THE CLASSIC RECIPES
There are Martinis made with gin or vodka and dry vermouth, and “Martinis” that call for apple schnapps, chocolate liqueur, purees of exotic fruit, and pretty much any other flavor you can imagine. For our purposes, we begin our exploration of the Martini with the standard recipe that can be found in most cocktail books, classic and modern alike: gin paired with dry vermouth, served up and garnished with either a lemon twist or an olive.
Gin Martini
2 ounces gin
¾ ounce dry vermouth
Garnish: 1 lemon twist or olive
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with the lemon twist (expressed over the drink and set on the edge of the glass) or olive.
But when vodka is the core, the amount of vermouth is frequently decreased. Whereas gin has a strong botanical flavor (more on this later) that stands up to the vermouth, the flavor profile of vodka is highly streamlined and can easily be overshadowed by the vermouth. Some Vodka Martini recipes forgo vermouth altogether, but in our view, a bit of vermouth adds a touch of complexity, yielding a cocktail that’s more than just chilled vodka.
Vodka Martini
2½ ounces vodka
½ ounce dry vermouth
Garnish: 1 lemon twist or olive
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with the lemon twist (expressed over the drink and set on the edge of the glass) or olive.
OUR ROOT RECIPES
As we’ll explore in this chapter, gin comes in many different flavor profiles and varying proofs. Dry vermouths can also be dramatically different depending on the producer’s recipe, and also how fresh the bottle is (an open bottle of vermouth deteriorates just like wine). The flavor of vodka can also vary depending on the source ingredient. All of these variables mean the Martini is highly customizable, with a key factor being the drinker’s preference regarding intensity: high proof and less vermouth versus low proof and more vermouth.
For our Gin Martini root recipe, we take the classic version and push it in a vermouth-heavy direction. For the core, we use citrusy Plymouth gin, a crowd-pleasing choice. For the seasoning, our favorite bottle of dry vermouth, Dolin dry, with its flavors of alpine herbs, matches perfectly with the Plymouth gin. Because we’re always using fresh vermouth in the context of our bars, we boost the amount to a full ounce. Consider this a baseline for further customization: you may want your Martini drier (with less vermouth) or more herbaceous (with more vermouth, a personal favorite of ours).
We like a Martini in which the gin serves as the core but vermouth is very present, collaborating equally with the gin, typically two parts gin to one part vermouth. As you’ll see, we also include orange bitters. There are many historical references to such cocktails, though, depending on the source, it may be viewed as an entirely different cocktail. Be that as it may, we include orange bitters in our root recipe because it amplifies the flavors of both the gin and the vermouth and creates a harmonious cocktail without fundamentally changing the drink.
Finally, we express a twist of lemon over the top of the drink and then rest it delicately on the rim of the glass. As with the lemon twist in our Old-Fashioned recipe (this page), we avoid rubbing it around the rim of the glass, as the powerful lemon oils will linger on the drinker’s tongue and overwhelm the other flavors.
Personal taste plays an even greater role in the Vodka Martini than in one made with gin. We recognize that some people love nothing more than an ice-cold glass of vodka with little else getting in the way, but we prefer a cocktail with a bit more complexity. That said, with Vodka Martinis we prefer to err on the side of dry and clean by using less vermouth so that it exerts only a small, modifying influence on the cocktail, keeping the vodka front and center. Then, because vodka makes up such a large proportion of the drink, we use one that brings more than just proof to the party: Absolut Elyx, which makes a beautiful Martini, thanks to its smooth, slightly sweet flavor and softness. Finally, we garnish with an olive to add a hint of salt, which helps blend the flavors of the spirits.
Our Ideal Gin Martini
2 ounces Plymouth gin
1 ounce Dolin dry vermouth
1 dash House Orange Bitters (this page)
Garnish: 1 lemon twist
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Express the lemon twist over the drink, then set it on the edge of the glass.
Our Ideal Vodka Martini
2½ ounces Absolut Elyx vodka
½ ounce Dolin dry vermouth
Garnish: 1 olive
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with the olive.
HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?
A guy walks into a bar and orders a Martini…
No, no. That’s not right.
A guy walks into a bar and orders a Gin Martini, straight up, stirred, with a twist.
That’s more like it!
There’s no cocktail that’s ordered with more specific requests than the Martini: spirit type (gin or vodka), the quantity of vermouth (from dry to wet), technique (shaken or stirred), and a variety of garnish options ranging from olives and pickled onions to a citrus twist. How a person orders a Martini can communicate a lot: gin for traditionalists; vodka for rebels. A lemon twist and extra vermouth for poets; extra dry with a side of olives for bankers.
Furthermore, as cocktails have become a bigger part of American culture, our tastes have evolved. In the earliest days of the modern cocktail revival, back in the early 2000s, big, aggressive flavors were king: Jamaican rum, Italian bittersweet amari, and peaty scotch dominated cocktail menus at certain types of bars. But now the trend is toward finding beauty in the smallest and most delicate of details. The preference for one brand of gin over another, the influence of minerals in the ice used when stirring a cocktail, the perfume of a certain variety of lemon—these are differences that are revealed to those educated by experience, not by cocktail books, and that can elevate a cocktail into the realm of artistry.
We view understanding these kinds of fine details as the pinnacle of cocktail mastery, and perhaps no cocktail can exemplify this better than the Martini. Whereas many cocktails are defined by the strong personalities of their ingredients, the Martini is defined by minutiae—the small changes that can push the drink in many directions. By our definition, a Martini can be called a Martini if it’s made with both booze and vermouth, without much else added. You can make a great Martini with either gin or vodka.
The choice of garnish can confer the brightness of lemon oil, the saltiness of an olive, the savory kick of a pickled onion, or nothing at all. And it’s perfectly possible to shake a Martini, though we’ll do our best to convince you otherwise.
The Martini is built on the collaboration between a base spirit and an aromatized wine, be it vermouth or another flavorful wine-based modifier. This marriage of two ingredients to make a greater whole will define the core flavor of all drinks in this chapter. The Martini also lacks the rigidity found in other root cocktails; it can be flexible to preferences of alcoholic strength and sweet or dryness.
Take, for example, the Old-Fashioned. Increasing the amount of sweetener quickly sends the drink into cloying territory. Adding too many dashes of bitters means they’re all you’ll taste. The flexibility within the standard Old-Fashioned (and other root cocktails) is narrow, but not so with the Martini and its brethren. Add more vermouth and the Martini is deliciously herbaceous; reduce the vermouth so that it’s only a whisper and the Martini is dry and bracing, but still tasty. The Martini can be whatever you want it to be, and so this chapter is devoted to not only defining the skills and knowledge necessary to make a great Martini, but also guiding you to understanding how you take yours. Are you a poet or a banker?
MARTINI ORTHODOXY
The defining traits of the Martini and its extended family of cocktails:
A Martini is composed of alcohol and aromatized wine, typically gin or vodka and dry vermouth.
A Martini is flexible in regard to the proportions of those ingredients, and its balance is dependent on the preference of the drinker.
A Martini’s garnish has a big impact on the overall flavor and experience of the drink.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEMPLATE
Understanding why the Martini template works requires understanding how balance can be found between a high-proof spirit and an aromatized wine. The spirit (gin or vodka) brings proof and flavor to the cocktail, while the aromatized wine (vermouth) adds flavor, acidity, and sweetness and also curbs the alcoholic intensity of the spirit. These qualities make the Martini (and its many variations) a highly spirituous cocktail that’s texturally smooth and soothing.
We chose to focus this chapter on the Martini, not the Manhattan, its likely historical predecessor, because in a Martini there’s less to hide behind: the ingredients are nuanced enough that slightly shifting the proportions will have more dramatic results than, say, building a Manhattan upon stronger or sweeter ingredients.
THE CORE: GIN AND VODKA
Unlike the Old-Fashioned, which is solely focused on one spirit, the Martini has a core that’s a collaboration between gin or vodka and dry vermouth. And because there’s no sweetener, the vermouth must also balance the intensity of the base spirit. This is a big part of what makes the Martini so interesting—the fact that the core extends beyond the base spirit and actually lies in the interaction of the base spirit with the vermouth.
How can something as delicate as dry vermouth mingle with the assertiveness of gin to create a new, utterly unique core flavor? Our general rule is that the stronger the base spirit, the more vermouth necessary to create a balanced core. Our root Gin Martini recipe is for what would traditionally be called a “wet” Martini, meaning it has a fair amount of vermouth, in this case 1 full ounce. Our root Vodka Martini, by contrast, calls for only ½ ounce of vermouth. Don’t get us wrong; a Vodka Martini with 2 ounces of spirit and 1 ounce of vermouth is a beautiful thing. The vodka acts as a background against which the herbaceous and slightly bitter vermouth can shine. But because of vodka’s more nuanced flavor, that much vermouth will overshadow any characteristics that make a particular vodka unique. Yes, some people think plain vodka has a neutral flavor, but this is far from the truth, and we believe that a Martini should highlight the personality of a given vodka. That’s why we bump up the vodka and dial back the vermouth.
Once you understand how to create a balanced spirit-vermouth core, you can start playing around with base spirit; for example, the Manhattan (this page) uses the same ingredient ratios but swaps in rye and sweet vermouth. Or you can tinker with the balance, exploring the wide world of aromatized wines beyond vermouth; for example, the Vesper (this page) substitutes Lillet blanc for the vermouth. Finally, this chapter will explore Martini variations that bring in flavors that accent the core and balance, from amari (as in the Negroni, this page) to small amounts of liqueurs (as in the Martinez, this page). These riffs on the Martini may look and taste very different from our root recipe, but they maintain a balance between spirit and aromatized wine while amplifying the template’s seasoning.
GIN
Gin is unique in the world of spirits because, at least in its modern form, it was developed specifically to be mixed with other ingredients in cocktails. Put simply, gin is flavored vodka. It starts with a neutral grain spirit, essentially high-proof vodka, which is then flavored with a variety of botanicals, most notably, juniper berries—indeed, in the United States and European Union, it can’t be labeled “gin” if it doesn’t include these fragrant berries. Other common botanicals in gin include coriander, orris root, angelica, citrus peel, star anise, and licorice. Some gins have only a few flavorings, whereas others are intricate tapestries of dozens of ingredients, and it is this composition that gives each gin its personality. And as is often the case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; beyond the aromas and flavors of the individual botanicals, a successful combination can create a unique and unexpected flavor profile.
On the nose, gins are bright, alcoholic, and noticeably forest-y thanks to the juniper. But because different brands have unique characteristics, each will steer cocktails in different directions. A juniper-heavy high-proof gin like Tanqueray will be more assertive than a citrusy standard-proof gin, such as Plymouth. So we don’t consider one particular gin to be the best; we choose different gins for different reasons.
While no two gins are the same, we categorize most gins into one of two groups: London dry and contemporary. These are aren’t industry- or government-dictated terms; rather, they’re our shorthand for thinking about them and deciding which gin might be best for a particular cocktail. For the recommended bottles that follow, we’ve suggested brands that are versatile and work well in a variety of applications, beyond just Martinis. Also, please note that in contrast to other categories of spirits, where substituting a similar brand is often totally acceptable, this doesn’t work as well with gin because of how unique these spirits are. So in our recipes, we call for specific brands, with each being carefully chosen for its unique flavor profile. A cocktail recipe that simply calls for “gin” is leaving a great deal to interpretation, for better or (usually) for worse. If you do need to make a substitution, try to stick with a gin from the same category: London dry or contemporary.
AQUAVIT
A native of Scandinavia, aquavit is a powerfully flavorful, clear (lightly aged) spirit that makes an extraordinary addition to cocktails. Where gin is predominantly flavored with juniper, aquavits are dominated by either caraway or anise, making for a spicy, savory flavor. In cocktails, the flavors can overwhelm, so we recommend using aquavit in collaboration with other spirits. Our favorite brands include Linie (Norway) and Krogstad (Oregon).
LONDON DRY
London dry is the most pervasive style of gin, accounting for most of the widely available brands, including familiar names like Plymouth, Beefeater, Tanqueray, and Gordon’s. These gins are characterized by a clean, nearly neutral foundation and sharp, spicy flavorings dominated by woodsy juniper berry. When most folks ask for gin, they usually mean London dry.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Beefeater London Dry: In our view, there are few gins that are as versatile for cocktails as Beefeater—and specifically the bottling exported to the United States. Clocking in at 47% ABV, Beefeater has sufficient proof to cut through anything you throw at it (amari, citrus, fruit syrups…), but it’s also delicate enough that it doesn’t overpower the vermouth in a Martini. If you had to choose only one gin to stock in your bar, this would probably be it.
