Let me tell you all about my new winter ritual: On any given weeknight, when I’m ready to call it a day, I walk away from my “home office” and fix myself a proper pre-dinner martini (or Gibson, depending on my mood)—promptly at 5:30 pm.
The whole routine takes all of one minute and involves two easy steps: I pour two fingers of Batch & Bottle’s Hendrick’s martini (super-chilled, of course) onto a frozen bodega glass and plunk in three Sable & Rosenfeld vermouth-soaked onions—or a cucumber ribbon. Then I have Siri blast one of my preferred stations on the family HomePod: Ray Charles or the Jayde Donovan Show. And once the tunes get going, I start dinner prep…with drink in hand. It’s a vibe—and certainly the most pleasant way to cap off the day: civilized, dignified, and above all, stress-free. My husband, who happens to be the designated bartender in this marriage, loves these evenings so much that he now stocks at least six bottles of the stuff at all times: Two in the freezer and four in the liquor cabinet.
What’s not to love? That pre-made Hendrick’s martini just cut my kitchen time by eighteen minutes. (Important because when you live in New York, you don’t have time for anything.) And in a world full of so-so canned cocktails, the fact that it tastes great is a massive bonus.
Batch & Bottle launched earlier this year with four pre-batched cocktails: the Monkey Shoulder lazy … [+]
Batch & Bottle—a line of ready-to-drink cocktails developed by the fine folks at William Grant & Sons—launched earlier this year with four pre-batched cocktails made with WGS spirits: the Monkey Shoulder lazy old fashioned, the Reyka rhubarb cosmopolitan, the Glenfiddich Scotch Manhattan, and of course, the Hendrick’s gin martini. All are okay—but the martini is what I would spend money on.
To create the martini, which clocks in at a relatively modest 35% ABV, Hendrick’s master distiller Lesley Gracie joined forces with five award-winning watering holes from around the world: Maybe Sammy in Sydney, Nutmeg & Clove in Singapore, Nauticus in Edinburgh, Yaldy in Frankfurt, and Brujas in Mexico. Each of the bars played around with a few formulations and sent in their respective final recipes, and Gracie—along with Hendrick’s global brand ambassador Ally Martin—cherry-picked their favorite components from each one. The result is an amazingly balanced drink that needs nothing more than a few hours in the freezer—and a garnish.
Each bottle of Batch & Bottle Hendrick’s gin martini costs $15 and holds approximately four … [+]
Truth be told, the Batch & Bottle Hendrick’s martini so good that I would never have known it was pre-made: The off-putting flavors and characteristics that typically drag a ready-to-drink cocktail down are simply not there. There’s no metallic aftertaste. No icky, overly syrupy texture. No trace of sugar substitutes. No foul fake fruit flavoring.
Batched with vermouth, which is responsible for giving the liquid its subtly golden hue, each 375-mililiter bottle holds approximately four servings. And at around $15 each, it’s quite the steal. Given that we’ve got a few more months of winter coming up, you should probably make your life a wee bit easier and stock up on these.