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Hanky Panky

Gin and sweet vermouth in equal parts with a little fernet, stirred — a sweet Martini with a bitter, minty edge.

Difficulty
easy
Prep time
3 min
Strength
23% ABV
Glassware
Coupe glass
Base
gin
Serves
1

Ingredients

  • London Dry gin
    45ml
  • Sweet vermouth
    45ml
  • Fernet-Branca

    One teaspoon; the IBA uses 7.5ml

    5ml

Garnish: Orange twist

Scale for a party

Method

  1. Chill a coupe glass.
  2. Add the gin, sweet vermouth and fernet to a mixing glass filled with ice.
  3. Stir for about 30 seconds, until very cold.
  4. Strain into the chilled coupe and express an orange twist over the top.
Compared with the IBA specification

The International Bartenders Association lists this drink among its The Unforgettables. Its specification is a standard for training and competition — one reference, not the only right way to make the drink.

CocktailHQ

  • 45ml london dry gin
  • 45ml sweet vermouth
  • 5ml fernet-branca

IBA

  • 45 ml London Dry Gin
  • 45 ml Sweet Red Vermouth
  • 7.5 ml Fernet

IBA ingredients as published at iba-world.com, retrieved 29 October 2026.

Allergen information

Contains an ingredient commonly associated with:

  • Sulphur dioxide and sulphites — usually (sweet vermouth)

Products vary, and this describes ingredients rather than the bottles you use — check every label. It is not a guarantee that a drink is suitable for anyone with an allergy. How this is worked out

Your version

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Your measures
How you rate your version

Equipment

Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.

  • Mixing glass

    Household swap: A sturdy pint glass or small jug.

  • Bar spoon

    Household swap: A long-handled teaspoon or a chopstick.

Glass and ice

No ice in the glass

Served up, the drink was chilled and diluted in the shaker or mixing glass and goes into a chilled glass without ice.

Over a large cube it stays cold longer, but keeps diluting — it becomes a different, slowly lengthening drink.

About 127ml once mixed

The recipe's coupe glass is typically 150–250ml.

Workable:
nick & nora glass, martini glass, champagne flute, rocks glass
Oversized but acceptable:
wine glass
Unsuitable:
highball glass

Needs a glass of about 133–141ml brimful.

How this is worked out
  • A drink with no ice needs a little of the glass left empty — about a tenth — so it can be carried without spilling and has room for aroma.
  • Filled to the top with cubes or packed crushed ice, roughly half to three-fifths of a glass is left for the drink.
  • A drink built in the glass dilutes from the ice already there, so its melt water is not added on top.
  • One large cube takes up roughly 65–125ml, from a sphere to a 5cm cube.
  • Glass capacities are brimful and vary by maker — your own glass, measured with water, is the figure to trust.

Missing an ingredient?

Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.

  • Instead of Fernet

    Best substitute: Amaro

    This is the bitter element in this drink.

    Quantity: Use 10ml of a bitter amaro

    Flavour impact: Rounder and sweeter, without the menthol; a pleasant drink, but not a Hanky Panky.

    What changes

    Expect more sweetness, more acidity, less bitterness, less intensity and less strength. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.

    Sweetness ↑
    The drink will land sweeter, which also makes it read as less sharp and slightly heavier even though nothing else changed.
    Acidity ↑
    More acidity makes the drink taste fresher and drier, and can push a balanced sour over into sharp.
    Bitterness ↓
    Losing bitterness makes the drink rounder and more approachable, and takes away the structure that stopped it tasting like squash.
    Intensity ↓
    A milder ingredient gets buried by whatever else is in the glass, and the drink loses the thing it was named for.
    Strength ↓
    Amaro is 32% ABV against 39%. A weaker bottle makes a softer drink — genuinely pleasant, but a different drink from the one written down.
    Character
    Both are herbal, and you lose bitter, menthol and dry, and you gain bittersweet, complex and varies by style. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.