Fords Gin: Full disclosure: This gin is named after our dear friend Simon Ford, a spirits expert who worked for Plymouth and Beefeater before starting his own company. We aren’t just name-dropping; the value of this information becomes clear when you taste Fords gin alongside Plymouth and Beefeater, as it falls somewhere between the two in terms of both flavor profile and proof. Simon created this gin for use in all styles of cocktails: citrusy, boozy, and bitter. So although you might find that another brand really shines in a particular cocktail, the balance between delicacy and assertiveness in Fords gin makes it an extremely versatile bottle to have on hand.
Plymouth: Traditionally, we’ve tended to use Beefeater in our boozy drinks and Plymouth in our citrusy drinks. This rule of thumb reflects Plymouth’s delicacy compared to higher-proof gins: at 41.2% ABV and with a botanical blend that’s soft and citrusy with pronounced juniper undertones, Plymouth almost always works in citrus cocktails. We also use Plymouth (and similar gins) when we want the gin to serve as the foundation of a cocktail, with its flavors gently emerging in collaboration with the other ingredients. But Plymouth also works extremely well in stirred cocktails, where it can provide a softer foundation on which other delicate flavors are built.
Sipsmith: Born out of a collaboration between spirits industry experts, Sipsmith was developed to be the perfect Martini gin, and indeed, we do love using it in cocktails that, like the Martini, have gin at the core. While it can make a tasty gin and tonic and could certainly be mixed with citrus, Sipsmith is most successful when put center stage.
Tanqueray: Tanqueray is one of the most recognizable bottles on any bar, a squat green vessel that has held a distinguished place in the arsenal of gin fans for almost two hundred years, coming to market in the 1830s as the first spirit in the category now referred to as London dry gin. The US version of Tanqueray is sold at 47.3% ABV and, much like Beefeater, its high proof allows it to work well in many styles of cocktails. However, it also has a highly juniper-dominant flavor profile that makes it our greatest asset in spirituous and bitter cocktails, particularly the Negroni and its many variations, because it can cut through sweet and bitter flavors while asserting itself cleanly. For that very reason, it’s often too assertive to use in refreshing, citrus-heavy drinks.
GIN AND PROOF
The proof of a specific brand of gin may vary depending on where you purchase it. This largely has to do with taxes: some gin makers are deterred from producing a higher-ABV gin or exporting it because the taxes would be prohibitively high—even if they believe a higher-proof version has a more desirable flavor. As an example, this is why you may find Beefeater available at 47% ABV in America, but only at 40% ABV in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Peek at the label before mixing: a higher-proof gin will be more assertive than a lower-proof gin, so you may need to pull back on its measurement in a cocktail. While this can be true of other spirits, proof has a noticeable impact on how the botanicals in a certain gin are expressed. Higher-proof gins will be spicier, while lower-proof gins are often more citrusy.
CONTEMPORARY GINS
Contemporary gins are the avant-garde artists of the spirits world. While they do satisfy the “must have juniper” requirement, they tend to eschew conventions. For this reason, it’s generally best to devise cocktails using contemporary gin by working from the gin backward.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Aviation Gin: Instead of using a neutral base alcohol, Aviation is made from a malty rye spirit, and although it pays homage to a classic London dry, it pulls back on the juniper and features sarsaparilla, which lends it a distinct root beer impression, with lavender adding an incredible sub-aroma. The result is a full-bodied and extremely flavorful gin that, at 42% ABV, has enough alcoholic strength to work well in various styles of cocktails. And because it’s so distinctive, it also works well for seasoning cocktails, a role it plays in Beth’s Going to Town (this page).
St. George Botanivore, Terroir, and Dry Rye Gins: It’s hard to pick one bottle of gin that best captures the essence of the contemporary style, so if you’re game, we recommend exploring this trio of St. George gins to understand the unique and often dramatic variations in this style. It seems that many contemporary gins are driven by a narrative, telling a story or expressing a specific point of view. St. George Spirits has always been a producer that’s unafraid to express a strong identity and worldview. It could be easy to dismiss those last two sentences with an eye roll (unless you live in San Francisco, in which case you probably nodded knowingly), but hear us out. The Botanivore, the most traditional of the trio, contains a variety of oddball botanicals, including dill, hops, and bergamot—nodding to gin’s history, but also pushing the boundaries of what we’d expect from a London dry gin. The Terroir is a love letter to California, throwing everything from Douglas fir to sage in the mix, resulting in a woodsy little beast. Finally, the Dry Rye is made from a 100 percent rye base spirit and contains only six botanicals (compared to the Botanivore’s nineteen and Terroir’s twelve); the spicy base reinforces the peppery character of juniper to produce an extremely flavorful gin.
OLD TOM GIN
A once defunct style of gin that’s slightly sweet, Old Tom is distinct from London dry gin and is thought to predate it. That said, it’s similar enough that we tend to reach for it in some situations where we might otherwise go for a soft London dry, like Plymouth or Fords. Many gin cocktail recipes in nineteenth-century cocktail books specifically call for Old Tom gin, and it’s believed that the Martinez (this page) and Tom Collins (this page) were both originally made with Old Tom. Now the style has been revived by both small and large producers, and as with gin more broadly, these offerings all have distinctive qualities. Some, like Hayman’s Old Tom, are sweetened but heavy on the botanicals, while Ransom Old Tom is lightly aged. Hayman’s was the first to reach the United States and is recognized as a standard of the style. Its slight sweetness allows the botanicals to blossom, and it has a fresh citrus quality (compared to the dried citrus qualities of London dry) and pronounced licorice flavor.
VODKA
Bartenders talk a lot of smack about vodka, and in the past, we’ve admittedly been some of the worst offenders. In the early 2000s, we were all doing our best to get the world to try new things, and we wanted to distance ourselves from the sort of drinks that people were accustomed to. The “-tinis” of the 1990s had severely sullied the reputation of the classic Martini, but to their credit, they also popularized cocktails. Though we may look back on that era as a time of blunt-force cocktails made from bad booze and industrial-grade ingredients, mixed drinks were suddenly fun again.
Vodka’s relative neutrality with all the big mixers of the 1990s (sour apple liqueur, peach schnapps, highly processed juices, etc.) made it an easy target for many of us, who decried it as simply bringing booze to the party without making the party any more fun. Then, as the 2000s rolled around, enterprising bartenders were deep into pinching long-forgotten recipes from dusty pre-Prohibition bar manuals. They seldom found vodka in those pages, but they did find a lot of gin, whiskey, brandy, and rum, and those historic cocktails provided inspiration for bartenders who wanted to resurrect attention to ingredients, fresh products, and focused drink making. Along the way, we sewed a bunch of buttons onto our pants for attaching suspenders and spent hours yelling at YouTube while learning how to properly tie a bow tie, dappering up so people would take us more seriously.
