Take a bone-dry Martini, skip the olive and drop in a small pickled onion. That one change adds a savoury, slightly sweet-sour note that makes the Gibson its own drink.
2 oz
London dry gin or vodkae.g. Tanqueray · Gordon's · Beefeater · Bombay Sapphire · Sipsmith
¼ oz
dry vermouthe.g. Noilly Prat · Martini · Dolin · Cinzano
Garnish: Cocktail onions on a pick · Ice: Served up, no ice
Gibson
Ice cold, crisp juniper and dry vermouth herbs with a savoury, lightly pickled note from the onion. Strong and very dry.
The Gibson is essentially a dry Martini with a cocktail onion, and it dates back to around the turn of the twentieth century. Its origin is disputed. One popular story links it to the illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the "Gibson Girl"; another credits Walter D. K. Gibson, a San Francisco businessman said to have ordered it at the Bohemian Club.
Early recipes often had no onion at all and were simply a very dry gin and vermouth drink. The pickled onion became the defining garnish over the following decades, and the Gibson enjoyed great popularity in mid-century America as a lunchtime and business cocktail.
The garnish: a Gibson uses a pickled cocktail onion, a Martini an olive or lemon twist. Gibsons are also usually very dry.
That is disputed. The illustrator Charles Dana Gibson and the San Francisco businessman Walter D. K. Gibson are the two most common candidates.
No, stir it; shaking clouds the drink and adds tiny ice shards.
The perfect sound
Crisp, elegant and dry like a Manhattan cocktail party.
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