    To correct for it

    • Cut the syrup or sugar back — start by halving it and taste before adding any back.
    • Use slightly less of it, or add a touch more sweetener to hold the balance.
    • A dash of bitters restores some of the backbone without changing anything else.
    • Increase the measure, or accept a gentler drink and reduce the components competing with it.
    • Pour a fraction more, or shorten the dilution slightly, to keep the shape of the original.
    ExperimentalShifts the drinkBecomes a variation

Make it better

  • Measure the fernet. Free-poured, it takes over and the drink becomes a fernet with gin in it.
  • A rich, vanilla-led sweet vermouth suits it better than a very bitter one, which doubles up on the fernet.
  • The orange twist matters: its oil bridges the vermouth and the fernet's menthol.
  • Chill the glass in the freezer for a few minutes beforehand — a warm glass takes the edge off a well-made drink fast.
  • Stir, don't shake — stirring keeps a spirit-forward drink clear and silky instead of cloudy with air bubbles.
  • Express the citrus peel by pinching it, skin-side down, over the drink before dropping it in — this releases aromatic oils across the surface.
  • Adjust sweetness gradually and taste as you go — it's easy to add more syrup, impossible to take it out.

Rescue this drink

Tastes medicinal
Too much fernet. Pull it back to a teaspoon, or to a rinse of the glass.
Cloying
The vermouth is old or very sweet. Use a freshly opened bottle and keep it in the fridge.
Watery
Stirred too long or with wet ice. Thirty seconds with cold, hard ice is enough.
So cold you cannot taste itgeneral guidance
Spirit-forward drinks served up have a window: too warm and the alcohol burns, too cold and the aromatics stop volatilising and the drink reads as flat and numb. If it arrives correct and improves over the first few minutes, you have over-chilled it — shorten the stir slightly rather than skipping the freezer glass, because a warm glass ruins more drinks than a cold one.
All you can taste is the fernet-Brancageneral guidance
Bitter components scale badly: a small over-pour reads as a large one, because bitterness lingers where sweetness and acidity fade. Measure it rather than free-pouring, and correct an over-bittered drink with a little more of everything else rather than by diluting it — water thins the drink without moving the balance.

Make ahead & storage

Batches well

Everything in this can be mixed days ahead and kept cold. It is one of the drinks to build a party menu around.

Add about 22% water to the batch to replace what the ice would otherwise contribute, or it will pour noticeably harsher than a fresh one.

Make it lighter

As written, about 2.7 UK units at roughly 23% ABV once diluted. 2 of six ways to lighten it work for this recipe. Units are an estimate of what is in the glass, not advice about drinking.

  • A smaller serveSupportedabout 1.8 units, 23% ABV

    Every measure at two-thirds. The balance is untouched because the proportions are; the only trade-off is a smaller drink — use a smaller glass so it doesn't look stingy.

    • 30ml Gin
    • 30ml Sweet Vermouth
    • 3ml Fernet
  • Replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottleSupportedabout 1.5 units, 12.3% ABV

    Half the gin with alcohol-free spirit, and half the sweet vermouth with alcohol-free vermouth. Alcohol-free bottles are lighter-bodied than what they replace; at half-and-half the drink keeps most of its weight. Some alcohol-free bottles carry a trace of alcohol — check the label if that matters to you.

    • 23ml Gin
    • 23ml Alcohol-Free Spirit
    • 23ml Sweet Vermouth
    • 23ml Alcohol-Free Vermouth
    • 5ml Fernet
Not recommended for this drink: a longer serve; reverse the ratio; split the base with a lower-strength modifier; give it the spritz treatment
  • A longer serve. A stirred, spirit-and-vermouth drink is about concentration and texture. Soda turns it into something thin and confused. Note: the same alcohol in more liquid — weaker per sip, not fewer units.
  • Reverse the ratio. Reversing only works where a base spirit and a wine-strength modifier make up the drink between them; here other ingredients carry the structure.
  • Split the base with a lower-strength modifier. Done to this recipe, it would not make the drink any lighter — it is already built on a lower-strength base.
  • Give it the spritz treatment. Sparkling wine for the base spirit leaves a fizzy vermouth, not a lighter version of the drink. Add the fizz last, at the glass.

