On The Martini.
Thursday, January 31st, 2008I was introduced to gin and martinis by Jason Dunn, formerly of The Halogens and now of The Luxury while out one night in Alston. I was fairly instantly hooked. For several years it p
ersisted to be my primary drink.
Now for someone that really appreciates martinis, what is in a martini is a touchy subject. I am one of those such people.
First of all, if you don’t like gin or strong drinks then there’s no way you’ll like a real martini. These aren’t drinks for people who like chocolate or juice in their drink. If you like strong beer, hearty wines, or scotch then you’ll probably like a martini. If you’re cool with that, then let’s roll on and sort out what isn’t a martini
A martini is not just anything you throw into a cocktail glass (it’s a cocktail glass, not a martini glass). Rum, fruitjuice, chocolate, or vodka do not belong in a proper martini. I’ll bend the rules slightly, but only slightly. Even this bending stops it from being a martini. It makes it something cool, but not a martini.
 A martini is: Gin chilled (either via shaking with ice, or stirring) with a small amount of white dry vermouth. Garnishes that I personally approve of include olives, cucumber, onion (which actually makes it a Gibson), or a lemon twist (very small). You can also add a bit of olive brine to it, which makes it a “dirty martini”. This is all acceptable.
Now the “Bond Martini” has a weird story to it. First of all, it’s properly known as a “bradford” (although in the book named the Vesper) and isn’t a proper martini as it includes vodka. In the movies it was vodka only, due to a marketing pact with Stoli. In the books however, the vesper is half gin, half vodka along with lillet blanc vermouth- stirred and not shaken (opposite from the movies again!). Stirring is the more time consuming and proper way to make a martini. Few places do it now as it’s just not as efficient behind the bar and generally works best for making several martinis at once. I’m wondering if Stoli wanted them to switch it so that more bartenders would actually do i!
My standard martini is made with Hendricks gin (a personal favorite), extra dry (containing barely any vermouth) and slightly dirty. My favorite garnish happens to be blue cheese stuffed olives although they do somewhat detract from the delicacy of the martini and I’ve been switching to simply cucumbers now. I prefer for it to be shaken extra well, as a poorly shaken martini is a shame. An alternative to massive shaking is freezing the gin and the cocktail glass prior. If I can get my hands on it at the bar (which few bars stock) I personally prefer the lillet blanc myself over the more ubiquitous Martini and Rossi. Watch out however has vermouth has a fixed shelf life. If it’s rarely used, it will not enhance the drink at all.
Other things that I have been wanting to try, which are a departure from the traditional martini and I would never call a martini are as follows:
-  Plymouth Gin
- A small amount of absinth louched into the drink
- With an almond at the bottom.
And, departing from gin 100%
- Akvavit
- trying Vermouth or absinth used sparingly
- A single large kalamata olive.
 I have yet to try these, but I will soon enough now that it’s far easier to obtain some form of absinth in the US. The reason thinking for akvavit is that it’s very similar to gin, but flavored differently. My logic going that the absinth’s flavors will compliment it well.
I have recently moved on a bit to single malt scotch as my drink of choice but few bars are suited with a decent scotch list and it’s not as good in a crowd and more suited towards quiet conversation imho.
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