But to deny the value of vodka is to sit on a pulpit of arrogance and, frankly, it’s inhospitable. Lots of people love vodka, and it’s probably not just because they saw a clever advertisement for it. They love it because of its honesty: you get what you see. When we choose to use it in cocktails, we do so because it works—because its character, clarity, and focus can be helpful for achieving very specific results.
Modern definitions of vodka talk about its “neutrality” and “flavorlessness,” but this misses the point entirely. To the untrained palate, tasting undiluted vodka may be a lot like sipping rubbing alcohol. The reality is that to understand what characterizes a specific vodka, you must dig much deeper than with other spirits, which often offer a good understanding of their character through their aroma and a couple of sips. Vodka doesn’t give its secrets away so easily.
A good starting point is to become familiar with the different styles of vodka and what each can bring to a cocktail. Vodka is defined by both what it’s made from and how it’s made. It can be distilled from any fermentable plant or fruit. Grain-based vodkas have predictable, if subtle, characteristics: wheat-based vodka is soft and sweet, rye is spicy, corn is rich, and so on. Regarding how it’s made, vodka is almost always distilled to a very high proof—around 95% ABV (nearly pure alcohol). As a result, many of the potential flavors are stripped away, with only their essence left behind. That high-proof distillate is then diluted to 40% ABV (drinking proof), with water.
In most classic cocktail templates, vodka will be overshadowed by other ingredients. That said, the subtle differences between vodkas can come into focus in nearly unnoticeable ways. You may not taste the qualities of wheat when using Absolut Elyx, a wheat-based vodka, but in a cocktail, it will provide softness and rich body—qualities that are less a flavor and more a sensation. The situation is similar with vodkas made from other bases: vodka made from rye has a whisper of peppery spice; one made from potatoes tastes earthy and almost beet-like; corn vodka may be slightly sweet; and grape vodka has a floral perfume. Although all are subtle, try tasting them side by side so you can pick out the differences.
The Martini is a great way to study the subtleties of vodka, far better than citrusy cocktails. This may sound unorthodox to cocktail nerds, who tend to favor gin. But as mentioned, a Martini gives you very little to hide behind, so the choice of vodka and the importance of technique are amplified.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Absolut: Though perhaps best known for its iconic marketing campaigns, Absolut is an exceptionally well-made product and a favorite among bartenders. A distillate made from winter wheat grown in southern Sweden, it has a softness that lends itself to many cocktail applications, particularly drinks made with citrus, though it also works well in savory cocktails like the Bloody Mary. We’re particularly fond of a Martini made with equal parts Absolut and Dolin dry vermouth, with a dash of orange bitters and a lemon twist.
Absolut Elyx: Using wheat sourced from a single Swedish estate and a specific type of copper pot still, the folks at Absolut set out to explore the nature of terroir in a spirits category that lacks diversity, and they’ve succeeded. Though it can be rather expensive, Absolut Elyx has become one of the few vodkas in our arsenal that cannot be swapped out for another brand; its richness, creaminess, and depth of flavor combine to become a defining characteristic of any cocktail it touches.
Belvedere: Made from a base of rye, Belvedere is another big-name brand with plenty of marketing dollars behind it. It’s a well-made product that excels in cocktails, bringing a subtle peppery spice note that’s especially welcome in dry Martinis.
Hangar 1: Many of the small, craft brands of vodka popping up owe their success to the path forged by Hangar 1, a small(ish) distillery near San Francisco. Their Hangar 1 straight vodka is made from a distillate of grains and grapes. It therefore has some of the softness of wheat, along with the fruitiness and floral character of grapes. In addition, Hangar 1 produces three flavored vodkas that rise a cut above the competition: Buddha’s Hand Citron, Mandarin Blossom, and Makrut Lime.
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE CORE
Swapping the base spirit (aka Mr. Potato Head) is the first strategy for building and understanding Martini variations. This is the logic on which countless cocktails have been created, and it’s led to some of our favorite, and simplest, original cocktails. Just bear in mind that when you substitute a new base spirit, the integrity of the core—in this case, the relationship between the spirit and the aromatized wine—must be maintained if the cocktail is to be focused. In short, any change to the base spirt will probably demand a change to the vermouth to rebalance the cocktail, as you’ll see in the variations that follow. A bit later in the chapter, in “Experimenting with the Balance” (see this page), we’ll explore how changes in the aromatized wine can profoundly affect the balance and have a major impact on the cocktail’s flavor.
As you create your own cocktails, it may be tempting to use these strategies to push the Martini orthodoxy to its limits, veering toward sweet, bitter, or powerful in ways that fall beyond the parameters of balance. Sometimes this is successful and creates bold cocktails, but it often results in overindulgence, where the personality of the substitution distracts from the core flavor.
Vesper
CLASSIC
Though we called out gin and vodka as the core of Martinis in the preceding section, we’ve also emphasized that the true core of these cocktails is a combination of spirit and aromatized wine. In the Vesper, the two core spirits are combined—something that works in this classic cocktail because of a corresponding shift in the balance, wherein the vermouth has been replaced with Lillet blanc. The Lillet has a similar alcohol content, but it adds a fruitier quality, as opposed to vermouth’s savoriness, and its flavors are delicate enough that using just gin as the base—even a softer gin, like Plymouth—would overpower the drink. Replacing some of the gin with vodka helps to stretch out the gin’s botanicals and allows the Lillet to shine.
1½ ounces Plymouth gin
¾ ounce Aylesbury Duck vodka
½ ounce Lillet blanc
Garnish: 1 lemon twist
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Express the lemon twist over the drink, then set it on the edge of the glass.
Dean Martin
DEVON TARBY AND ALEX DAY, 2015
Splitting the base with other spirits can be an easy way to keep the form of the Martini largely intact while creating an entirely new cocktail. The Dean Martin is a great example of this strategy, replacing some of the gin with a highly flavorful Douglas fir brandy. Because that changes the balance too, we added woodsy La Quintinye blanc vermouth to accent the Douglas fir eau-de-vie. The result is a cocktail that answers the question that inspired it: “What would a Martini consumed on a mountaintop in December taste like?”
1¾ ounces Tanqueray gin
¼ ounce Clear Creek Douglas fir brandy
½ ounce La Quintinye Vermouth Royal blanc
½ ounce Boissiere dry vermouth
1 drop Salt Solution (this page)
Garnish: 4 sprays of Après-Ski Tincture (this page)
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Mist the top of the drink with the tincture.