Or make something lighter by design: Bronx. All lighter drinks

What it tastes like

The taste, and what drives it

sweet, soft, light — a spirit and modifier drink served straight up, no ice.

Sweet

Dry → Sweet

Openly sweet, and balanced by something else rather than hidden.

What drives it: Sweet vermouth — carries the most sugar into the glass.

Bitter

Gentle → Bitter

Bitter enough to be one of the reasons you chose this drink.

What drives it: Fernet-Branca — provides the bitterness. Worked out partly from ingredient category rather than from recorded detail.

Light

Light → Rich

Light-bodied. It refreshes rather than satisfies, which is usually the intention.

What drives it: Sweet vermouth — adds most of the weight.

Very bold

Delicate → Bold

Very bold — concentrated, and served small for that reason.

What drives it: London Dry gin — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.

What you smell first

  • Citrus peelLeadsBefore the first sip

    From London Dry gin, Orange twist

  • Fresh herbLeads

    From Sweet vermouth

  • Juniper and botanicals

    From London Dry gin

Aromas marked as sitting above the drink reach you before the first sip — skipping that garnish changes the drink more than its size suggests.

How it was worked out

Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.

How balance actually works →

If it isn't right

What goes wrong with this drink, and why

Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — open one for the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.

This drink is only as good as the vermouth in it

Degrades it

Vermouth is wine and oxidises within weeks of opening. A stale bottle is the single most common reason a stirred drink tastes dull rather than complex.

How to handle it: Refrigerate it after opening, buy the small bottle, and replace it more often than feels reasonable.

