You can vary ratio of Pineau to gin to taste. My favorite bartender makes me variations of this; he has used Nolet's, Oola, and Botanist gin, and often finishes the drink with an orange twist and a barspoon of something interesting- he has used Benedictine, Luxardo Maraschino, and Cocchi Americano, all to good effect. Sweeter than a traditional martini, but the gin flavors still shine through.

Why have I not thought of this? I've loved Pineau des Charentes for decades, and it would seem a natural with gin and a barspoon of something. Simple and tasty means an ideal cocktail to me. Thanks Christina, and Rachel!

Happy to share :)

I'm thinking this might be the Aviation Cocktail in Jacques Straub's 1914 "Drinks". If it is, it's 1 1/8 oz Applejack (3/4 jigger), 3/4 lime (1/2 jigger), dash Absinthe, barspoon grenadine... which seems very close to this. If you'd like, I can change the drink, but I'll at least cite the author and book now.

Very nice. Subtle. Had Wray and Nephew instead of St. Elizabeth, and, if memory serves, that's a bit more assertive - to the good as I used something a bit more assertive than Dickel. My thanks. 4 stars.

Good

Too rich for me as written. I'd like to try it with dry vermouth.

Due to a curation request, I merged two cocktails called "Gypsy" - the one with a better source citation is the one I kept.

Weird. Here's the St. Germain recipe which differs from Difford's Guide and the way my gin bar made the drink in 2017 (1/4 oz Green Chartreuse). I also found online recipe flashcards from Bourbon & Branch in 2017 that has it as a full 1 oz lime juice with everything else the same as St. Germain's recipe. The flashcards (albeit 9 years after the drink was created) have a lime wheel garnish and Difford's recommends a lime twist.

I found a video from Dec. 2009 for Worscester Scene that gives the original drink by Dominic Venegas as 1.5 Gin, 3/4 St. Germain, 1/4 Green Chartreuse, 1/2 lime. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuwV0aMPj3Y) The bartender Eric used Plymouth and upped the Chartreuse to 1/2 for personal preference. This set of ratios (w/ 1/4 Chartreuse) seems to be present in several current sources, so I propose we move to that. We do need to show Venegas as the creator. Interestingly, I found a July 2009 link with the cocktail and him as bar director of Gitane at the time (2009). Anything original directly from Venegas on the recipe in the 2007 to 2009 time frame would be helpful. I haven't been able to get to the St. Germain site's version of the Gypsy, does anyone have a direct link?

I made this as proposed, and thought it was well balanced: pleasant Chartreuse herbal character, elderflower floral but not overpowering, not too sweet, not too sour. My rule of thumb is that when a drink is coldest citrus acidity can come through quite strong, while sweetness is subdued throwing off the perceived balance; but the tartness fades a little as a drink warms, while sweetness recovers. However, I wouldn't want to try the 1 oz lime version without more sweetened liqueurs to balance.

EDIT: Curated per above, using the video as the reference.

The bar lists Dominic as the creator on their menus:
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/bourbon-and-branch-san-francisco?select…

I wrote Dominic to ask what the OG recipe was (he made an emoji comment of approval on my Instagram post) but sadly got no reply.