THE BALANCE: VERMOUTH AND OTHER AROMATIZED WINES
Gin or vodka’s collaborator in the Martini is an aromatized wine, most commonly vermouth. Aromatized wine is simply wine (usually a fairly neutral white wine) that has been flavored with herbs, barks, or citrus and fortified with additional alcohol. This increased proof preserves the life of the wine, but also means that it can stand up to other ingredients (like gin or vodka) without fading to the background. Vermouth can be thought of as a style of aromatized wine.
Most aromatized wines contain a residual sweetness (either naturally from the base wine or from added sugar), which is vital in balancing a Martini. Be it a dry French vermouth or a bitter and sweet Italian vermouth, this sweetness curbs the strength of a high-proof spirit like gin or vodka.
VERMOUTH
By its simplest definition, vermouth is a flavored, or aromatized, fortified wine—and just like wine, it has a shelf life. Therefore, we suggest purchasing the smallest bottle possible (usually 375 ml) so there’s less to use once you’ve opened the bottle.
All aromatized wines, including vermouth, can also be called aperitif wines, which is shorthand for wines that have been flavored with slightly bitter ingredients, making them suitable for consumption before a meal to stimulate the appetite. Both sweet and dry vermouths are built on a base of wine, often white wine with a neutral flavor and aroma. Herbs and other botanicals are macerated in the wine for weeks, and although formulas vary from producer to producer, common ingredients include wormwood, chamomile, and gentian. (Interestingly, although vermouth gets its name from wormwood, that ingredient is often omitted or included in only very small quantities due to various regulations outlawing it in the early twentieth century.) After the infusion process, sugar is added (a small amount for dry vermouth, more for blanc, and lots more for sweet) and the wine is fortified with alcohol so that most bottles end up with an ABV between 16% and 18%.
Though the history of vermouth is a bit murky, many credit the Italian distiller Antonio Benedetto Carpano for creating modern vermouth in 1786. Carpano’s vermouth established the roots of the style now often referred to as Italian, sweet, or red vermouth: dark red and often bitter, with sweet cherry flavors and typically a lingering impression of vanilla. Despite being dark, it’s usually made from white wine, with the flavorings and caramel coloring being responsible for its color.
The French soon adopted vermouth and made it their own, incorporating local alpine ingredients and stripping away some of the sweetness, leading to the style now known as French or dry vermouth, which is completely clear and colorless.
There are several other styles of vermouth, but the one most salient to cocktails is blanc (French) or bianco (Italian) vermouth, which is said to have been invented by the French and copied by the Italians. In terms of sweetness, it’s similar to red vermouth, but it has fewer spicy flavors and more in the way of herbs (specifically thyme), and it’s perfectly clear, like French dry vermouth. It’s become a fixture in our cocktails, especially Martini variations. Blanc vermouths from French producers tend to be delicate, sweet, and herbal, whereas bianco vermouths from Italian producers have more amplified flavors, often adding a big vanilla note to any drinks they touch.
Many large vermouth producers make multiple styles, but we’ve found that our favorites in each style are from that style’s country of origin; that is, we usually use an Italian brand for sweet vermouth and a French brand for dry. As for blanc or bianco, it depends on the application, but we more often use Dolin blanc, from France.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES OF SWEET RED, OR ITALIAN, VERMOUTH
Carpano Antica Formula: Though this is said to be a reproduction of Antonio Benedetto Carpano’s 1786 recipe, this particular brand didn’t hit the market until the 1990s. But all marketing subterfuge aside, Antica Formula is one of our favorite vermouths, and it’s considered a standard, stylistically, for vermouths from Torino, Italy. It’s big and bitter and packs one hell of a vanilla kick. We love using it with aged spirits; few vermouths are as luscious a counterpoint to the peppery spice of rye in a classic Manhattan (this page). However, all of that flavor does have a downside: when mixed with more delicate spirits—gin, vodka, and even tequila—Antica Formula can be a rambunctious guest who doesn’t know when to shut up.
Cinzano Rosso: While it shares a common heritage with other sweet vermouths from Torino, Cinzano isn’t as aggressive as Carpano Antica Formula, so it’s a bit more versatile. While it doesn’t make the best Manhattan, we’d never throw it out of bed. It’s also a great companion to gin in a classic Martinez, or gin and Campari in a Negroni.
Dolin Rouge: A sweet French vermouth? Didn’t we just tell you that we prefer Italian vermouths for this style? Yes, but Dolin rouge is a different type of sweet vermouth. Although it shares some of the characteristics of its Italian cousin, it’s much lighter and softer, which can be very useful when creating a cocktail with a spirit that needs to be coddled a bit. For example, if you were to make a Manhattan with a wheated bourbon—such as Maker’s Mark—a sturdy red vermouth, like Carpano Antica or even Cinzano, would overwhelm the bourbon. Dolin rouge won’t. For the same reason, it also works well with other spirits that don’t have the punchy spice of rye whiskey, including Cognac, Calvados, and some aged rums.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES OF DRY, OR FRENCH, VERMOUTH
Dolin Dry: If we could only stock one bottle of dry vermouth, this would be it. It’s extremely dry and clean—a benchmark for dry vermouth and the Martini’s best buddy. With subtle flavors of alpine herbs and a slight bitterness, it’s uniquely refreshing. In that way, Dolin dry is an excellent example of how terroir can define vermouth: it has deep roots in Chambéry, France, at the base of the Alps, where it’s been made since 1821. If you want to see Dolin dry shine, make a fifty-fifty martini with equal parts Plymouth gin and vermouth, a dash of orange bitters, and a lemon twist.
Noilly Prat Extra Dry: Before the modern spirits revival, Noilly Prat, from Marseille, France, was one of the few bottles of dry vermouth available in the United States, and thanks to its lovely flavor and wide availability, it has remained as a staple bottle ever since.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES OF BLANC, OR BIANCO, VERMOUTH
Dolin Blanc: Though we had used other blanc vermouths before Dolin’s became available in the United States, it was Dolin’s that made us fall in love with the style. A versatile player, Dolin blanc is useful in a wide range of cocktails: in Martini variations made with every imaginable base spirit (tequila, mezcal, gin, rum, whiskey, brandy…), as an herbaceous split base in sour-style cocktails, or as a base ingredient in spritzes and low-ABV drinks. We’re particularly fond of pairing Dolin blanc with eaux-de-vie. If you visit one of our bars, you’ll probably run into this combination somewhere on the menu.
