Brine’s Time to Shine: Dirty Drinks Beyond the Martini

New variations on the Dirty Martini are on the rise. Photo credit Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández

The dirty drink trend has expanded beyond the borders of the Martini.

A “dirty” or “filthy” Martini is one with added olive brine in the drink. Salt in the brine, along with any pickling spices and the green vegetal olive flavor, turns the Martini from a dry drink into a savory one. 

Many bars serve Dirty Martini variations with other forms of brine, including the brine of jalapeños, pepperoncini, capers, cauliflower, green beans, and other vegetables. Most of these variations are savory, some are spicy, and all are salty.

At the extreme end of this trend, Morgan’s Cove by Don the Beachcomber in Tampa, Florida, serves a cocktail called the Miso Briny, made with vodka, miso-infused vermouth, house rice vinegar brine, mirin, and monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It’s garnished with a pickled cucumber and meant to make you crave sushi. 

The Martini’s close cousin, the Gibson, is traditionally made with gin and garnished with a brined cocktail onion, so it was natural that this drink would also go dirty. Tom Macy, co-owner of Brooklyn’s Clover Club, includes a recipe for the Dirty Gibson on his website. 

Several locations of New York’s Dante serve an Upside Down Dirty Gibson. The “dirty” refers to the onion brine (specifically, pickled ramp jus in the bottled version), and “upside down” refers to the reversed proportions of gin and vermouth, making it a low-ABV variation of the standard. 

The Vesper is also a close Martini relative, made with both vodka and gin and with Lillet Blanc instead of vermouth, but is typically garnished with a lemon peel. However, Cocktail Cove in Greensboro, NC, offers a Dirty Vesper that includes a homemade pepper-olive brine.

Dirty Tonic

Dirty Martini-inspired highball drinks with olive brine have become more popular. Photo credit Zhang liven

In the past few years of Martini mania, several bartenders have offered a version of a Martini Highball: essentially, adding soda water and (usually) olives on a pick to the traditional Martini recipe. This can be a fairly dirty drink on its own, as the brined olives are placed right in the liquid of the highball rather than balanced atop a cocktail glass, though a few bars have added additional brine to drive the point home. 

Similarly, the Gin and Tonic has been dirtied: Dean’s in New York City offers a cocktail called G&T with Fisher’s Gin and Fino Sherry, or as it is called on the website Punch, the Dirty Gin & Tonic. It is made with Fisher’s Gin, tonic, soda water, and a half ounce each of fino sherry and olive brine. It is garnished with olives.

Beefeater Gin’s website lists a recipe for a Dirty Gin and Tonic calling for gin, tonic, olive brine, and a splash of prosecco. This version is garnished with an olive and a lemon slice. 

There is a vodka variation as well. One popular drink at Martiny’s in New York has been the Dirty Tonic, made with Grey Goose vodka, olive oil, spices, and tonic water. This drink has been on the menu for several years already.

Rum Around and Find Out

Le Latin, an award-winning rum drink that features olive brine. Photo credit Bacardi

In researching this story, I didn’t find too many dirty rum drinks. Recipes for the Dirty Mojito turned up versions of that drink made with gold, aged, or spiced rum rather than anything with olives. And a recipe for a Dirty Piña Colada only added coffee liqueur.

I did find a couple of Dirty Daiquiris, though not at the Texas bar called Dirty Daiquiri, surprisingly. (The bar seems to call all drinks Daiquiris, much like how some bars call all drinks in cocktail glasses martinis.)

The 2015 Bacardi Legacy Global Cocktail Competition winner was a drink called Le Latin, by bartender Frank Dedieu. At the competition, the drink earned the nickname “the Dirty Daiquiri,” as it contains Bacardi Superior white rum, simple syrup, lemon juice, Viognier white wine, and olive brine.

Massimo Zitti from Toronto’s fermentation-forward Mother Cocktail Bar shared a video for a Dirty Daiquiri that doesn’t include olives, but does include salt from saline solution. Zitti says he learned of the drink in Manchester years back. It includes lemon juice, maple syrup, saline solution, Angostura bitters, and Planteray pineapple rum. The drink is topped not with an olive, but with a spray of smoky Islay Scotch whisky.

Tequila and Salt and Savory

Trevor Easter’s Dirty Margarita at Day Tripper in Sacramento. Photo credit Day Tripper

Thanks to the rim on a Margarita, salt and tequila have a long history together. So too do green veggies and spicy foods like jalapeños and other peppers. Olives are an easy (and in retrospect, obvious?) addition to that grouping. At OneThirtyFive Prime in Waco, Texas, the Dirty Margarita includes olive “juice” along with traditional ingredients. 

Eastern Standard Kitchen and Drinks, one of Boston’s most notable cocktail spots, features Beverage Director Jackson Cannon’s version of the drink. His Dirty Margarita contains tequila, agave syrup, lime, and olive brine, and is garnished with a blue cheese-stuffed olive. This drink is served on the rocks.

The Dirty Margarita at Boston’s Eastern Standard Kitchen and Drinks. Photo credit Rebecca Nottonson

On the other hand, in Sacramento, California, Trevor Easter’s Dirty Margarita at newish bar Day Tripper is served up. Like Cannon’s version, this is a Tommy’s Margarita (which replaces triple sec liqueur with agave syrup), but also features the spicy St. George Green Chile Vodka, nopales, and chili brine. 

The Ranch Water is a Tequila Soda with lime, and bartenders are mixing olives into that as well. There are a few recipes online; just add a splash of brine, and garnish it with olives. 

La Sirena Cocktails in San Angelo, Texas also features the Dirty Ranch Water on its Instagram account. It is described as “your favorite Martini meets a Texas staple — smooth tequila, rich olive brine, and a splash of Topo Chico,” referring to the famously high-in-carbonation soda water. The cocktail is garnished with three olives on a pick and a lime wheel in the highball.

Not Even the Negroni is Safe from Savory

Bar Sprezzatura’s Dirty Negroni. Photo credit Bar Sprezzatura

While I didn’t find salty versions of every single cocktail in reporting this story, I was surprised at just how many of the classics have in fact been done dirty. Yes, even the bittersweet Negroni has been brined: Petoskey, Michigan venue Palette Bistro offers a Dirty Negroni with Beefeater gin, Campari, vermouth, olive juice, and an orange peel. 

They up the olives at Murray’s Tavern in Austin, where the Dirty Negroni contains olive oil-infused Aviation gin, Campari, Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino, olive bitters, and salt. 

Kravat Bar in Phnom Penh marries two trends in its Shameless Negroni, which is described as “a Dirty Negroni that went too far.” It is stirred with jasmine rice, a trend of a couple years ago meant to soften certain drinks, and made savory with both olive brine and fermented lime brine. 

We’ve now seen fermented lime, chili, and nopales brines in addition to olive brine in these drinks, but at San Francisco’s Bar Sprezzatura, the dose of dirty in the Dirty Negroni, which recently left the menu, comes from strawberry brine. Wild strawberries are brined with honey, rose vinegar, pink peppercorns, cinnamon, and vanilla, and the drink is garnished with a strawberry split on the rim for a sweet and tangy take on the classic.