Profile
The Petit Zinc is a vodka drink with a French bistro sensibility: a little orange liqueur, a little sweet vermouth and a splash of orange juice, shaken with cracked ice and served up. It shares its name with Le Petit Zinc, a long-running bistro in Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés known for its Art Nouveau façade. Naming drinks after favorite bars and restaurants was a common habit in older cocktail books, and this one’s citrus and vermouth profile fits right into the bistro aperitif tradition.
Vodka is an unusual base for something this layered, but here that is the point. The spirit brings structure and lift without competing, and the Cointreau, sweet vermouth and orange juice do all the flavor work. The result is bright, gently bittersweet and less boozy-tasting than most vodka cocktails, closer to an aperitif than a spirit-forward sipper. The orange juice keeps it lively without turning it into a screwdriver variation.
Glass: Cocktail glass | Strength: Medium | Serves: 1 | Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bartenders tip: Cracked ice is worth the small effort. It melts faster than cubes and gives the extra dilution this drink needs, since half an ounce of orange juice is not much liquid to soften an ounce of vodka. Strain into a properly chilled glass, because a drink this small warms up quickly. Swap in gin if you want botanicals to add another layer, though it moves the drink away from its original character.
Ingredients
- 1 oz vodka
- ½ oz Cointreau
- ½ oz sweet vermouth
- ½ oz orange juice
- Ice
- Garnish: maraschino cherry or orange slice
Steps
- Shake: Shake with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Garnish and serve: Garnish with a cherry or orange slice, and serve.