La Quintinye Vermouth Royal Blanc: Whereas most blanc vermouths are based on a very neutral white wine, La Quintinye’s blanc vermouth is built on Pineau des Charentes, an aperitif from France’s Cognac region made from unfermented wine grape juice fortified with a young Cognac distillate, providing a broad and flavorful base for this extremely savory blanc vermouth.
Martini & Rossi Bianco: While the preceding two bottles are great, they aren’t always easy to find. Among the blanc or bianco vermouths made by the big vermouth houses, our favorite is Martini & Rossi. Be warned that it exerts its personality a bit more than Dolin blanc, but that makes it an excellent companion to spirits like blanco tequila, mezcal, and gin.
OTHER AROMATIZED WINES
There are many other wine-based products that function similarly to vermouth in cocktails and are somewhat stylistically similar, and we often use them as creative substitutions for vermouth. Where they differ is in the flavorings that are added. Many focus on a single flavoring or small number of ingredients, as opposed to the wide range of flavorings used in vermouth. And while some are similar enough to vermouth that they can easily be substituted for it, others emphasize quite different flavors or have a higher alcohol content, requiring more adjustment to a cocktail’s balance.
RECOMMENDED BOTTLES
Bonal Gentiane-Quina: Slightly bitter from a combination of cinchona bark (the source for quinine) and gentian root, Bonal tastes like a bitter amontillado sherry, with an impression of raisin on the nose, though it’s dry on the palate. It pairs well with aged rum, either in a Manhattan-style drink or alongside citrus. Its astringency can be problematic in a sour-style cocktail, especially if made with lime juice. We recommend a softer approach, pairing it with lemon or orange juice instead and keeping the amount of Bonal below 1 ounce.
Cocchi Americano Bianco: Cocchi Americano bianco and Lillet blanc (described following) share a similar slightly bitter, orangey flavor, leading many bartenders to think they’re so similar that they can be used interchangeably. This can sometimes work, as in the classic Corpse Reviver #2 (this page), but it isn’t always successful. Cocchi packs a good deal more bitterness from cinchona, so we often use it when we need more structure to balance other big flavors. Our Little Victory (this page) is a good example of this: as the base of a root beer infusion, Cocchi Americano’s flavors are enhanced with a woodsy root beer extract, which balances the strength of both gin and vodka in the cocktail. We’ve tried the same infusion with Lillet and it falls flat; Cocchi’s bitter backbone can be a great asset in building complex flavors.
Lillet Blanc: Though Lillet blanc doesn’t have the bitter kick it used to (the original formula, called Kina Lillet, had a bit more cinchona than the current product), it’s a wonderfully elegant aperitif wine. On its own, it’s slightly bitter, with a modest honey-like sweetness, a floral aroma, and the brightness of orange zest. It can make cocktails “juicy,” giving them the kind of balanced sweetness found in fresh apple juice and a rounded flavor. As a simple substitution for dry vermouth in cocktails, Lillet can yield excellent results, though it does express itself a bit more due to its flavorings. We often use it in small amounts to add body to a drink.
Lillet Rosé: In 2012, Lillet introduced this product—a mix of Lillet blanc, Lillet rouge (which we don’t often use), and fruit liqueurs—to near-universal excitement. What’s not to love about a fruity pink aperitif? It shares some of the characteristics of Lillet blanc but has a touch more sweet fruit flavor, particularly strawberry. It can work well in a variety of cocktails, from Martini variations to spritzes.
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE BALANCE
As mentioned, the reason the Martini recipe is so flexible is because it’s not just about one spirit; the drink’s core is a harmonious collaboration between a base spirit and…something else. As discussed, that “something else” is traditionally vermouth, but many other spirits can take its place: other types of aromatized wine (such as Lillet blanc in the Vesper, this page), fortified wine (such as fino sherry in both Normandie Club Martinis, this page and this page), or even a combination (for example, amontillado sherry, dry vermouth, and blanc vermouth in the low-ABV Bamboo, this page). The point is, a Martini’s core is not composed of just one ingredient, and this has a major bearing on its balance.
As for the balance, it’s flexible and depends on personal preference. For those new to Martinis, and especially those who don’t have an appreciation for dry vermouth, we love to offer three Martinis with different amounts of vermouth. If you choose to conduct this experiment at home, feel free to cut the recipe for each in half—though we highly recommend enjoying this line-up of Martinis with a friend or loved one. When gauging them, bear in mind that there’s no “right” answer; one of these might be just right for you, while another might suit the preferences of your drinking pal. Especially for this experiment, be sure to use fresh vermouth—a bottle that’s been open no longer than one week. Note that for the purposes of this experiment, we’ve removed the orange bitters and the garnish to keep the focus solely on the balance between the gin and the vermouth.
The first Martini, by far the driest, is mostly about the flavors of the gin, with the vermouth being a background player. This drink is potent and cooling and may take your breath away. The second, our root Martini recipe sans bitters and garnish, marries the gin and vermouth together nicely; both are discernable, but they’ve also melded to create a concise and harmonious flavor. The third, the Wet Martini is citrusy and light; it has a more herbal focus, with the gin bowing to the vermouth. Do you have a preference? The truth is, we like all three—it just depends what mood we’re in.
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, changing the core or, in this case, the base spirit, generally necessitates changing the balance. But this works both ways: if we change the balance, substituting one vermouth for another, let alone swapping in a different aromatized wine, this is likely to change the proof, sweetness, and flavor of the drink, all of which need to be accommodated.
Martini (Very Dry)
2½ ounces Plymouth gin
¼ ounce Dolin dry vermouth
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. No garnish.
Martini (Our Root Recipe)
2 ounces Plymouth gin
1 ounce Dolin dry vermouth
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. No garnish.
Martini (Wet)
1½ ounces Plymouth gin
1½ ounces Dolin dry vermouth
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. No garnish.
Normandie Club Martini #1
DEVON TARBY AND ALEX DAY, 2015
This cocktail, in which fino sherry replaces the vermouth, offers a great example of how a fairly simple change to the balance calls for further adjustments. Because fino sherry is so dry, we’ve used more than the amount of vermouth called for in our root Vodka Martini recipe (this page) and have also added a bit of honey syrup to give the cocktail greater body. Then, because sherry is a more delicate modifier than vermouth, in this cocktail we showcase the subtle texture of a wheat-based vodka—a quality that vermouth would overshadow. The final touch is a spritz of a mineral-rich sea salt solution, which gives the drink an added layer of briny aroma.
2 ounces Aylesbury Duck vodka
1 ounce Alexander Jules fino sherry
1 teaspoon White Honey Syrup (this page)
Garnish: 3 or 4 sprays of Sel Gris Solution (this page)
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Mist the top of the drink with the Sel Gris Solution.
