Gibson (cocktail)

Gibson

Cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Base spirit	Gin
Served	Straight up: chilled, without ice
Standard garnish	silverskin onion
Standard drinkware	Cocktail glass
Commonly used ingredients	6 cl (2 ounces) (6 parts) gin 1 cl (0.33 ounce) (1 part) dry vermouth
Preparation	Stir well in a shaker with ice, then strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish and serve

The Gibson is a mixed drink made with gin and dry vermouth, and often garnished with a pickled onion. In its modern incarnation, it is considered a cousin of the ubiquitous martini, distinguished mostly by garnishing with an onion instead of an olive. But the earliest recipes for a Gibson – including the first known recipe published in 1908 by Sir David Austin – are differentiated more by how they treat the addition of bitters.^[1]

Other pre-Prohibition recipes all omit bitters and none of them garnish with an onion. Some garnish with citrus twists. Others use no garnish at all. There is no known recipe for the Gibson garnished with an onion before William Boothby's 1908 Gibson recipe.^[2]