To the average Spaniard, the word “combinación,” meaning “combination,” might not bring to mind the cocktail of the same name. But the mix of gin and sweet vermouth has been documented in Madrid since the early 20th century, and was one of the city’s aperitif cocktails of choice in the 1950s and ’60s. However, in the years since, the Combinación has faded from menus and fallen out of public consciousness. The cocktail might have remained a historic footnote in Madrid’s drinking culture were it not for celebrated bartender Diego Cabrera, who made it his mission to give the Combinación a second life.
In 2018, Cabrera took over the bar at Viva Madrid, a traditional tavern that first opened in 1856. Wanting to modernize the offerings, Cabrera established a cocktail program in the historic space, featuring crowd-pleasing cocktails like Espresso Martinis and Piña Coladas alongside his own take on the historic Combinación.
One of the earliest recorded recipes for the Combinación comes from Pedro Chicote, one of Spain’s most famous bartenders, in his 1927 book, El Bar Americano en España. His formula calls for dry gin and vermouth in equal proportions, plus a small measure of red Curaçao and Angostura bitters. Fast-forward almost a century and Cabrera has reimagined the classic with minor tweaks, calling it the Media Combinación, as the drink is better known in the capital. (Similar drinks with varying proportions appear in different regions under different names, like the Marianito in the Basque region.) Cabrera’s bar ditches the Curaçao and uses a house blend of amontillado sherry and sweet vermouth, specifically Vermut Navarro, which is made from raisins and without added sugar. “I have always been questioned in the orthodox cocktail world, but if it’s in my hands to improve a drink, why wouldn’t I?” asks Cabrera. “People’s palates have changed—we don’t drink as they did in the 1920s; cocktails evolve.”
In addition to the classic Media Combinación, Viva Madrid also offers a Cuban version featuring Curaçao and mint leaves. According to Cabrera, both versions are best accompanied by a Gilda, a snack of Basque origin made of guindilla peppers, Cantabrian anchovies and Manzanilla olives served skewered on a toothpick. Cabrera calls it the perfect marriage.
A decade ago, the drink was only available at a few bars, like historic Lhardy, which has had the Media Combinación on the menu for almost a century. Sonsoles García, from Lhardy’s managing team, explains that they still use the traditional recipe, which calls for two parts vermouth, one of gin (originally Gordon’s) and Angostura bitters. According to Lhardy’s records, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) both the glass in which it was served and the amount of drink in the glass shrank to reduce costs; that format has remained to this day.
But where did the drink come from? “The history of the Combinación is long and complicated,” explains François Monti, a drinks writer who moved to Madrid in 2008. “Both vermouth and the cocktail became popular in the country at the end of the 19th century. Around that time, in the traditional culture of the European cafés, drinks like the Americano in Italy, the Combinación in Spain, or the Cassis Vermouth in France emerged,” explains Monti. His interpretation is that the Combinación was born in Spain’s classic cafés—places where mixed drinks weren’t typically served—as an attempt to recreate an American-style cocktail, perhaps thanks to clients who had traveled abroad and came back sharing how it was done in places like Paris. “Those café barmen, who didn’t necessarily have an understanding of American cocktail culture, devised something relatively similar to what the travelers mentioned, creating their very own, very European drinks in the process,” he says.
After a period of scant popularity, “la hora del vermut,” that midday aperitif time that was integral to Spaniards’ weekend rituals for much of the 20th century, is seeing a revival, and at its center is the Combinación. The drink has even started to appear on menus outside of Spain. Inspired by Cabrera’s version, Miguel F. Lancha, cocktail director at José Andrés’ ThinkFood Group, included the drink on the menu at Bar Celona in New York City. “Media Combinación was one of those classics from Madrid that was on the verge of disappearing, so much so that young bartenders in the Spanish capital didn’t even know it,” he says. Media Combinación is also served at other spots operated by the group, in cities such as Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Orlando.
Drinks historian David Wondrich considers the Combinación an important link between contemporary and historic Spanish cocktail culture. “It’s an essential cocktail because it’s old; it uses American ideas of mixology without being an American drink (showing how those ideas interacted with local traditions and ingredients); it’s characteristic of Spain, one of the most important countries in the global spread of the cocktail bar; and it’s still popular,” he explains.
If Cabrera has any say in it, as long as Viva Madrid is still going strong, the drink will do the same. “The Media Combinación is our homage to Madrid; it’s part of its history and we need to protect it,” he says. “As long as we keep it in our menu, this cocktail will be alive.”