Little Victory
ALEX DAY, 2013
A more sensational way to change the balance is to infuse the aromatized wine with flavorings. This drink a riff on the Vesper (this page), in which an aromatized wine (Cocchi Americano bianco) is flavored with a few drops of root beer extract. On its own, the infused Cocchi is tasty, but when mixed into the cocktail it gets a little lost, so we add a bit of orange marmalade, which introduces a touch of sweetness and a pleasant bitterness that bridges the flavors and helps highlight the infused Cocchi.
1½ ounces Beefeater gin
½ ounce Absolut Elyx vodka
1 ounce Root Beer–Infused Cocchi Americano (this page)
1 teaspoon orange marmalade
Garnish: 1 orange wedge
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then double strain into a double Old-Fashioned glass over 1 large ice cube. Garnish with the orange wedge.
THE SEASONING: GARNISHES
A garnish can be a lavish, carefully composed artistic ensemble that sits atop the drink, or it can be a modest, simple adornment. If the garnish’s functional contribution to the drink’s flavor is essentially the same in either case, this provides an opportunity for the bartender to display some creativity. That said, while it is true that people experience a cocktail first with their eyes, we tend to take the Coco Chanel approach to garnishes: less is more. When we start to get outlandish with a garnish, we stop and ask ourselves, Does this add anything? If not, we simplify.
A garnish can also allow the drinker to personalize the drink; for example, the lime wedge on a Daiquiri allows drinkers to modify the drink along the sweet and sour spectrum. As for the topic of this chapter, the Martini, a garnish can be a powerful tool for seasoning the drink. That seasoning function is the focus of this section.
One advantage of using citrus twists as garnishes is the fragrant oils in their outer peel. Lemons and oranges are best for twists. Grapefruit can also work, but lime rarely does, as its pungent aroma can easily overwhelm other flavors. Though you’ve probably seen many bartenders rub the rim of a cocktail glass with a citrus twist, we rarely do it because we find the oils are too potent—the exception being the sweet, not-too-pungent oils of an orange twist. But expressing that oil over the top of the drink by squeezing or twisting the citrus peel over the cocktail disperses its flavors and aromas more evenly, enhancing the entire drinking experience. Finally, don’t assume you need to drop a citrus twist into the drink; sometimes simply expressing it over the top is enough. Dropping it into the drink will further flavor the cocktail, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the drink.
For a Martini, we often express the twist over the top of the drink, then set it on the rim of the glass, where it will continue to offer its aroma without throwing off the balance of the drink.
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE SEASONING
A favorite experiment we use to illustrate this is to line up six Martinis, each made using the exact same recipe, but with different garnishes (see this page). Of course, we don’t advise drinking six full-size Martinis, so we make three and portion them out into six glasses. For this experiment, we use Beefeater gin because we find it’s a perfect middle-road gin: high enough in proof to be assertive but not overly flavorful to be off-putting to most people. Also, note that rather than following our usual practice of placing the expressed twist on the rim of the glass, for this experiment we drop it into the cocktail to explore how that affects the flavor of the drinks.
Taste each of the Martinis, one at a time. Notice anything different? The unadorned Martini doesn’t have much aroma. In the second Martini, the olive adds just a hint of brininess, which gets more pronounced as the cocktail sits. The onion does much the same, though its flavor and aroma are more pronounced. The lemon twist is brightly perfumed. The Martini with the orange twist probably tastes sweeter than previous variations. And the Martini with the lime twist will probably have an off-putting taste, with the aroma and flavor of the lime clashing with the gin and vermouth.
After letting the Martinis sit for ten minutes, taste them again. The Martinis garnished with olive and onion will be even more savory, though similar to the first sips, while those with the citrus twists will probably have a bitter flavor, as more of the citrus oils have suffused the cocktail. If choosing to dip the lemon twist into the Martini, pull it out of the drink after a few minutes, giving it just enough time to add a hint of bitter complexity but long before it takes over the drink.
Six Ways to Season a Martini: A Garnish Experiment
6 ounces Beefeater gin
3 ounces Dolin dry vermouth
Garnish: 1 cocktail olive, 1 pickled onion, 1 lemon twist, 1 orange twist, and 1 lime twist
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into six coupes. Leave the first glass without a garnish, add the olive to the second, add the onion to the third, and express the citrus twists over each of the remaining glasses, then place the peels into the drinks.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
DAVID KAPLAN
David Kaplan is a cofounder of Proprietors LLC.
Martinis always remind me of my Aunt Anne, who’s a fabulous Chicago designer and socialite. She threw the best parties and always had a giant, 10-ounce Martini in her hand as part of her ensemble. I was probably twelve or thirteen when I tried my first one. I definitely didn’t understand the allure of the drink at the time, but I loved how elegant Anne looked with her Martini and loved the iconic glass, so I tried a couple of sips. I remember that, even at that tender age, I thought, This is just a glass of rapidly warming vodka.
I didn’t really fall in love with the Martini until I was twenty-two or twenty-three, around the time I was set on opening a bar in New York. I was actively trying to learn as much about cocktails as possible. Somewhere along the way I tried a proper 5-to-1 Gin Martini at the Pegu Club. That was a revelation. And then I ordered one at Milk & Honey, and like every experience there, it was perfect. The glass and drink were impossibly cold and showed me what a Martini could be. It was transformative the way a great dish at a restaurant can be, and the Martini has been my drink of choice ever since.
Back in the day when I worked the floor at Death & Co, I’d order a fifty-fifty Martini over a big ice cube so I could slowly sip it during my shift as it diluted, much to the disdain of our bartenders, who didn’t share my affection for a Martini on the rocks.
For me, the Martini is definitely an evening drink. The drink’s proof alone kicks it out of the day-drinking category, for me at least. And there’s this notion, steeped in history, that having a Martini signifies that it’s time to unwind and relax—that you’re done with work for the day. It’s great before dinner, but you can also drink Martinis straight through the meal because you can tweak them to match whatever you’re eating: you can bring the proof down by upping the percentage of vermouth, you can make it more savory or more citrusy, or whatever the meal calls for. In this way, it can take me from the first cocktail of the evening to the last drink of the night.
The Martini can also be a liquid resume. A Martini tells me a lot about the bartender who made it. Every bartender has a personal Martini spec, but the best results depend less on proportions of ingredients than on being a master of temperature and dilution and understanding all of the subtle variations that can influence a Martini. Making the drink correctly takes time, devotion, and a lot of practice, more so than any other cocktail.