  • It's too sweet
    Likely cause
    Sweet vermouth is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
    What to change
    Cut sweet vermouth by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a little more of the base spirit or a dash of bitters will pull it back faster than starting again.
    What that does
    It will taste drier, and the base and any bitter or herbal notes come forward from behind the sugar.
    The trade-off
    Sugar carries body as well as sweetness, so you lose a little weight along with it.
    Sweet Vermouth: how it behaves
  • It's too bitter
    Likely cause
    Fernet-Branca is doing this deliberately, but bitterness also builds across a drink rather than announcing itself — the last mouthful is more bitter than the first even though nothing changed.
    What to change
    Lengthen it slightly, or add a small amount of sweetener. Do not add more of anything sour; acid sharpens bitterness rather than covering it.
    What that does
    The bitterness softens and the drink gets longer or rounder.
    The trade-off
    If you were hoping to keep it short and strong, this is the trade you are making — and sugar added to a bitter drink can make it taste cloying rather than balanced.
    Fernet: how it behaves
  • It's too strong
    Likely cause
    London Dry gin dominates by design here — this is a drink built to be sipped, and the proportion of spirit to everything else is the point of it.
    What to change
    Stir a little longer, or add a measured 5–10ml of water. For a lasting change, pour a smaller measure of the base and keep the rest of the spec the same.
    What that does
    Alcohol presence drops and the aromatics open up — a slightly diluted spirit-forward drink usually smells better, not worse.
    The trade-off
    Go too far and it stops being the drink it was: spirit-forward drinks lose their character faster than long drinks do when watered.
    Stirring: what it does to a drink
  • It tastes harsh or hot
    Likely cause
    Almost always under-dilution. Stirring is how this drink gets its water — around 25% of the finished drink — and stopping early leaves alcohol heat that dilution would have rounded off.
    What to change
    Stir for longer — taste a drop off the spoon, and stop when the burn has receded rather than at a fixed count.
    What that does
    The heat recedes, the drink tastes rounder, and flavours that were masked by alcohol come forward.
    The trade-off
    Dilution is a target, not a direction: past it the drink goes watery and loses concentration, which is harder to undo than harshness.
    Stirring: what it does to a drink
  • It's watery
    Likely cause
    Stirring adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
    What to change
    Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
    What that does
    More flavour concentration at the same temperature.
    The trade-off
    Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — the aim is the right amount of water, not the least.
    Dilution and temperature
  • It isn't cold enough
    Likely cause
    Served without ice, this drink is at its coldest the moment it leaves the mixing glass and warms from the first sip. A room-temperature glass takes a surprising amount of that cold straight back out.
    What to change
    Chill the coupe glass first — ten minutes in the freezer, or filled with ice and water while you mix — and strain the moment you stop stirring.
    What that does
    The drink stays in its best range for longer, and the first sip tastes the way it was balanced.
    The trade-off
    Very cold drinks smell of less, because aroma needs some warmth to leave the glass. A smaller serve that is finished cold beats a bigger one that is finished warm.
    Dilution and temperature
  • It doesn't smell of anything
    Likely cause
    The aroma you are missing is probably citrus peel, which sits above the drink rather than in it — skipping or under-expressing the garnish removes it entirely.
    What to change
    Express the peel over the surface with the skin facing the drink, then drop it in. Herbs go in the glass, not on the side.
    What that does
    Aroma arrives before flavour does, so the whole drink reads as more intense without a single measure changing.
    The trade-off
    The oil does land in the drink, though — an over-expressed peel adds a faint bitterness to the first mouthful.
    Garnish techniques
  • It tastes one-dimensional
    Likely cause
    With 3 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a drink this simple is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
    What to change
    Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
    What that does
    More going on at the same strength and sweetness.
    The trade-off
    Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one — and a better bottle costs more.
    How the Martini family is built
  • It's cloudy when it should be clear
    Likely cause
    It was shaken, or stirred so hard it was churned. Both whip air and tiny ice shards into a drink made only of clear ingredients, and that is what you are seeing.
    What to change
    Stir smoothly with the back of the spoon against the glass, using fresh, clean ice, and strain through a fine strainer if your ice is chipped.
    What that does
    A clear drink with the dense, silky texture a stirred drink is meant to have.
    The trade-off
    Stirring takes longer than shaking to reach the same temperature, and the drink will be a little less cold for the same effort.
    Stirring: why it keeps a drink clear
  • My batch tastes worse than the first glass
    Likely cause
    sweet vermouth is the part of this drink that changes on standing — citrus loses its brightness, opened wine-based ingredients oxidise, and fizz escapes. The spirits are not the problem.
    What to change
    Store it cold, in a bottle filled close to the top, and keep anything wine-based refrigerated. Decant into smaller bottles as it goes down.
    What that does
    The last glass from the batch tastes like the first.
    The trade-off
    Adding components at service brings some of the work back to the moment you were trying to free up — measure them out in advance to keep it quick.
    Batching: what keeps and what does not
  • The garnish is all I can taste
    Likely cause
    The orange twist sits right under your nose, so it arrives before the drink does. Expressed peel oil is intense, and a peel left in keeps releasing it.
    What to change
    Express the peel over the drink, then discard it rather than dropping it in.
    What that does
    The garnish frames the drink rather than replacing it.
    The trade-off
    Too little and the drink loses its first impression — the garnish is doing a real aromatic job here, so ease off rather than leave it out.
    Garnish techniques
  • Each drink comes out different
    Likely cause
    With 3 measured components, a few millilitres' drift in each adds up, and a mixing glass loaded for four chills and dilutes differently from one made for one.
    What to change
    Measure every pour with a jigger, and stir no more than two at a time. Pre-mix london Dry gin, sweet vermouth, fernet-Branca in a bottle beforehand so each round starts from the same base.
    What that does
    The fifth drink of the evening tastes like the first, at the same strength and balance.
    The trade-off
    Smaller batches mean more rounds of shaking or stirring; pre-mixing saves time but only for what keeps.
    Batching and make-ahead
  • It tastes flat, dull or like old wine
    Likely cause
    Sweet vermouth is wine, and once a bottle is opened it starts to oxidise: the fresh, herbal top notes go first and a flat, nutty or sour edge comes in. Nothing else in the drink can put them back.
    What to change
    Taste sweet vermouth on its own. If it is dull, open a fresh bottle — and keep the next one in the fridge with the cap on, or buy a smaller size.
    What that does
    The drink regains its aroma and tastes brighter, without any change to the spec.
    The trade-off
    A fresh bottle for one drink is a cost; small bottles cost more per millilitre but waste less.
    Sweet Vermouth: how it behaves

Something else wrong? Open this drink in the Recipe Doctor.

