Tuxedo
Old Tom gin and dry vermouth with maraschino, an absinthe rinse and orange bitters — the Martini with more going on.
- Difficulty
- medium
- Prep time
- 4 min
- Strength
- 25% ABV
- Glassware
- Coupe glass
- Base
- gin
- Serves
- 1
Ingredients
- Old Tom gin40ml
- Dry vermouth30ml
- Maraschino liqueur3ml
Half a bar spoon
- Absinthe3ml
To rinse the glass; most is tipped out
- Orange bitters2 dashes
Garnish: Lemon twist, Cocktail cherry
Method
- Chill a coupe glass, then pour in the absinthe, swirl it round to coat the inside, and tip out the excess.
- Add the gin, dry vermouth, maraschino and orange bitters to a mixing glass filled with ice.
- Stir for about 30 seconds, until very cold.
- Strain into the rinsed coupe, express a lemon twist over it and add a cherry.
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
- 40ml old tom gin
- 30ml dry vermouth
- 2.5ml maraschino liqueur
- 2.5ml absinthe
- 2 dashes orange bitters
IBA
- 30 ml Old Tom Gin
- 30 ml Dry Vermouth
- 1/2 Bar Spoon Maraschino Luxardo
- 1/4 Bar Spoon of Absinthe
- 3 Dashes Orange Bitters
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 (dry 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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Equipment
Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.
Mixing glass
Household swap: A sturdy pint glass.
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 102ml 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 108–114ml 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 Old Tom Gin
Best substitute: Gin
This is the base in this drink.
Quantity: Same amount, and a few drops more maraschino
Flavour impact: Drier and sharper, closer to a seasoned Martini.
What changes
Expect less sweetness and more intensity. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.
- Sweetness ↓
- Less sweetness leaves the acid and the spirit more exposed, so the drink will taste sharper and drier than it should.
- Intensity ↑
- A more intensely flavoured ingredient will start to dominate the components around it.
- Character
- Both are botanical, and you lose juniper, rounded and lightly sweet, and you gain juniper-forward, dry and aromatic. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
To correct for it
- Add a little more syrup, a small amount at a time, until the edges come back together.
- Scale it back by a third and let the other ingredients hold their share.
High confidenceShifts the drink
Make it better
- Rinse, do not pour. The absinthe should be something you smell rather than taste.
- With a London Dry gin instead of Old Tom, add a few drops more maraschino to keep the roundness.
- Several different drinks have been called a Tuxedo since the 1880s. This is the one most bars now mean, and close to the IBA's.
- 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.
Rescue this drink
- Tastes of aniseed
- The rinse was not tipped out. Swirl, then discard everything that runs off.
- Flat
- Old dry vermouth. Use a bottle opened within the last month and kept in the fridge.
- 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.
- Too sweetgeneral guidance
- Add a small amount of fresh citrus juice or a dash of bitters to bring the balance back — adjust gradually and taste as you go.
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 2.3 UK units at roughly 25% ABV once diluted. 4 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 1.6 units, 25% 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.
- 27ml Old Tom Gin
- 20ml Dry Vermouth
- 2ml Maraschino Liqueur
- 2ml Absinthe
- 1ml Orange bitters
Reverse the ratioSupportedabout 1.8 units, 21.2% ABV
Two parts dry vermouth to one of old tom gin. Reversed Martinis and Manhattans are long-standing variations: softer and more aromatic, and the dry vermouth needs to be fresh.
- 20ml Old Tom Gin
- 40ml Dry Vermouth
- 3ml Maraschino Liqueur
- 3ml Absinthe
- 2ml Orange bitters
Split the base with a lower-strength modifierSupportedabout 2.2 units, 23.8% ABV
Equal parts old tom gin and dry vermouth: the "fifty-fifty" treatment, at the same volume, for a rounder and softer drink.