For imbibers, it’s also the most personal cocktail out there. Every bartender—whether in a dive bar or the fanciest cocktail den—expects guests to have some kind of preference: Shaken or stirred? Vodka or gin? Wet or dry? Olive or lemon twist? And just those few variables can produce such wildly different drinks. Every little decision becomes pronounced in the glass.
The Martini is enduring. It isn’t a drink that comes in and out of fashion. The best one lives where the glass is cold as fucking hell, the cocktail itself is ice-cold, and that first sip transports you somewhere else. Ahhhhh…
David Kaplan’s Favorite Martini
2½ ounces Tanqueray gin
¼ ounce Dolin dry vermouth
¼ ounce Dolin blanc vermouth
1 dash House Orange Bitters (this page)
Garnish: 1 lemon twist
Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. Express the lemon twist over the drink, then set it on the edge of the glass.
EXPLORING TECHNIQUE: FULL-DILUTION STIRRING
Water is essential to life. Water is also essential to cocktails. (Does this make cocktails essential to life? Maybe.) Understanding how much water to add to a cocktail—that is, finding its dilution sweet spot—is one of the most important skills in making drinks.
We usually dilute drinks by shaking or stirring them with ice. In chapter 1, we covered why we deliberately underdilute certain stirred drinks (see this page), such as the Old-Fashioned. In this chapter, we’ll talk about the technique appropriate to Martinis: stirring to full dilution—a technique that’s used for almost all stirred drinks served neat, without ice.
If you know exactly how much dilution is desired and at exactly what temperature you want to serve a cocktail, you could theoretically mix the drink at room temperature, add water, and place it in a freezer calibrated to the ideal serving temperature. And in fact, that’s what our mad scientist friend Dave Arnold does. Of course, that takes time and special equipment—two resources often in short supply in busy bars, so here we’ll stick with the more practical and common approach: stirring with ice.
Knowing when a drink is optimally chilled and diluted is a tactile thing that’s easiest to demonstrate in practice. When we train our bartenders, we spend hours stirring and tasting drinks to help them recognize when they’ve hit the right levels of temperature and dilution. To help you gain similar experience, we recommend that you try the following experiment.
Start with the recipe for your favorite Martini or Martini variation; it’s a good template to play with because its flavors change dramatically as it gets colder and more diluted. Use a chilled mixing glass fresh from the freezer and 1-inch ice cubes. Thanks to thermodynamics, using a chilled glass will actually slow the process of diluting the cocktail, which is especially useful for this experiment. Build the drink in the mixing glass without ice, then add ice cubes until the glass is nearly full. This might seem like a lot of ice, but the ice on top pushes down the rest of the ice so that as much ice as possible is in contact with the liquid, speeding the chilling process. To speed the process when you aren’t experimenting, you can crack some of the ice cubes—we crack about one-third of them—to increase the surface contact between the ice and the cocktail.
As soon as you’ve added the ice, give the drink one stir, then taste it with a straw or spoon. This allows you to experience what the drink tastes like with very little dilution and at slightly below room temperature: disjointed, with each component distinguishable and not yet assembled into a seamless whole.
Next, stir the drink for 10 seconds, then taste it again. You’ll notice that the flavors are more integrated but the flavors still haven’t been stretched out enough—a quality we refer to as “tight.” More dilution will give the flavors breathing room. At this point, the temperature of the cocktail should be around 40°F—chilled, but not cold. We want a very cold cocktail.
Now, stir for 10 seconds once again, then taste. Better, right? You should be noticing even more cohesion, like a chord of flavors instead of disparate notes. The temperature will also be bracingly cold, just below the freezing temperature of water. (The physics of this are complex, but in brief, the freezing point of alcohol is lower than that of water, and melting ice actually absorbs heat, so the net effect is to cool the cocktail below the freezing point of water.)
Finally, for the sake of education, continue to repeat the stirring and tasting process until the drink begins to taste weaker and less interesting. As soon as you can taste water getting in the way of the cocktail’s flavors, you’ve exceeded the target dilution; the whole is no longer better than the sum of its parts. Yes, you’re left with a less-than-ideal drink, but you’ve also discovered its sweet spot—the point at which the ingredients have reached harmony thanks to full-dilution stirring.
GLASSWARE: THE NICK & NORA GLASS
The Martini glass is the most iconic serving vessel for cocktails, but it’s also the most flawed. Have you ever ordered a Martini and been served a swimming pool of booze that warmed to room temperature before you could drink even half of it? Blame the glassware—and the bartender who decided to use it.
So what’s wrong with the traditional Martini glass? For starters, the deep, cone-shaped bowl encourages the cocktail to slosh around the glass—and out of it. It’s also a clumsy glass to hold by the stem, so people are often inclined to pick it up by the bowl, in which case their hand will warm the drink. Then there’s the fact that many Martini glasses are much too large for the drink they’re designed to serve. A 10- or 12-ounce Martini glass begs to be filled with three or four drinks’ worth of booze. Unless you’re drinking for purposes other than to experience the refreshing harmony of a cold Martini, it’s better to stick with the standard recipe’s 3-ounce measure of booze and a serving vessel that will hold 4 to 6 ounces of liquid.
For Martinis, their variations, and many other stirred drinks that are served neat, we prefer a Nick & Nora glass. Named after the hard-drinking husband-and-wife sleuths featured in Dashiell Hammett’s 1934 novel The Thin Man, this style of glassware has a deep, curved bowl, often tapering in slightly toward the top. They’re less top-heavy than V-shaped Martini glasses and standard bar coupes and are therefore easier to hold by the stem. More importantly, Nick & Nora glasses have a thin, delicate lip that helps a velvety Martini slide onto your tongue. If this sounds like cocktail snobbery at its worst, try this little experiment: prepare two identical Martinis and serve one in a fine-edged Nick & Nora glass and the other in a coupe or Martini glass with a thicker edge. Now do you see what we mean?
No matter what type of glass you use for Martinis and their ilk, chilling it first will greatly enhance your drinking experience. If you don’t have room in your freezer for glassware, fill the glass with ice water and let it sit for a few minutes while you assemble your cocktail, then dump it out just before straining and serving. A chilled glass will keep your drink colder while you sip it, something that’s especially important with Martinis. And beyond that, visual appeal of a frosted glass and the tactile sensation of holding a chilled stem far exceed the experience with a room-temperature glass. One final note: Sometimes you may not have the luxury of chilling your glassware; that’s totally fine, but please avoid using a warm glass.