barman pouring cosmopolitan inyo martini glass
bogdanhoda/Shutterstock
bogdanhoda/Shutterstock

The Two-Ingredient Cocktail That Will Change Your Life

Brunch sucks. Who wants to put on pants on the weekend (ugh!) and stand around waiting for middling waffles and watery versions of the world’s most boring cocktail, the mimosa? At best it's decent champagne and decent orange juice. At worst, it's bad champagne and bad orange juice. Either way, we all deserve better drinks.

Enter the two-ingredient breakfast martini. “Say what?” you may ask, to which I say, “gather around, friends: Let me blow your mind.”

If you’ve got gin and jam at home, you have the makings of a delicious two-ingredient cocktail that’ll blow any mimosa out of the water. More flavorful than pulpy OJ, more potent than sparkling wine, gin-and-jam (the aforementioned breakfast martini) is infinitely customizable and infinitely more fun to drink.

To make the drink, grab a spoonful of your favorite jam, preserve, jelly or marmalade and put it in a cocktail mixer (or glass if you’re truly lazy; I won't judge your life). Use whatever jam you want, but know that orange marmalade (a personal fave) is a dream and plays well with gin’s floral, herbal flavors. (I love the Bonne Maman brand, for both variety and ubiquity -- you can get it in a ton of run-of-the-mill grocery stores.) Other great options are berry preserves, for their tartness. Just note that fruit butters have too much pectin and don’t cocktail well, so avoid them.

The next step? Pour some gin over the jam and, if using a shaker, put your arms to work, but if you’re going the glass route, give it a vigorous stir. Voila, you got a drink. Whatever gin you have on hand works well -- heck, vodka can do the trick, too.

If I can get my hands on some citrus, I like to squeeze in a slice of lemon, lime, or orange for a little zest, but this is not necessary. Dissolved, the jam acts as the flavoring and sweetness component, the citrus (if using) is the vector for acid, and the gin is your boozy friend. If you like bubbles, feel free top off the drink with some club soda.

Unlike fussy, too-many-ingredient mixology potions, the breakfast martini comes together in the time it takes to put on a pair of jeans -- but doesn't require you wear jeans to consume one. Take that, brunch.

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Joseph Hernandez is Thrillist’s senior travel editor with a penchant for mixing up lazy cocktails. Follow his drinking adventures @joeybear85.