Groundhog Day Cocktail
INGREDIENTS
- Sweet vermouth
- Lemon Twist
- Ice
INSTRUCTIONS
Fill a rocks glass with ice. Top with sweet vermouth and rim the glass with a lemon twist. Drop the lemon twist into the glass.
VIDEO HOW-TO
NOTES
This drink was made famous by the movie Groundhog Day (1993) starring Bill Murray as weatherman Phil Connors and Andie MacDowell as his producer Rita. In the movie disgruntled weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray, right) chooses just that. Caught in an endless time loop, he relives the same day repeatedly until he gets it right.
The first “day” he sits down at a bar with his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell, left), he orders a “Jim Beam, ice, water.” She orders a “sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist.” He winces but takes note.
The second “day,” hoping to impress her, he orders a sweet vermouth just before she does. She turns to him amazed. “It always makes me think of Rome, the way the sun hits the buildings,” he says insincerely, beating her to the punch. Again she’s amazed. By the third “day” he has the sequence down cold, even if the vermouth still tastes rough. “To world peace,” he toasts—forcing himself to swallow.
There’s a bit of an in-joke here, since sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist was said to be the favorite drink of writer/director Harold Ramis‘ wife.
Italian in its origin, sweet—or red—vermouth is a slightly spicy fortified wine flavored with botanicals.
