Earl Grey MarTEAni Cocktail Recipe

The Earl Grey MarTEAni is a modern classic cocktail built from Earl Grey tea–infused gin, simple syrup, fresh lemon juice and an egg white. This pioneering Gin Sour variation was created by cocktail legend Audrey Saunders, owner of New York City’s influential cocktail bar, Pegu Club, which closed in 2020. The protégé of Dale DeGroff “King Cocktail” is also responsible for other contemporary classics such as the Gin-Gin Mule and Old Cuban. 

In 2003, while working at Bemelmans Bar in Manhattan’s Carlyle Hotel, Saunders was sent to London for a pop-up event at Rivoli Bar inside The Ritz Hotel. This is where the Earl Grey MarTEAni was first introduced. 

Saunders added the cocktail to Bemelmans’ menu and eventually brought the drink with her once she opened Pegu Club in 2005, becoming one of the bar’s most popular orders.

Why the Earl Grey MarTEAni works

In Bartender’s Pantry, co-authored by Jim Meehan and Emma Janzen and published in 2024, Saunders explains the inspiration behind the drink.

“The name is a play on that whole silly ‘Tini’ business, but the drink is a nod to traditional English tea service, often served with lemon and lumps of sugar on the side,” she says. “Instead of using milk, I opted for egg white, which provides not only an ethereal mouthfeel but a perfect foil for the tea’s tannins.”

As is the case with all sour cocktails — a category of drinks that dates to the 1850s and includes the Sidecar and Daiquiri — balancing the sweet, sour, and base spirit is key. This recipe calls for a higher proportion of sweet to balance out the dry gin that’s been infused with intense notes of bergamot, a type of fragrant citrus, the main flavor in Earl Grey tea. Fresh lemon juice counters the sweetness as well, lending brightness to the drink and pumping up the botanical aromatics.

Be sure to vigorously shake all the ingredients without ice first (dry shake) to fully integrate the egg white and to create the “ethereal mouthfeel” Saunders intended when creating this drink.