Try to recreate the New York City saloon scene of 150 years ago and you’d have an easier time finding working gaslights than you would figuring out what those early cocktails tasted like. At least that was the case until 2009, when Ransom Spirits brought its Old Tom gin onto the market, resurrecting a historically accurate gin that predates even Jerry Thomas. This year, Ransom Old Tom is finally breaching the city limits and making inroads into Manhattan, much to the joy of 21st century imbibers.
Old Tom gin – generally speaking, a slightly sweetened gin with malty, genever-like characteristics – earned its place in cocktail history when it was used in the Martinez and early martini cocktails in the middle of the 1800s. It was supplanted by London Dry gins in the 20th century and for decades was all but obsolete. In recent years, however, it’s started to make a comeback among the cocktail cognescenti.
Replicating a historically accurate Old Tom gin was no easy task. “It’s a moving target,” as cocktail historian David Wondrich puts it. “What was Old Tom at the beginning of the [19th] century would have been pretty unrecognizable from what it was at the end of the century.” Ransom owner/distiller Tad Seestedt decided to create a replica of an earlier style Old Tom that Wondrich describes as “almost pre-Victorian, it’s almost late Georgian.”
Consulting with Wondrich throughout the process for historical accuracy, Tad distilled it in a pot still rather than a continuous still, and barrel-aged at the end to give it an un-gin-like amber color. Most notably, he used whiskey mash rather than neutral spirits. Wondrich says, “Most gin makers play with the botanicals, and what we came up with was, let’s play with the base spirit. That’s something that most people won’t do. Tad’s such a good distiller that I had a feeling it would come out.”
The finished product is unlike any other gin or genever out there, including Hayman’s Old Tom, which replicates a later style of Old Tom gin. It’s been enthusiastically endorsed by no less a gin expert than gaz regan. And now, New Yorkers can taste the kind of gin that drinkers of 150 years ago might have sampled in the city’s finer drinking establishments.
Ransom Old Tom Gin is currently being served at Death & Co., PDT, Bar Henry and Hearth , no doubt with more drinkeries to follow. If you want to make your own Martinez, you can buy it by the bottle at the Park Avenue Liquor Shop and Astor Wines & Spirits. For those who are so inclined, here’s Jerry Thomas’ recipe for a Martinez, from his Bar Tender’s Guide of 1887 (thanks to David Wondrich for exhuming it):
1 dash Boker’s bitters [no longer made; use Angostura as a substitute]
2 dashes Maraschino
1 oz. Old Tom gin
2 oz. sweet vermouth
2 small lumps of ice [in the age of readily available ice, it’s OK to use more]
Stir and strain into a large cocktail glass. Add a small slice of lemon, and two dashes of simple syrup [optional].