- 35ml Old Tom Gin
- 35ml Dry Vermouth
- 3ml Maraschino Liqueur
- 3ml Absinthe
- 2ml Orange bitters
Replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottlePossible, with a trade-offabout 2.1 units, 22.3% ABV
Half the dry vermouth with alcohol-free vermouth. Only a modifier has an alcohol-free counterpart here, so the saving is modest. Some alcohol-free bottles carry a trace of alcohol — check the label if that matters to you.
- 40ml Old Tom Gin
- 15ml Dry Vermouth
- 15ml Alcohol-Free Vermouth
- 3ml Maraschino Liqueur
- 3ml Absinthe
- 2ml Orange bitters
Not recommended for this drink: a longer serve; 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.
- 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
dry, soft, light — a spirit and modifier drink served straight up, no ice.
Dry
Dry → Sweet
Barely sweetened. The spirit and the acid are what you taste.
What drives it: Maraschino liqueur — carries the most sugar into the glass. Worked out partly from ingredient category rather than from recorded detail.
Faintly bitter
Gentle → Bitter
A bitter edge you would only notice if you looked for it.
What drives it: Orange bitters — 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: Old Tom gin — adds most of the weight. Worked out partly from ingredient category rather than from recorded detail.
Very bold
Delicate → Bold
Very bold — concentrated, and served small for that reason.
What drives it: Old Tom gin — is the most concentrated thing in the glass. Worked out partly from ingredient category rather than from recorded detail.
What you smell first
- Citrus peelLeadsBefore the first sip
From Orange bitters, Lemon twist
- Fresh herbLeads
From Dry vermouth
- Floral
From Dry vermouth
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. About 48% of this drink by volume has detailed ingredient data behind it; the rest falls back to broader category rules.
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 itVermouth 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 strong
- Likely cause
- Old Tom 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It's cloudy when it should be clear
- Likely cause
- Two possible causes. Absinthe clouds (louches) when water meets it, which is expected and harmless; otherwise the drink was shaken or churned, which whips in air and ice shards.
- 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.
My batch tastes worse than the first glass
- Likely cause
- dry 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.
The garnish is all I can taste
- Likely cause
- The lemon 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.
Each drink comes out different
- Likely cause
- With 5 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 old Tom gin, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, absinthe, orange bitters 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.
It tastes flat, dull or like old wine
- Likely cause
- Dry 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 dry 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.
Something else wrong? Open this drink in the Recipe Doctor.
Taste profile
- Sweetness
- 1/5
- Sourness
- 0/5
- Bitterness
- 1/5
- Strength
- 4/5
- Fruitiness
- 1/5
- Freshness
- 2/5
- Creaminess
- 0/5
- Smokiness
- 0/5
Nutrition & alcohol
Estimate only- Calories
- 140 kcal
- Sugar
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- 3 g
- Alcohol units (UK)
- 2.33
- US standard drinks
- 1.27
- ABV
- 25%
- Serving size
- 90 ml
Show calculation assumptions
Source: Calculated from standard measures
Calorie breakdown: ~124 kcal from alcohol, ~16 kcal from sugar and mixers.
Likely range: 105–175 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.
Assumes Old Tom gin at 42% ABV, dry vermouth at 18%, an absinthe rinse of which very little is drunk, and about 22% dilution from stirring.
These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.
Variations
Equal parts
The IBA's 30ml Old Tom to 30ml dry vermouth.
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
Old Tom gin
Modifier
Dry vermouth
Sweet element
Maraschino liqueur
Bitter element
Orange bitters
Aromatic
Absinthe
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 · 90ml
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 90ml is the right size for it.
Texture and aroma
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 Tuxedo
Named for the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park, New York, and recorded in several forms from the late 1880s; early versions disagree on gin, vermouth and seasoning, and more than one drink carries the name.
The IBA uses equal parts Old Tom and dry vermouth with half a bar spoon of maraschino, a quarter bar spoon of absinthe and three dashes of orange bitters.
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
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
The name and period are documented; the recipe was not fixed historically.