Taste profile

Sweetness
3/5
Sourness
0/5
Bitterness
3/5
Strength
4/5
Fruitiness
1/5
Freshness
1/5
Creaminess
0/5
Smokiness
0/5

Nutrition & alcohol

Estimate only
Calories
180 kcal
Sugar
7 g
Carbohydrates
8 g
Alcohol units (UK)
2.72
US standard drinks
1.49
ABV
23%
Serving size
115 ml
Show calculation assumptions

Source: Calculated from standard measures

Calorie breakdown: ~146 kcal from alcohol, ~34 kcal from sugar and mixers.

Likely range: 135–225 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.

Assumes gin at 40% ABV, sweet vermouth at 16%, fernet at 39%, and about 22% dilution from stirring.

These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.

Variations

  • Fernet rinse

    Rinse the glass with fernet and discard it instead of stirring it in.

What kind of drink this is

The structure behind the recipe

A stirred build: a spirit and modifier gin-based drink, served straight up, no ice — silky and dense in the mouth.

Spirit and modifier

Spirit combined with an aromatised or flavoured modifier and little else — concentrated, and served small for exactly that reason.

  • Base

    London Dry gin

  • Modifier

    Sweet vermouth

  • Bitter element

    Fernet-Branca

Drinks built this way are collected as the Martini family.

Technique

stirred

The liquid is moved around the ice rather than against it, so it chills and dilutes with almost no air incorporated and almost no ice broken up.

A heavy, silky, completely clear drink. Alcohol reads more sharply than in the same drink shaken, because nothing has softened it.

What it ruins: Nothing outright, but it will not combine egg, dairy or thick syrup — those need force.

Everything about stirring →How the technique works →

Dilution

During mixing, then strained

Water from ice typically makes up around 25% of the finished drink for a stirred build (commonly 20–30%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.

Why dilution is an ingredient →

Served

Straight up, no ice

Coupe glass · 115ml

Chilled during mixing and then strained away from the ice, so it arrives at its coldest and most concentrated and warms from the first sip — which is why 115ml is the right size for it.

Texture and aroma

Silky and denseOrange twistFernet-Branca

Stirred without aeration, the drink stays heavy and slightly viscous in the mouth.

Aroma arrives before flavour does. A citrus twist is expressed over the surface so its oils sit on top of the drink — skipping it changes the drink more than its size suggests.

Where to go from here

Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.

Where it comes from

Origin and family

Origin of the Hanky Panky

Created by Ada Coleman, head bartender of the American Bar at the Savoy in London in the early twentieth century, and printed in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). The story that she made it for the actor Charles Hawtrey is her own later account.

The Savoy Cocktail Book gives equal gin and sweet vermouth with two dashes of fernet; the IBA uses 7.5ml. This uses 5ml, between the two.

Family

Martini

Spirit · dry or sweet vermouth · optional bitters — stirred, strained, served up.

1800s–1919Other pre-prohibition drinks →

On drinks history

Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.

History and culture →

Try this next

  • A Last Word cocktail in a coupe glass, pale green and clear
    Last Word

    You may like this because it shares a herbal taste profile with the Hanky Panky.

  • Martinez

    You may like this because it's part of the same martini family as the Hanky Panky.

  • Vieux Carré

    You may like this because it shares a strong-forward profile with the Hanky Panky, but uses whisky instead of gin.

Use up your ingredients

Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.

Related tools

Scale this for a party

Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.

How far a bottle goes

Drinks per bottle, which bottle runs out first, batching — and the cost, at your own prices.

Recipe confidence

Attribution and early spec are documented; the fernet measure is a deliberate choice between two sources.

High confidence