English Rose Cocktail

English Rose Cocktail

The Spruce / S&C Design Studios

Prep: 3 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 3 mins
Serving: 1 serving
Yield: 1 cocktail

The English rose cocktail is a delightful variation of the classic gin martini. It's sweeter, using apricot brandy, grenadine, and lemon for flavor, and it makes a fabulous before dinner drink.

This recipe is a remarkable change from dry martinis, which are more common with gin than vodka. It offers an array of flavors that are distinct but perfectly complementary to one another and it's in no way one-dimensional. That may be the real fascination with the English rose and why it has long remained a favorite among the lexicon of classic cocktails.

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces gin

  • 1 ounce apricot brandy

  • 1 ounce dry vermouth

  • 1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

  • 1 teaspoon grenadine

  • Maraschino cherry, for garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. In a cocktail shaker, pour the gin, apricot brandy, dry vermouth, lemon juice, and grenadine.

  3. Fill with ice cubes and shake well.

  4. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

  5. Garnish with the maraschino cherry. Serve and enjoy.

Tips

  • A quality gin is going to make a better English rose cocktail. Despite all the extra flavors, pour the same gin as you would any other martini and you'll have a great foundation.
  • For the vermouth, the most important thing to remember is that an open bottle will become stale after a couple of months. You'll notice the flavor begin to diminish, which means it's time to pick up a replacement.
  • Apricot brandy will either be a sweetened liqueur or a true eau-de-vie (unsweetened and distilled from the fruit). The liqueur version is good in this recipe because it acts as a sweetener, though you may find that just a dash of grenadine is needed for balance.
  • Fresh lemon juice is the final key to making a spectacular English rose. You can typically expect to get 1 3/4 ounces out of a single lemon, which is more than enough for a few cocktails.

Recipe Variations

There are a few classic drinks that pair gin and apricot brandy. If you enjoy the English rose, they're definitely worth trying.

  • A very similar recipe to this, the Thanksgiving cocktail keeps everything except the grenadine and changes up the proportions so no single ingredient dominates the drink.
  • The paradise recipe simply mixes the gin-apricot brandy duo with orange juice, creating a really bright, fruity martini.
  • La Habana prefers lime over lemon. To make it, shake 1 ounce each of gin and apricot brandy with the juice of half a lime. It's also served in a chilled cocktail glass, though typically garnished with a lime wedge.

How Strong Is an English Rose?

Whenever you see a martini that's made primarily of liquor, you should expect it to be pretty strong. The English rose is no exception, with its alcohol content falling somewhere in the 25 percent ABV (50 proof) range.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
281 Calories
0g Fat
18g Carbs
0g Protein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1
Amount per serving
Calories 281
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 9mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate 18g 7%
Dietary Fiber 0g 2%
Total Sugars 13g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 3mg 14%
Calcium 8mg 1%
Iron 0mg 1%
Potassium 67mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Recipe Tags: