The Martini

 Arguable the most famous cocktail, the martini is probably also the quintessential cocktail (even though it actually isn’t a true cocktail, but more on that in another post) although the exact recipe is a topic of long standing debate. A true martini, contrary to what Mr. Bond will have you believe, consists of two ingredients: gin and vermouth and absolutely must be stirred and not shaken. However, that’s where the agreement stops. Depending on the type of martini and who you ask (and what mood they’re in) the type of vermouth and quantity vary greatly.
 
First, let’s address the question of the quantity of vermouth. Winston Churchill (admittedly probably apocryphally) said that it was enough to whisper the word “vermouth” over a glass of gin; others argue that waving the glass of gin in the general direction of Italy suffices. Cocktail recipes vary from gin to vermouth ratios of 1:1 to 1:100. To add to the confusion, the IBA recommends 6:1 while a ratio of 4:1 is probably most popular and found in many recipe guides. So, the final verdict, you’re going to have to decide for yourself what proportion you prefer. All we’re going to say is don’t add too much vermouth!
 
Now onto the matter of the type of vermouth. The martini is generally made with dry vermouth (as any purist will agree); an extra dry martini (the only way a martini should be drunk) is a martini that has very little vermouth (or even none at all). A martini may, however, also be made with sweet (or red as it is also known) vermouth, while considered by many (including one of the authors of this blog) to not be a true martini.
 
For the record, the term “perfect”, when applied to a martini, refers to a martini that is made from the perfect (i.e equal) amounts of both sweet and dry vermouth, and not, as some bars use it, a martini that is made in some way that achieves the abstract notion of perfection. (Or perhaps not quite that abstract, one of us will tell you: Don’t use sweet vermouth, light on the dry vermouth and viola, that’s a perfect martini, but we digress.) 

Our preferred ratio of gin to vermouth for the classic dry martini is 7:1:  



Dry Martini
3 1/2 oz Bombay Sapphire
1/2 oz Martini and Rossi Extra Dry
Stir with ice until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Optionally garnish with two cocktail olives.

 
This drink is generally served before dinner; As an after-dinner cocktail, a sweet martini, or a perfect martini may be considered an acceptable substitute.

For a sweet martini we recommend the following variant:


Sweet Martini
3 oz Plymouth
1 oz Carpano Antica
Stir with ice until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Do not garnish.

 
This form of the sweet martini has an extremely complex taste profile for a duo cocktail; you can taste the subtle herbal flavors of each ingredient accented by the sweet and bitter overtones of the Carpano Antica.

The variants on this classic do not end here. Martinis nowadays can be ordered a hundred different ways to Sunday from the shaken vodka martini of James Bond fame to the dirty martini to drinks that are not remotely martini-like at all (the lemon-drop martini or the infamous appletini for example). To try to re-instill some civility to the world, we will refrain from presenting any of those recipes (in this post at least) and instead leave you with a quote (more aptly, true wisdom) we encountered at Drink, an absolutely spectacular bar in Boston:
 
“Do not let children mix drinks, for it is unseemly and they use too much vermouth”
 
Cheers!
A&B