils / garnish, but curious to try Mike's suggestion of an orange.

Reg and Rog

6th December 2025 at 23:12

The Esquire 1949 recipe is fine, but it's a little too sweet for my taste. The Difford's recipe with the lower amount of Benedictine is the way to go for this one. This is a classy cocktail.

Mike

28th September 2025 at 03:15

Perfection in a Nick & Nora. Fords gin, Noilly Prat Extra Dry. An orange twist works as well as lemon.

Matt

24th September 2025 at 02:06

Maybe a favorite "dry" martini. I found I liked it more using **bianco vermouth** vs. dry vermouth (the variant with the dry had me confused, too similar to the baseline dry martini). Bianco vermouth strips out the savory element of dry vermouth, and complements the Benedictine. Barely dry enough for before dinner, and certainly sweet enough for after dinner.

Simon Waterman

23rd August 2025 at 15:09

A cocktail lover’s cocktail 🍸

Graham Scuba

10th August 2025 at 10:15

Use the kiss method and don't even bother with the vermouth, make it really simple and it's perfectly fine with a decent London dry and the Dom B - ooh la lahhh