Name: Intimate Martini
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 60 ml Vodka; 20 ml Apricot liqueur; 15 ml Dry vermouth; 3 dash Orange bitters

Intimate Martini
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Glass:

Serve in a Martini glass

Ingredients:
2 oz	Ketel One Vodka
²⁄₃ oz	Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur
¹⁄₂ oz	Strucchi Dry Vermouth chilled
3 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill a MARTINI GLASS.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

How to make:

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

Garnish:

EXPRESS orange 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:

Sweet apricot dried and balanced by vermouth and bitters. Surprisingly complex and pleasant.

View readers' comments

History:

This cocktail featured in our first Difford's Guide book, published in 2001, and has been in every edition since. The recipe is from my own hand-written note for an "Intimate" cocktail in my copy of Mark Torre's 1984 The Bartender's Cherry, 2nd Edition.

I made many such notes in this, my first cocktail book, over the course of 1991, the year after I bought my liquor store and started developing my interest in cocktails. Sadly, I didn't record where I came across the "Intimate" it, just the recipe. However, this dates the cocktail's origins to before 1991.

These notes, along with recipes from the book, served as the basis for the database that drives this website. As with many of the other recipes, I've tweaked this one much over the decades.

INTIMATE
1 Vodka
1 Dry vermouth
1 Apricot brandy
3 dash Orange bitters
Shake Lemon peel & olive
Simon Difford, hand-written note, 1991

Nutrition:

One serving of Intimate Martini contains 194 calories

Alcohol content:

1.9 standard drinks
27.05% alc./vol. (54.11° proof)
26 grams of pure alcohol

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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Diane Denison

12 hours ago

I used Dolin blanc vermouth and Rothman Apricot. I think I'll add it to my late night rotation. It's not overly sweet to me compared to other popular cocktails. I'm more of a gin drinker than vodka, but some friends left a big bottle of vodka from New Year's and this is as good of a use for it as any. Plus, I have had the Apricot liqueur for a while. This is a great use for it.

John CARR

31st January at 13:36

On the sweet side but still dry enough to serve as a post prandial palate cleanser. Lovely, delicate flavours. Be sure to use your best ingredients!

Calvin Grant

31st January at 04:38

What a marvelous martini! Especially liked how the orange and apricot flavors interplayed. Think fresh fruit. Like John, I used Rothman & Winter. I find it more apricot forward and less syrupy than Luxardo's. More of a 6.5 than a 5 on the sweet dry/sour scale with my ingredients. Destillerie Purkhart needs to get Simon a sample IMO.

Jon Pidwerbecki

31st January at 00:54

Great after dinner cocktail. I agree a bit sweet. I might recommend 15 ml of apricot brandy.

Calvin Grant

31st January at 03:19

Greetings Jon. I always like to check the 'recent discussions' section of the home page when logging in and saw your comment. Checked out the ingredients and decided this was exactly what I wanted to try tonight. Thanks! Cheers.