DOTD For Thursday, November 20, 2025

Don't Be Shaken By Today's Drink - But You Might Be Stirred

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Gibson Dry Martini inspired by World Gibson Martini Day!

Marian Beke, founder of the original Gibson Bar in London (sadly, now shuttered) and more happily The Gibson Bar in Berlin (which opened in October 2024), launched World Gibson Martini Day in 2018 to celebrate this classic cocktail.

The Gibson cocktail’s murky origins are highly disputed, so much so that no one is sure of the exact details. But there is a version of the origin story that Ms. Beke favors - so we’ll go with that one.

As the story goes, Charles Gibson, an artist widely recognized for his Gibson Girl illustrations, visited The Players Club bar in New York in 1908, where he met Charles Connelly, a bartender. Gibson challenged Connelly to improve the classic Martini, and Connelly took up the challenge, replacing the traditional olive garnish with a pickled silver onion. With that simple action, the Gibson Martini was born

Of course, whenever we talk about martinis, the topic of James Bond always comes into the conversation. There are even some that say the character of Band actually ruined the ordering of martinis for millions.

While the Bond movies made the line “Shaken, not stirred” legendary, the Ian Fleming written Bond novels & short stories show the character of James Bond preferred a broad array of drinks, including both vodka & gin Martinis, cognac, champagne, ouzo, bourbon, fine vintage wine, whisky, and even Heineken beer. In the original Bond novel, 1953’s Casino Royale, James Bond even orders his martini with both gin and vodka:

‘A dry martini,’ he said. ‘One. In a deep champagne goblet… Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?’

For the record, the original martini is made with gin, not vodka, though as we always do here at The Politics Bar, if you prefer vodka, we won’t yuck your yum. But today’s Drink Of The Day is an OG drink, so we’ll be using gin in our Gibson Dry Martini today.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: