World Cucumber Day is on June 14 and what better way to celebrate the drink holiday than with a Cucumber Martini.
The Cucumber Martini needs a little prep if you’re making the cocktail at home and is best made fresh. For this recipe, we used cucumber water which is made by grating a peeled cucumber, salting it and letting it sit for about 10 minutes for the juice to develop. The liquid is strained, squeezing on the solids to extract as much as possible.
The Cucumber Martini is a gin-based cocktail, a savoury take on the classic with dry vermouth, cucumber water, celery bitters and saline solution. To make the saline solution, simply dissolve sea salt in water in a 1 to 4 ratio. You can omit this step but the saline intensifies the savoury and salty notes. We like it in a London dry style of gin, a savoury gin or a gin which has cucumber as a botanical. It makes a refreshing afternoon Martini or an aperitif style cocktail.
Cucumber Martini Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber, peeled and grated
- pinch of sea salt
- 50 ml gin
- 7 ml dry vermouth
- 1 bar spoon cucumber water
- 1 dash celery bitters
- 1 drop saline solution (1:4 ratio)
Glassware: Martini glass
Garnish: thin cucumber ribbon
Method
To make the cucumber water, over a small bowl, grate the peeled cucumber, add salt and leave for around 10 min for the juice to develop. Strain the juice and discard the pulp.
To make the saline solution, in a small container with a lid, add 20g of sea salt to 80ml of water and shake well until dissolved. Transfer to an eye dropper or bitters bottle.
To make the Cucumber Martini, stir the gin, vermouth, cucumber juice, bitters and saline in a mixing glass with ice until very cold. Strain into a chilled Martini glass and garnish with a thin cucumber ribbon.
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