Step 1

Admittedly, you could pull last night’s bottle out of the trash bin, but it’s probably easier to simply consume a fresh bottle down to the 15 oz line at breakfast. There is no explicit 15 oz marking, but a quick check with a ruler will show you immediately that at 2.25 cm above the 12 oz mark it’s just above the lower border of the gripping band indent on the bottle.

Step 2

From there simply fill to the 20 oz line with dry vermouth and then follow that with a simple 5 oz fill of water to the total volume marker ring on the neck of the bottle. And take note: please don’t use tap water in this application. You really do want to find a bottle of very soft bottled (i.e. not mineral) water or distilled. Yes, it makes a difference.

Step 3

At this point you have the option of adding 6-7 dashes of orange bitters if you like. Add cap, invert gently several times to mix, and place in freezer.

Step 4

What could be easier?

Step 5

The remaining instructions should be familiar:

Step 6

Pour into pre-chilled glass

Step 7

Garnish with your choice of lemon twist, olive or even both if you’re feeling Dale DeGroff-ish. Of course if you crave Gibsons it’s a cocktail onion but then please omit the orange bitters above and add a short dash of celery bitters to each serving.

Step 8

Drink